A city of extreme southern Florida on the island of Key West, the westernmost of the Florida Keys in the Gulf of Mexico. Named Cayo Hueso by Spanish explorers in 1513, it became a base for US naval operations against pirates in the 1800s and prospered through fishing and salvaging shipwrecks. In the 1870s, Key West became a center of the Cuban independence movement and has since been home to many artists and writers, notably Ernest Hemingway.