Meandering Joy: Valentine's Day at Little Palm Island

We decided to try the brunch at Little Palm Island Beach Club for Valentine's Day. Little Palm Island is also known as Little Munson Island which is one of a chain of islands that lay off of Newfound Harbor extending west past Little Torch, Ramrod and Summerland Keys in Hawk Channel. The Beach club can only be reached by boat. A Welcome Station to Little Palm Island is on Little Torch Key. A motor yacht shuttle departs from the welcome station on an hourly basis from 9:30am to 9:30 pm. The weather was beautiful so we decided to take Meandering Joy out for the day. We were joined by Joe & Suzy , Sanford & Faye, George & Arlene for the trip.

Ownership of this lush little nine acre key prior to 1923 is unknown. It is known that in 1923 Newt Munson bought four small islands, and barged in a building from Jacksonville to create his own private winter retreat. At this time, the islands were knows as Little Munson Island, Big Munson Island, Carrier Island and Cook's Island. Cook's Island is named for his friend Captain Cook who bought it from Munson. Newt gave Big Munson Island to Ruth Ellison, his secretary. When Munson died, he left Little Munson to Ruth because his wife Ada had no interest in keeping the small island. I haven't been able to find out anything about Carrier Island and have not found any maps identifying it.

Some time after 1950 the island was sold to John Spottswood at which time it became a sort of upscale fishing retreat. It is said to have been visited by Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy and Nixon and Governor George Wallace. During Spottswood's ownership, the movie PT-109 was filmed here. The movie depicted Lt. Jg. John Fitzgerald Kennedy reporting for duty to a patrol torpedo squadron in the Solomon Islands. Cliff Robertson played the role of Kennedy.

In 1974 ownership went to a Georgian named County Johnson, who then sold it to Homer Formby , famous for furniture restoration products. Formby sold the property to a partnership between Charles & Alexis Kelm and an unknown partner. The Kelm's were involved in a drug operation sting in which they were found guilty. The Arcadia Management Corporation purchased the island in 1987 and opened Little Palm Island Beach Club in 1988. Noble House is the current owner of the island.

We left Marathon at 8:30 for the twenty mile trip to Little Palm. Staying in the Hawk's channel, we arrived about 11:00 for our 11:30 reservation. We were greeted by a dock hand who instructed us that the hostess would meet us at the restaurant.