Layton, FL

Layton is a city on Long Key in the Florida Keys, with 210 residents in the 2020 census and US 1 as its only land route. It grew out of a place first used for coconut cultivation, then became known as a fishing destination after the Overseas Railroad reached the Keys. Sportswriter and angler Zane Grey helped publicize Long Key's fishing camp, where visitors arrived by rail for saltwater trips. The Labor Day Hurricane of 1935 destroyed the camp and much of the railroad infrastructure, leaving the island's history split between a vanished resort and the city that followed.

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After World War II, Mary and Del Layton bought land and developed Layton's Long Key Fishing Camp, giving the city its name and a new chapter. Long Key State Park opened in 1969 on land assembled from the former resort area, and today its trails, shoreline, and campsites occupy part of the island's public landscape. Students attend Monroe County schools and are zoned to Plantation Key School. Layton is a tiny city built around a long island, where fishing, hurricanes, rail travel, and state-park land all meet along US 1.