Boot Key Harbor is a natural body of water located in the middle of the

Florida Keys The Florida Keys are a coral cay archipelago located off the southern coast of Florida, forming the southernmost part of the continental United States. They begin at the southeastern coast of the Florida peninsula, about south of Miami, and e ...

, entirely within the city limits of

Marathon, Florida Marathon is a city spread over Knight's Key, Boot Key, Key Vaca, Fat Deer Key, Long Point Key, Crawl Key and Grassy Key islands in the middle of the Florida Keys, in Monroe County, Florida, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a to ...

, United States. Boot Key Harbor can be accessed by boat via two inlets from the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

. The western inlet has a controlling depth of at mean low-tide, as does the rest of the main channel within the harbor. Sister Creek provides access from the south and has a low-point of at mean-low tide. Boot Key Bridge spans the west end of Boot Key Harbor connecting Key Vaca with

Boot Key Boot Key is an island in the middle Florida Keys located adjacent to Key Vaca. Boot Key is within the city limits of Marathon, Florida, United States. The island is largely undeveloped. A draw bridge that once connected the island to Key Vaca wa ...

to the South. The bridge is currently closed to pedestrian and vehicular traffic, and the bascule section was removed on October 26, 2010. Boot Key Harbor is well protected from severe sea conditions and is popular with recreational boaters seeking refuge from storms. One reviewer labels it as "perhaps the best managed municipal mooring field in Florida." However, in 2017, Hurricane Irma caused considerable damage. Over 200 boats were scattered or sunk, and one man, who tried to ride out the storm on his boat, was missing and presumed lost. A large portion of Boot Key Harbor is occupied by a 226-buoy municipal mooring field administered by the City of

. Prior to 2004 the harbor was "something like an elephant graveyard, where old boats went to die," and potential cleanup was mired in bureaucracy. Bruce Popham, a local boatyard owner, convinced Marathon to undertake the cleanup, and "authorities pulled out something like 200 wrecks from Boot Key Harbor." Following the cleanup Marathon installed the mooring field and began charging a fee for support services. Since 1997 Boot Key Harbor has hosted an annual Christmas Boat Parade in December.

References

{{Florida Keys Florida Keys Marathon, Florida Landforms of Monroe County, Florida Landforms of Florida Ports and harbors of the Florida Gulf coast