KEY WEST (CBSMiami/FKNB) – The 200th anniversary of Key West being formally claimed as a U.S. territory was celebrated this weekend, highlighted by a drone “fireworks” display over the Southernmost City in the Continental U.S.
Saturday night’s Drone Sky Concert featured scores of drones that formed animated light configurations representing symbols connected to the island’s 200-year history. They included a sailing vessel, schools of fish and other marine life, the sun sinking beneath an ocean horizon, and the American flag.
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The bicentennial celebration commemorated the date of March 25, 1822, when U.S. Navy Lt. Matthew Perry planted the American flag on Key West soil.
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Weekend festivities also included a Navy color guard presentation and flag raising that symbolized Perry’s momentous act, the filling of a granite time capsule to be opened on the island’s 250th anniversary, a bicentennial gala and a heritage festival.
Perry sailed to Key West on the U.S.S. Shark, under orders from the Navy to physically claim the island as a U.S. territory.
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