Mel Fisher Maritime Museum, Key West (must see)

The Mel Fisher Maritime Museum in Key West is a must-see for anyone curious about shipwrecks, treasure, and the real history behind the Florida Keys. Located on Greene Street in Old Town, the museum is best known for artifacts recovered from Spanish ships lost at sea, especially the famous 1622 fleet, including Nuestra Señora de Atocha and Santa Margarita. It’s more than a “treasure museum,” though — it’s also an accredited museum and an active maritime archaeology and conservation center.

Much of the museum’s story is connected to Mel Fisher, a professional treasure hunter and salvager who spent years searching for the Atocha before his team located the main wreck site in the 1980s. That discovery brought up a remarkable collection of gold, silver, and emerald artifacts that visitors can now see up close. The exhibits go beyond shiny objects, with explanations of Spanish trade routes, storms, and the risks of sailing through the Keys, helping you understand what these ships carried and why they mattered.

Inside, the collection includes thousands of items from multiple wreck sites, such as coins, jewelry, cannons, instruments, and ship hardware. The museum also covers other chapters of maritime history, including the slave ship Henrietta Marie, and rotating displays that add variety even for repeat visitors. One of the most interesting parts is that conservation work is taken seriously here — artifacts can require long, careful treatment before they’re ready to be displayed, and the museum offers tours of its conservation lab for a behind-the-scenes look.

Visits often take longer than expected, since there’s a lot to take in even if you’re not reading every label. It’s the kind of museum where people end up stopping in front of one display after another, just trying to imagine how these objects survived centuries underwater.