Conch Republic Key West

The Conch Republic started in response to a United States Border Patrol blockade setup on highway U.S.1 at Florida City just to the north of the Florida Keys on April 23rd, 1982. Isolated, the citizens of Key West from the U.S. mainland, portraying Key West residents as non-U.S. citizens who had to prove their citizenship in order to drive onto the Florida mainland!
They protested, the mayor of Key West Dennis Wardlow along with a few locals went to Federal court in Miami to seek an injunction to stop the federal blockade, but to no avail. Upon leaving the Federal Court House, on the court house steps, Mayor Wardlow announced to the world, "Tomorrow at noon the Florida Keys will secede from the Union"!