Keys History & Discovery Center Offers Free Admission This Saturday

Offer is Part of Smithsonian Magazine’s Museum Day Initiative

ISLAMORADA – Admission is free on Saturday, Sept. 21 at Keys History & Discovery Center. The Center is participating in Smithsonian magazine’s 15th annual Museum Day, an initiative in which participating museums across the United States open their doors for free for those who download a branded ticket. The annual event allows cultural attractions to emulate the spirit of the Smithsonian Institution’s Washington D.C.-based facilities, which offer free admission every day.

Keys History & Discovery Center is a world-class museum that preserves and shares the incredible history of our Upper Keys community and explores the unique ecology of the region. In addition to permanent exhibits on subjects such as Henry Flagler’s Over-Sea Railway, Legends of the Line, First People, and Coral Reef Exploration, the Discovery Center offers a lecture series, educating the public through presentations from a variety of expert speakers. The museum’s second floor features a state-of-the-art theater showing documentaries on topics like the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane and Indian Key, as well as traveling exhibits, and the Jerry Wilkinson Research Library.

The current traveling exhibit on display is It Had To Be You. The exhibit is based on the late K Wilkinson’s book “It Had To Be You,” first published in 1996. It documents some of her fondest memories of those simple years living by the water’s edge with her husband Jack. They moved in the late 1930s, squatting along the Atlantic coast at Mile Marker (MM) 92.5 (in the general area of the present-day Harry Harris Park). Jack and K called a make-shift tent their home and lived largely off what the ocean could provide, which included furniture that would occasionally wash up.

The center, on the property of the Islander Resort, MM 82, is open Wednesdays through Sundays, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Those wishing to attend and participate in Museum Day 2019 can visit Smithsonian.com/museumday to download an admission ticket. Each ticket grants the ticket holder and one guest free admission on Sept. 21.

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