Conch Republic
— the republic the roadblock made.
Not only on a wall.
“The cheerful breakaway nation declared from Key West on 23 April 1982, after the Border Patrol set a roadblock across US 1 at Florida City. Mayor Dennis Wardlow read the secession, declared war on the United States with a stale loaf of Cuban bread, surrendered after one minute, and requested foreign aid. The republic still issues passports and still keeps the Keys in on the joke.
Conch Republic, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
The Conch Republic is the satirical micronation declared by the city of Key West, Florida, on 23 April 1982, in protest of a US Border Patrol roadblock established that month at Florida City, where US 1 crosses from the mainland into the Keys. The claimed territory is the Florida Keys, the Marquesas, and the Dry Tortugas, the chain of islands stretching about 200 kilometres southwest from the mainland. Capital: Key West. The republic survives as a community identity and as a permanent fixture on the local festival calendar.
The secession ceremony on Mallory Square ran by script. Mayor Dennis Wardlow read the declaration, broke a stale loaf of Cuban bread over the head of a man in a navy uniform, declared war on the United States, surrendered after one minute, and requested one billion dollars in foreign aid. The roadblock came down within days. Independence Day is celebrated each 23 April with a ten-day festival of parades, sea battles, and the drag race down Duval Street, the largest community event of the Key West year.
The republic issues passports through the Conch Republic Independent Mission, a souvenir office on Whitehead Street; they are valid as collectibles rather than travel documents. Key West sits at the southernmost point of the continental United States, marked by the painted concrete buoy at the foot of Whitehead Street, about 145 kilometres by US 1 from Florida City. The motto, 'We seceded where others failed,' is the line the whole affair was built around. It still gets quoted at the festival every April.