Dismal Key is a small island, part of the Ten Thousand Islands archipelago in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Florida.
It lacks a permanent source of fresh water, which is available only by being imported, collected from rainfall, or extracted from the local cacti. In pre-Columbian times it was inhabited by members of the Calusa nation, highly skilled as fishers, artisans and traders. A huge mound of oyster shells, 15 feet high, remains as a monument to the Calusa. In recent times, Dismal Key has no permanent human habitation - only the occasional hermits, poachers, smugglers and tourists.
Dismal Key is the locale for the second half of the novel Nature Girl by Carl Hiaasen.
Famous quotes containing the words dismal and/or key:
“My curiosity to see the melancholy spectacle of the executions was so strong that I could not resist it, although I was sensible that I would suffer much from it.... I got upon a scaffold near the fatal tree so that I could clearly see all the dismal scene.... I was most terribly shocked, and thrown into a very deep melancholy.”
—James Boswell (1740–1795)
“Japanese mothers credit “effort” as the key determinant of a child’s achievement in school, while American mothers name “ability” as the more important factor.”
—Perry Garfinkel (20th century)