Places of Interest: Cudjoe Key

Paulina Opoku-Gyimah says: If I were to ever live in the States permanently, -I think it would have to be in Cudjoe Key, a beautiful spot in Florida -that I believe was once
home to one of my possible ancestors by the name of Cudjoe…

　

More Info:

Cudjoe Key is a consensus-designated place in Monroe County, Florida, on an island of the same name in the lower Florida Keys. As of 2000 census, the CDP had a total population of 1,695. It was originally called Littleton Island.

The United States Army activated Cudjoe Key Air Force in 1959 to track missiles travelling through the Eglin Gulf Test Range. the Air Force took over operations the following year, and it subsequently became a detached installation of Homestead, Joint Air Reserve Base. The station flies a white radar aerostat, known locally as "fat Albert", which is used for drug interdiction missions by the Drug Enforcement Administration. On April 20, 2007 a cessna 182 crashed after its left wing struck the teacher anchoring "Fat Albert". The aerostat is marked on air navigation charts inside a restricted area that contains the warning, "caution: Unmarked balloon on cable to 14,000 [feet].

Possibly named for the Joewood tree (Jacquinia Keyensis), a native species which is also known as cudjoewood. A more likely derivation for the name is offered by writer John Viele of Summer Key. He believes that Cudjoe, a very common West African name, was the name of a fugitive slave or free negro who lived on the island at some point prior to Gerdes' survey in 1849.

Credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cudjoe_Key,_Florida