World's Largest Conch Shell

Key West High School's welding class built a conch shell sculpture. The Monroe County Public Library's Florida Keys History Center records that an 18½-foot, five-ton steel conch shell sculpture was installed at the entrance in 1986. It was created by welding teacher George Carey and his 36 students, took eight months to complete and was dubbed the “largest conch shell in the world.” The library describes it as designed and constructed in 1985 to 1986.

Carey taught auto body repair and welding at the school in the 1980s and was also an artist. According to WLRN in 2018, he and his classes built mascot sculptures for several island schools, using what a family member described as “anything that he found laying around Key West High School campus.” WLRN reported in 2018 a giant conch shell in front of the high school, and Florida Weekly described it in April 2026 as among the sculptures Carey's work left at schools.