Diving History Museum

The Classic... A Navy Mk. V Helmet

I stopped off at the Diving History Museum in Islamorada (mile marker 83) on my way down to Key West today.  The museum itself is a modest size building on the bay side of US-1 and is adorned with a David Dunleavy mural.  Although it's a small museum (even the most inquisitive guest will take less than an hour to see all the exhibits), their collection of historical and contemporary diving equipment is impressive.  With artifacts ranging from ancient Greek amphorae to civil war era diving helmets to modern day helium and rebreather apparatus, this place has it all.  The exhibits take visitors from the earliest mention of divers (the Epic of Gilgamesh, ~2700 BCE) through the development of diving bells, helmets, surface supplied diving, the development of the demand regulator all the way to modern diving, including mixed gases, rebreathers and 1 ATM suits.

I eventually made it all the way down to Key West, which was neat, but the museum was definitely the highlight of my trip.  Right behind that was driving on the stretch of US-1 featured in so many quality films like 'True Lies' and 'Mission Impossible 3'.  Key West itself seemed a little overdeveloped and touristy, not really my ideal vacation spot, but the Keys are unique and (for the most part) beautiful, and I'm glad I had a chance to check them out before I left.