Coral Rock Man

Coral Rock Man - The Story of a Conch Legend

Here’s the Story . . .

There are many stories about Coral Rock Man—some fact and some legend. Most of the accounts are told by people claiming to have seen him or to have spent time with him somewhere in the Florida Keys. What is certain is that Coral Rock Man was born a full-blooded Conch and that he is currently living somewhere on an island called Coral Rock Key.

One of the tales tells of his origin and his upbringing during a time when the string of islands below the Florida mainland was inhabited by wreckers, pirates and all brands of humankind.

He did not always go by the name Coral Rock Man. There is no documentation showing when he was actually born, but we suspect it was sometime in the early 1900’s. His parents were Irwin and Rita, and they named him Eugene. They never used a last name, too complicated, and, although there are people who claim to be related to him, they cannot prove it.

Like many of the people living in the Keys, Eugene and his parents survived off of grits and grunts, some sea grape jam and coconuts. When times were good, they gorged on lobsters, stone crabs, shrimp and yellowtail snapper they would catch. They grew pineapples until the plants were wiped out by the hurricanes.

They moved from island to island in dugout canoes built by Eugene’s father who learned the craft from native inhabitants living in the Keys before the white man “discovered” them. Everywhere they settled, they used palm fronds for shelter, for lining their water cisterns and even, for clothing to shield them from the hot sun. Years later, Eugene found a john boat washed ashore. He built oars from driftwood and he began to wander alone. On a visit to the last island where he left his parents, he could not find them. Their canoes were beached, the tikki hut was full of their possessions, the garden was planted, but the people were gone. It would be years before he saw another living soul.

But that is another story…

We know that Eugene first met people from the mainland when workers came to build Flagler’s railroad, and the story goes that he never fully understood the concept of getting paid to work for others. Eugene had a hard time understanding what money was, much less a railroad.

Eugene didn’t understand why the workers were even building a railroad.

“Use boats to get from island to island,” that’s all Eugene knew and he told them so.

He told them a lot more. Many railroad men chronicled their encounters with Eugene in letters written to loved ones back home. A few of the letters recall Eugene telling the workers that they were all “nuts”. One of the men, Benjamin McCauley, wrote, “Eugene warned us that ‘one of those big storms will blow your railroad all away anyway’ but we just called him a crazy conch.”

One year Eugene was proven right and the railroad did get destroyed.

Unfortunately before that hurricane came, Eugene was out on his john-boat fishing, and got trapped in the storm. After several hours of thrashing around, his boat shipwrecked many miles away from home on an island called Coral Rock Key—- and that’s where Eugene lived through most of his adult life.

But that is another tale, Eugene all grown up…

One day in the early 50’s, so the story goes, fishermen from a shrimp trawler anchored off the beach where Eugene was living. They offered to rescue him, but Eugene didn’t understand.

“What is rescue? You take me away from happy place. Go away. Don’t come back,” Eugene told them.

From that day on Eugene was dubbed “Coral Rock Man” and the fishermen’s stories began to surface about this crazy conch who lived somewhere on an uninhabited Key south of the mainland of Florida.

But one of the stories told of two residents of that island…

Coral Rock Man did not live alone and he drove everyone away because he had a secret life and it involved a beautiful woman that he kept hidden on the island. He met her, they say, while he was out fishing on a calm and clear day.

She pulled up alongside of him on a flats boat and asked, “What are you fishing for?”

“A big hog fish about 15 feet down, but it ain’t taking my bait,” Coral Rock Man said, staring at the most exquisite creature he had ever seen. Without hesitation, she told him to tie her boat up to his, then she jumped in the water, grabbed his hook and line, dove deep, and by the time she surfaced, she had them both hooked—-the hog fish and Coral Rock Man’s heart.

“They call me Jo Jo,” she said, smiling and handing him the fish.

For several weeks after that first encounter, Jo Jo fished and dove with Coral Rock Man every day. They were seen from a distance by lobstermen and fishermen trolling the pristine waters. Then the day that Coral Rock Man will never forget came, Jo Jo told him that it was time for her to return home on the mainland.

Naturally Coral Rock Man was very much confused.

“Jo Jo you are the best friend that I ever knowed,” he said, “Can’t you make this your home? Stay with me.”

But Jo Jo left and for a few years after that nothing is known about Coral Rock Man’s whereabouts. He led a secluded life. Many thought he had offered himself to King Neptune, suffering a watery death. But, at some point during the 1980’s Coral Rock Man emerged from self-imposed isolation and resolved to find his Jo Jo.

After weeks of paddling his boat from key to key, stopping only to sleep and brief repast, Coral Rock Man reached the mainland just north of the 18-mile stretch and found civilization for the first time. He was baffled and bewildered at the same time. He didn’t understand civilization at all, too complicated. All he knew was to stay focused on finding Jo Jo, and to bring her back home to the Keys.

How or where Coral Rock Man found his Jo Jo, no one knows. All anyone knows is that Jo Jo turned up missing around that time, and hasn’t been seen on the mainland since.

There have been rumors of numerous sightings in recent years. They must be true because it is always the same story: Jo Jo, usually on a flats boat, and always right alongside Coral Rock Man fishing from his john boat.

Coral Rock Man and Jo Jo continue to live somewhere on one of those unchartered Keys just south of Florida, fishing, diving, and just having a nice life together.

.. . “away from mainland people who make no sense,”

…far away from “people who fight against each other for things that they don’t even need.”

. . . and just enjoying a Rock Solid Relationship.

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