Florida as we know it today, one might conclude from formal public art and street signs, was created by Great Men. Of course, we all know that is not true, but Great Men are on display almost everywhere around the state. Ponce de Leon, though he failed to find the Fountain of Youth, did “discover” Florida (as the History Channel explains, this happened on April 2, 1513). His name is commemorated in parks, streets, and a whole town in the state.

Henry Flagler came much later, but is credited with inventing tourism in Florida. Although one encounters Flagler’s name in many places in Florida, we learned all about Flagler while in Key West, through a very illuminating exhibition at the Custom House museum. One of his chief feats was masterminding the Florida East Coast Railway, an enormous and costly venture (in funds and number of workers killed during the construction) linking the most remote but also the most populated and economically successful of the chain of islands to Miami. Voila, tourism is born, sort of.

We did not drive the length of the highway that now follows Flagler’s accomplishment, but arrived on the water via the Key West Express from Fort Myers. The day before taking the boat down, we explored this fine town and discovered that most things there are named after Three Great Men who wintered there: Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Harvey Firestone. Statues of this threesome lounge in the middle of a fountain in Centennial Park on the edge of downtown.

So much for Great Men. Let us now turn to chickens. Key West is proudly quirky, and one of these quirks comes in the form of “gypsy chickens” which roam the streets, yards and parks freely. Forget the famed six-toed cats of Hemingway’s adobe (speaking of great men); chickens rule in Key West, whole families of them. When we got tired and bored of battling the tourist frenzy of Duval Street, we settled on a park bench (which are few and far between in Key West unfortunately) and watched the chicken show, featuring dueling crowing roosters, and hens clucking in complaining “mom tones” to their tiny fluffy offspring.

Florida. So much more than warm winter weather, palm trees and water, water everywhere. Even more than great men and chickens.