Bales Away

Olde Florida and the Conch Republic share a storied history ripe with controversy and folklore. From the earliest inhabitants of local Indians and the Spanish settlers who discovered them to the last century’s boom of industrialists, smugglers, and tourism vendors, the stories are as interesting as the characters who lived them. In modern times, the beach at Grassy Flats is more likely to find a turtle coming ashore to lay its eggs, but mere decades ago, "square grouper" was a regular find. Smugglers made up the majority of the local Florida Keys community that had yet to experience the Florida Tourism boom.