JERRY WILKINSON: BRINGING HISTORY ALIVE

By JOSIE GULLIKSEN

Florida Keys News Bureau

TAVERNIER, Florida Keys - Jerry Wilkinson settled in Tavernier after he and his wife spent 13 years traveling in a recreational vehicle looking for a place to settle down. Since then, driven by his passion to uncover as much history as possible in the Upper Florida Keys town, Wilkinson has become the area's expert historian and president of the Historical Preservation Society of the Upper Keys. The society's main purpose is to preserve prehistoric and historic sites, collect memorabilia and artifacts and encourage knowledge of the art, culture, literature and history of the Upper Keys.

He's also an entertaining re-enactor who brings Keys history to life by assuming the personas of figures including railroad baron Henry Flagler.

Wilkinson shares his knowledge of regional history and preservation in a newsletter called "History Talk," now in its 37th issue. The quarterly 16-page glossy piece is sent to libraries, local universities and museums, the Historical Museum of Southern Florida in Miami and public and private schools.

In addition, his Web site, www.keyshistory.org, is a fascinating repository of the information he has discovered about the people, places and events that have shaped the Keys. The site, visited mainly by students conducting research for projects and papers, also attracts both a domestic and international audience and a variety of other browsers including members of the military and folks at non-profit organizations. These statistics are according to the stats page on the site.

Documentaries provide yet another avenue for Wilkinson to provide history to the public. He has produced four docudramas, including one for PBS and two for the History Channel, based on the 1935 hurricane that hit the Upper Keys and destroyed the Overseas Railway. His documentary for Home and Garden Television focuses on the William Matheson House on Lignumvitae Key, featured as one of the 10 most famous houses in the Keys.

Wilkinson's involvement in the community goes far deeper than simply guiding the dissemination of knowledge about its history.

"Since I'm retired, I'm available for almost anything," he says.

"Almost anything" includes presenting a historic program every second Monday at the Key Largo Library. He also offers presentations at local schools, and can tailor them to intrigue students of virtually any grade level.

"Oftentimes, I will dress up like the historic figure I'm discussing, like Henry Flagler or Zane Grey, and the kids really get a kick out of it," Wilkinson says.

He also assumed Flagler's persona for a presentation to the wives of Masonic Lodge leaders when their regional meeting took place in the Keys, and detailed the Keys' involvement in the Revolutionary War for members of the Daughters of the American Revolution. Dr. Henry Perrine, who was killed in an August 1840 Indian massacre on Indian Key, is another local historic figure he frequently impersonates.

Wilkinson's current preservation project in Tavernier is supporting the county-funded refurbishing of an old school building and its conversion into a community center.

"The school building was built to serve as a hurricane shelter as well as a schoolhouse," he explains. "It's a bunker with 12- inch-thick concrete walls. All they've done is taken the hurricane shutters off, so preserving it as a community center serves as both cultural and historical preservation," he said.

Wilkinson was also involved in recent research on former president Herbert Hoover and his days spent fishing in Florida - research that revealed a strong Keys connection.

"The documentation at the Herbert Hoover Library had him fishing in Florida, but I knew it was in the Florida Keys," says Wilkinson. "It turns out he had fished at the Key Largo Angler's Club, which is near Ocean Reef. He had a huge yacht and he would dock it in the Keys. When he wanted table fish, Hoover fished at Alligator Bay."

Wilkinson is currently trying to get a copy of a history of the Keys that's archived in the Herbert Hoover Library.

"My goal is to force myself to find a new way of getting the message out about the history," he says. "Sometimes one little bit of info ties to two or three others and it turns into primary documentation about a historical fact - much like my research about Herbert Hoover."

Given Jerry Wilkinson's constant drive to know and learn more, it's virtually certain more knowledge of the past lies in his future.