Florida's Fort Myers, Sanibel & Captiva
Chelle Koster Walton
HUNTER PUBLISHING, INC.
80 Northfield Avenue, Edison, NJ 08837
tel. 732-225-1900 / 800-255-0343 / fax 732-417-1744
www.hunterpublishing.com
IN CANADA:
Ulysses Travel Publications
4176 Saint-Denis, Montréal, Québec, Canada H2W 2M5
tel. 514-843-9882 ext. 2232 / fax 514-843-9448
IN THE UK & EUROPE:
Roundhouse Group
Millstone, Limers Lane, Northam
Devon EX39 2RG, England
tel. 01237-474474 / fax 01237-474774
© 2010 Chelle Koster Walton
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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.
This guide focuses on recreational activities. As all such activities contain elements of risk, the publisher, author, affiliated individuals and companies disclaim responsibility for any injury, harm, or illness that may occur to anyone through, or by use of, the information in this book. Every effort was made to insure the accuracy of information in this book, but the publisher and author do not assume, and hereby disclaim, liability for any loss or damage caused by errors, omissions, misleading information or potential travel problems caused by this guide, even if such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident or any other cause.
Chelle Koster Walton began her greatest life adventure when she moved to Sanibel Island sight unseen in 1981. She's never looked back, except to wonder why she didn't move sooner. From her favorite island, the author travels around Florida and the Caribbean researching guidebooks, of which she has published eight, and writing articles for Family Fun, National Geographic Traveler, Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, Endless Vacation, The Miami Herald, and other print and electronic media. Walton is co-founder of www.guide bookwriters.com and a member of the Society of American Travel Writers.
How To Use This Book
After the Introduction to the area of Tampa and Florida's West Coast, this book focusses on Lee County, promoted as The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel.
The chapter begins with a brief overall history and information that will make finding your way around easier. Then it is divided by towns or areas within the sub-region, their adventure opportunities, sights, restaurants, hotels, and other attractions. Sprinkled amid the hard facts, you'll find budget tips, author recommendations, family-friendly choices, quirky Florida terms, and weekend adventure itineraries. Throughout, places that come highly recommended by the author are indicated by a star:
For the purposes of this guide, the West Coast of Florida describes a slice of coastline along the Gulf of Mexico beginning in the quiet rural setting of Citrus County, north of the Tampa Bay area, and ending in the south at Naples and the utter wilderness of the Everglades. It encompasses the coastal portions of Citrus, Hernando, Pasco, Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte, Lee, and Collier counties. This region is cohesive in its types of vegetation and climate, yet it is infinitely diverse in culture and disposition.
If you're looking for adventure, you're in the right place. West Coast Florida, as one of the nation's final frontiers, claims a history and heritage of rugged outdoorsmanship.
While the rest of the nation was busily traveling along paved roads and buying their supplies from general stores, in the farthest corners of Florida's Gulf Coast down Naples way and in the Florida Everglades folks were still trading with the natives for victuals and dredging enough land out of the swamps to build the Tamiami Trail. The West Coast of Florida was considered a wild, exotic place then, a place for safaris and catching giant silver fish; a place where prehistoric turtles, alligators, manatees, and horseshoe crabs thrived, where trees danced, birds dive-bombed, dolphins grinned, flowers bloomed at night, and winter never came.
The first white men traveled to western Florida for adventure. And they found it aplenty: half-naked natives, tricky waterways, impenetrable swamps, and enough fowl and fish to thicken seas, sky, and fire-brewed stews. In search of gold and youth, they chose to grumble, kill the natives, and curse the rest. They brought their own hogs, cows, and citrus to eat, then eventually left, discouraged by the persistent onslaughts from the resident Amerindian tribes the Calusa in the south, the Timucua around today's Tampa and Sarasota. Evidence of important Amerindian centers of culture has been found in Marco Island, Mound Key, Pine Island, Useppa Island, Manasota Key, Terra Ceia, Safety Harbor, and Crystal River.
Juan Ponce de León was the first recorded European to set foot upon these shores, somewhere in Charlotte Harbor. Hernando De Soto landed at today's Fort Myers Beach or Bradenton, depending upon whom you believe. Ensuing parties established forts, missions, and colonies at Mound Key, Fort Myers Beach, Pine Island, and other strategic spots along the coast.
Juan Ponce de León
Legends fill the region's early timelines with dastardly pirates who came to prey upon ships sailing between the Caribbean and established towns in northern Florida. Much has been exaggerated, particularly the legend of Gasparilla, upon which a Tampa festival and a coastline attitude of devil-may-care thrive. The mottled backwaters of the West Coast undoubtedly harbored many a refugee from the law, but few as colorful as publicity agents have painted them.
More prevalent in the 17th through the 19th centuries were Spanish fishermen and gutsy farmers. Later, in the Charlotte Harbor area, commercial fishing developed into a thriving industry. Fishermen lived in stilt houses built on sand shoals from Placida to the Ten Thousand Islands. A handful of the historic shacks remain.
In many ways, fishing settled the West Coast. Farming proved less dependable, what with hurricanes and pests. Sugar plantations around Bradenton and Homosassa came and went with the wind. In later years, a reputation for great sportfishing brought well-heeled adventurers to the coast, which eventually put the region on the map of the socially connected.
In the meantime, war introduced others to this balmy, palmy land. Florida, after being passed back and forth between Spain and England, became a US territory in the early 1820s. Shortly thereafter, Governor Andrew Jackson, to defend against the Seminole tribes he had angered, built forts on Lake Holathlikaha near today's Inverness, Tampa Bay, and the Caloosahatchee River at today's Fort Myers. Later, Civil and Spanish-American War fortifications were built on Egmont and Mullet keys, at the mouth of Tampa Bay. In the wake of war came ex-soldiers and their families. Then followed industry and tourism.
St. Petersburg was built in 1887 as a health resort, and Tampa, formerly Fort Brooke, gained a reputation as such. Railroads, cigar factories, and hotels started the twin cities down the path to becoming the region's metropolitan hub. Islands and coastal towns to the south remained the domain of the intrepid. It wasn't until big names such as Ringling and Edison became associated with the region that people sat up and took serious notice.
They came to fish. They came to swim in the warm, gentle Gulf waves. They came to hunt, to escape, to winter. They came to stay. Since the 1940s, the coast's population has built steadily. As more people came to reside permanently, cities developed along typical lines, adding services and culture to their slate of resorts, restaurants, and beachside facilities.
Adventure has always been a major part of what the coast offers. As eco-tourism came into fashion, emphasis shifted to this aspect of vacationing. To the fishing charters, tour boats, parasailing concessions, and Hobie Cat rentals were added bike trails, sea kayaking, and nature-oriented tours. The West Coast has firmly put its foot down about wanton development. This makes it especially desirable for adventurers seeking a return to what those first intrepid fishermen, hunters, and sailors found.
Largely gone are the untamed lands and rugged lifestyles that attracted adventurers a half-century ago. Development continually threatens some natural resources, but visitors can still find throughout the region areas and activities that retain the flavor and fervor of Florida's derring-do days.
Western Florida has built its population in great part from tourists who came and never left. The result is a rich blend of cultures.
The First Settlers
The earliest tourists arrived before history books, probably first from Asia, later from South America and the Caribbean. The Calusa and Timucua Amerindians did not survive the next incursion of visitors. The Spanish eventually decimated their numbers with bows, arrows, and disease. Spanish influence persisted, and the area's oldest families have names such as Padilla and Menendez, familial survivors from a time when Cuban fishermen set up camps on the islands and Cuban cigar-makers migrated from Key West.
Most of the latter settled in Tampa's Ybor City. Germans, Italians, Jews, and other nationalities followed to work the cigar factories, making Ybor City still today one of the region's most colorful ethnic enclaves. The district is known for its restaurants, where a Cuban sandwich or bowl of rice and beans are culinarily symbolic.
Other early arrivals migrated from the north, among them the Seminole Amerindians, a branch of the Creek tribe, whose bloodlines reflected an intermingling of African and Spanish ancestry. The Seminole Wars forced them to Arkansas, except for those who took cover in the Everglades' forbidding wild lands. Seminoles and an offshoot tribe known as the Miccosukee still live in the Everglades and on tribal lands around Tampa. In the Everglades, many live in chickee huts, pole structures topped with intricately thatched roofs. The Native Americans subsist on fishing, farming, and tourism, selling their colorful weaving, and raking in the proceeds from bingo and gambling. The tribe runs casinos in Tampa, Miami, and Immokalee (in Collier County).
Miccosukee children in the 1930s
The Seminole Wars, and later the Civil War, further stocked the slowly growing population with American soldiers who fell in love with the pleasant climate and lush surroundings.
FLORIDIOM : Settlers from Georgia and Alabama came to be known as 'Crackers,' a term often associated with the region's early cattle drivers, who 'cracked' their whips to herd wild cows. Others attribute the label to a Celtic word applied disparagingly to early Scotch-Irish plantation hands in the South. Whatever the origin, Crackers contributed to this region their Deep South cuisine, folk medicine, and a simple style of architecture known as the Cracker house, which has come back into fashion as 'Old Florida' architecture. They settled and farmed mostly in the interior sections of the region, where to this day lifestyles whistle Dixie and folks speak with 'South in the mouth.'
The Population Boom
Land booms of the pre- and post-Depression eras brought northerners from far reaches. First came the well-to-do in search of adventures in the untamed wilderness. Among them were President Teddy Roosevelt, Zane Grey, Shirley Temple, Hedy Lamarr, Charles Lindbergh, Thomas Edison, John Ringling, and Henry Ford. Giants from the industrial world followed, often buying up land to insure the exclusivity of the region. They left behind a standard for nature appreciation and beautiful architecture. Others, such as Henry Plant and Barron Collier, saw the opportunity to develop the land, and so built railroads, roads, ports, resorts, and hotels.
Once the word got out, another sort of adventurer, known then as the 'Tin Can Tourist,' arrived in motor homes. They, and those that followed, led to Florida's reputation as an RV heaven, a reputation recent hurricanes are dispelling.