Monroe County

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Monroe County

 Monroe County, the largest of the 67 counties in Florida, has its county seat in Key West. Covering a total of 3737 square miles, Monroe County has a population of 73090. 73% of this area is water.

Mainland Monroe, which comprises two-thirds of the entire area, is uninhabitable since it is part of the renowned Park, Everglades National Park. The northern interior of Monroe County also hosts the Big Cypress National Preserve.

The people of Monroe live in the Florida Keys, which are elongated and low-lying islands covering 220 miles in length. On the eastern part of the Keys, there is a unique feature that the continental United States prides itself in; a living coral reef.

History

Created in 1823, Monroe was named after the fifth president of the United States, James Monroe whose service term was between 1817-1825. Monroe County is found at the far southern part of Florida. 

In 1513, Juan Ponce de Leon, in his search for the fountain of the youth, made his way to Florida keys from St Augustine. The three centuries that followed saw Britain and Spain claim and mark Florida as their territory. 

The year 1823 saw Monroe County being named the sixth county in Florida. Later on, Broward, Dade, Collier, Henry, Lee counties and some parts of Glades, Charlotte, and Palm Beach were established.

Key West was also incorporated and made the county seat five years later.

By 1870, Monroe County had a population of 5657.

In 1890, the Key West had over 200 cigar factories that produced 100 million cigars annually. This made Monroe the richest county of the time.

Although the hurricane that occurred in 1935 destroyed the Keys' rail service, the US rebuilt it in 1938. This saw the evolution of tourism into a major industry it is today.

People 

In 2000 a census was held, and it was confirmed that Monroe had a population of 79, 589 people living in 35, 086 households. 

Monroe has composition of 90.7% white, 4.8% African-American, 0.4% Native american, 0.8% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 1.6% other races.15.8% Latino or Hispanic descent.This composition clearly depicts Monroe County as a multi-racial county.

17.1% of the population composed of people below the age of 18. The young people, from 25-44 years old contribute the most towards Monroe's population. By 2000, 10.2% of these people were living below the poverty line.

Cities

Monroe County is home boasts of many attractions like the ancient town of key west, the Big Cypress National Preserve portion and a part of the Everglades National Park.

With so many activities and various places to have fun, Monroe offers all categories of people some exciting experience. It is a county in which one in search of fun can not run out of options. Even the book lovers have the Monroe public county library to browse books.

Monroe has many hotels that offer accommodation to visitors. These hotels are organized by town, village, island or city name.

The county has a variety of transport options which include the Florida Keys Marathon general aviation airport, key west international airport, and other public and private airports, heliports and airstrips.

Amongst the notable cities encompassed by Monroe include Islamorada, Key West, Key Largo, Marathon, Big Pine Key, Summerland Key, Tavernier.

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