The Southernmost Point Buoy

The Southernmost Point Buoy is a monumental structure located at the southern tip of Florida in the City of Key West. It is 20-tons of solid concrete, 12 feet tall, 7 feet wide and is 18 feet above mean sea level. According to Barnett (2009), tourists call Key West '' 'America's Southernmost City,' 'Margaritaville,' 'The Last Resort,' and 'the Conch Republic,' and each label promises a place apart from the rest of the nation.'' It has become an attraction to many different cultures for many different reasons and is probably the most sought out tourist attraction on the island of Key West. Wikapedia.com tells us its precise location is latitude 24deg.32'42.2"N, longitude 81deg.48'34.5"W, at the corner of South Street and Whitehead Street. It is designed to be attention getting, indestructible, un-stealable, attractive, but mainly, it claims to mark the southernmost point of land in the continental United States and the closest point in the US to Cuba. The buoy was placed a short distance from a small concrete hut built in 1921 to house the first telephone cable connecting the US telephone system to Havana.

This cultural object was meant to be a permanent replacement for the former wooden signs at this location. The signs had been replaced many times due to hurricanes and theft. Despite those continuing threats and vandalism, the buoy has stood strong. It has been repaired and repainted over time providing the opportunity for the slogans, decorative logos, and sentiments to evolve and change periodically. The Historical Marker Database website (2022) documents these changes. A large wooden sign stating, ''The SOUTHERNMOST POINT, of Southernmost City, KEY WEST, FLA.'' was next to the cable hut and was decorated with palms, conch shells, and a sailing ship. Later and still prior to the buoy, the words "90 miles to Cuba" were written on another sign nearby and had an arrow pointing south. On the curbing next to the marker was written ''America begins here''. These slogans were here prior to the buoy when all our States were contiguous on this continent before we added the states of Alaska and Hawaii. When the buoy was installed in 1983 it stated only ''The Conch Republic'' and "The Southernmost Point In The USA''. Now, painted on the buoy are ''The Conch Republic'', ''90 Miles to Cuba'', ''Southernmost Point, Continental USA, Key West FL'', and ''Home of the Sunset''. Each alteration to the original appearance is the expression of a culture and adds to its significance to different groups of people. If these statements are intended to be taken as fact, then they need to be understood as cultural expressions and allowed a lot of flexibility.

The Conch Republic refers to the Island of Key West. It is not a republic, although it was made to feel like it was not part of America in 1982 when the US Border Patrol blockaded US Route 1, the only road to Key West, and US Coast Guard ships blockaded the harbor. All traffic was searched for drugs. The Conch Republic's website (n.d.) states ''The Conch Republic was born on April 23, 1982, in response and as an expression of the residents 'Sovereign State of Mind.' '' This is a lighthearted claim and gives the city personality. It is not the southernmost point in the continental USA. Key West is an island, not part of the continent. On the Island of Key West, the southernmost point is about ten miles southwest of the buoy. It is not 90 miles to Cuba. It is 94 statute miles and 81 nautical miles south. Its claim to be Home of the Sunset is subjective. Any place on earth where the sun sets can claim this. So, if home is where your heart is, and your heart is in Key West, only then is this sentiment true. Lastly, it is not even a buoy. It is an old sewer connection that was reused, filled with concrete, anchored in place, and decorated. These points may be trivial, but it supports an argument that the Southernmost Buoy is simply a cultural artifact projecting the feelings and sentiments of the local cultures. The buoy was created immediately after The Conch Republic. These two events are likely connected. The buoy may be a visual manifestation inspired by their ''Sovereign State of Mind''.

Another indication that the local culture wants to be known for its lighthearted feeling and friendly atmosphere designed to appeal to the tourist trade are the titles applied to local officials on the website Southernmostpointbuoy.com (2022). These include the Minister of Debauchery and Speaker of the House of the Conch Republic.

The meaning of this iconic structure had long surpassed its original intention. At first it was just a curiosity, a place to visit, then turn around and head somewhere north. But it has a much more somber message for many that see it. It acknowledges Cuba, its closest neighbor. Havana was once an affluent resort city and its culture was most attractive to American tourists. But after the 1959 Communist takeover in Cuba that changed. Over the decades since then, waves of Cuban refugees emigrated to America and the reference to Cuba to them, is much more meaningful.

The location and the events that have occurred in Key West have resulted in the creation of this buoy as an expression of their culture. The single event memorialized here is the blockade of Key West by the US government. Since the island culture prefers to be portrayed as happy, in the Jimmy Buffett style, they make fun of this event. Most people feel the need to express their beliefs, thoughts, and memorialize important events at some time in their life. Perhaps this buoy is a need of a person, or a group of people, to say ''I was here and this is who I was''.

This writer has learned, while assembling this information, that an object created from the inputs of the local cultural groups can be beneficial not only to themselves, but also attractive to those from outside their area who are passing through. When this buoy started to become a popular waypoint for travelers, commercial interests took notice and began to see an opportunity to sell souvenirs, food and drink. The attraction of Cuban culture and its foods has made nearby restaurants another tourist destination.

This buoy has become a modern totem pole of American cultures. Totem poles, a creation of the indigenous populations on the west coast of this country, tell stories of the families, communities, and cultures that lived in that area years ago. The National Park Service website (n.d.) states ''They generally convey the ancestry or history of a particular clan, folklore or real-life experiences, or commemorate a person of importance''. The Southernmost Point Buoy is a creation of this same style of artifact, created by stacking the stories of Key West's cultural expression for travelers to see and interpret.

Human creative expression can be used to impact issues we deal with in the present day. Americans, and all people worldwide, use creative expression when they create protest signs and use them during public displays of discontent. This is a very common method for people to try to have an impact on present day issues. News reports covering the protests in China over the 'zero-Covid' policy is an example of a culture using these creative expressions in the hope of affecting a government policy they wish to change. I can't read their signs, yet I know what they are saying without understanding their words.

Why were so many sentiments being added to this monument? The buoy is a visual expression of local cultures and affects people in many ways. It has become not just an important destination marker for tourists, but also a place to acknowledge Cuba, a friend to the south. Now it supports local commercial establishments which sell souvenirs, serve diverse foods and tropical beverages to weary travelers convincing them to take a tour of the local area to see what Key West is, and this tour must include visiting the Southmost Point Buoy.

References

Barnett, W. C., & Barnet, W. C. (2009). Inventing the Conch Republic: The Creation of Key West as an Escape from Modern America. The Florida Historical Quarterly, 88(2), 139–172. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20700280

Conch Republic (n.d.). The Founding of the Conch Republic. https://conchrepublic.com/our-founding-in-1982/

Historical Marker Database (2022). The Cable Hut. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=192426

National Park Service (n.d.). Totem Poles. https://www.nps.gov/sitk/learn/historyculture/totem-poles.htm

SouthernmostPointBuoy.com (2022). Buoy History. https://www.southernmostpointbuoy.com/

Wikipedia (2022). Southernmost Point Buoy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southernmost_point_buoy

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