The infamous “Labor Day” hurricane made landfall near Craig Key in the Florida Keys on this date. It was the third most intense Atlantic hurricane on record, making landfall as a Category 5 storm with winds exceeding 156 mph. A 10-car evacuation train sent from Homestead carrying many WWI veterans who had been working in the Keys with the Civilian Conservation Corps was swept off the tracks by storm surge on Upper Matecumbe Key, killing many of them. Nearly 500 deaths were attributed to the storm, although the actual number was probably much higher. Much of Henry Flagler’s Florida East Coast Overseas Railway was destroyed by the storm and never rebuilt. Author Ernest Hemingway visited the veterans’ camps shortly after the storm and wrote an article entitled, “Who Killed the Vet,” which placed the blame on the government for sending the workers to the Keys during hurricane season. A monument to those killed in the storm was erected in Islamorada and unveiled in 1937.