Monday, June 22, 2009

One local Boy Scout leader is on a mission to right a decades-old wrong.

West Summerland Key is not west of Summerland Key. The island at Mile Marker 34 is actually 10 miles east.

Matthew Vercher, district director of the Boy Scouts of America's Monroe County chapter, wants the name of the key changed so the island will be both geographically correct and reflect its scouting history.

"It was just named by someone who did not know how to read a compass, and that just does not fly with the Boy Scouts," Vercher said. "This has never been corrected."

Vercher, a full time West Summerland Key resident, has begun to lobby both the local and federal government to change the name to Scout Key, as it is home to two separate but adjoining scout camps -- Camp Sawyer Boy Scouts camp and Camp Wesumkee Girl Scouts camp.

The camps have been there about 60 years, Vercher said. Year-round, Camp Sawyer hosts about 200 scouts a week who engage in camping, snorkeling, kayaking and other watersports, he said.

The idea went before the Monroe County Commission on Wednesday, with the commission voting 3-2 to change the name to Scout Key. Commissioners Sylvia Murphy and Kim Wigington dissented.

Wigington wanted more public input on the matter before the commission voted on it, she said. Murphy seemed opposed to name changes that cause confusion. She cited her previous opposition to the proposed name change of Jewfish Creek to Goliath Grouper Creek in Key Largo.

West Summerland was the westernmost key of the three Spanish Harbor Keys until the Keys were filled, presumably for the Flagler railroad project in the early 1900s, to become one key. The railroad had a camp there, said Tom Hambright, a Monroe County historian for the county library system.

So far there has been no opposition to the name change. The proposal next will go before the U.S. Board on Geographic Names, which is responsible for assigning geographic names.

tohara@keynews.com