Thursday, March 2, 2023

Key West - Most unphotographed statue in Key West and turtle races are no more

 

Henry C “Booty” Singleton - seldom photographed

Key West is graced with many memorial sights but there’s one prominent statue that’s seldom photographed. It’s next to the Raw Bar in Key West Bight and memorializes Henry C “Booty” Singleton. For several decades, he was the single biggest employer in Key West before tourism ramped up. His fishing boats kept Key West alive and he was instrumental in keeping high rise condos out of Key West Bight. Good for him! I’ve never seen anyone take a photo of his bronze statue.

We used to come by to watch the turtle races held by the two turtle signs - oh well, things change.

The second photo shows a blank walk by what used to be the Turtle Kraals restaurant. The spot shown is where the turtle races used to be held twice a week. A large crowd would gather and cheer on their favorite turtle! Unfortunately, when the new owners took the restaurant over, the turtle races were no more. I wonder what happened to the racing turtles?

The large shrimp boat that took the place of Western Union was towed into harbor this evening by SeaTow. It was quite a trick getting him turned around so he could back into his dock. Evidently, reverse was still working to some degree. I wonder what the problem was?

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