For 15 miles, Fort Myers’ McGregor Boulevard is
lined on both sides with statuesque royal palm trees, the first 200
of which were imported from Cuba and planted by Thomas Edison.
The first tourist to visit southwest Florida was
Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon, who visited Pine Island in 1513 and
was later mortally wounded in these same waters by a Calusa Indian
arrow.
Captiva Island has been ranked one of the
country’s “most romantic beaches” for two consecutive years by
Stephen Leatherman, Ph.D., recognized as the nation’s foremost beach
authority.
The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel (identified as
the Fort Myers area) is ranked in the Top 10 hottest winter
destinations in the country by the American Society of Travel
Agents/Fodor’s, USA Today and Carlson Wagonlit Travel.
The sport of tarpon fishing originated in
southwest Florida’s Pine Island Sound in the late 1880s, and Boca
Grande Pass, the opening between Cayo Costa and Gasparilla Island,
is considered the “Tarpon Fishing Capital of the World.”
Harvey Firestone & Thomas Edison
photo supplied by:
Lee County
Visitor & Convention Bureau
Thomas Edison, who spent many winters in Fort
Myers, is considered the most inventive man who ever lived, holding
1,093 patents for everything from lightbulbs, cement and phonographs
to the natural rubber he made from goldenrod.
Lee County area beaches are ranked some of the
best in the nation for shelling, with more varieties found here than
anywhere else in North America. The shelling posture is so common,
it’s given a name – the Sanibel Stoop and the Captiva Crouch!
With 50 miles of white sand beaches and
world-class shelling, the Fort Myers/Sanibel area has earned the
ranking of “#1 beach in the southeast U.S.” by readers of Family Fun
Magazine.
You can boat straight across the state of Florida
from Fort Myers/Sanibel to Palm Beach via the Caloosahatchee River
and Okeechobee Waterway, both part of the Intracoastal Waterway.
The banyan tree at the Edison Winter Home, a gift
from industrialist Harvey Firestone, is the largest specimen in the
United States. The tree’s aerial roots now have a circumference of
more than 400 feet!
Koreshan State Historic Site in Bonita Springs
commemorates an eccentric religious sect, which believed the world
to be a hollow globe, with mankind residing on the inner surface,
gazing into the universe below.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh, the wife of America’s
famous aviator, wrote her best-selling book, “A Gift From the Sea,”
without ever identifying it as Captiva Island.
Legend has it that Spanish pirate Jose Gaspar made
his home in Pine Island Sound, reportedly establishing headquarters
on Sanibel Island, holding his female prisoners captive on Captiva
Island, burying his booty on Gasparilla Island, and imprisoning his
beloved Mexican Princess Joseffa on Useppa Island. Rather than be
taken prisoner by the U.S. Navy, the scoundrel drowned himself in
anchor chains in 1821, the same year Spain sold Florida to the U.S.
government for $13 million.
Cape Coral has more canals than the Italian city
of Venice.
J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge,
occupying more than half of Sanibel Island, was named for Pulitzer
Prize-winning cartoonist Jay Norwood Darling, who was also the first
environmentalist to hold a presidential cabinet post (in Franklin
Delano Roosevelt’s administration).
Some of the original settlers to the Lee County
area were flower growers from the Benelux region of Europe. At one
time their horticultural efforts made Fort Myers the “Gladiolus
Capital of the World.”
The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel is one of the
few places in the world where a person can make a living as a
shelling charter captain. Among the rare shells collected here are
the brown speckled junonia, sculpted lion’s paw, coveted golden
olive, golden tulip and Scotch bonnet. Lee County has banned live
shelling and encourages shell seekers to pick up treasures that have
washed up on shore.
One of the southernmost land battles of the
American Civil War was fought in Fort Myers on Feb. 20, 1865 over
cattle, with both sides claiming victory. North Fort Myers
celebrates this historic moment annually, with a battle re-enactment
during its annual Cracker Festival.
Calusa Indian culture, carbon dated to 1150 B.C.,
had its cultural center in southwest Florida. Although the tribe is
now extinct, ceremonial, burial and refuse shell mounds are found at
Mound Key, Pine Island, Cabbage Key, Useppa Island and elsewhere in
the vicinity.
The Sanibel Shell Fair is in its 67th year (in
2004).
Cayo Pelau is said to be haunted by the ghosts of
Jose Gaspar’s pirates who, legend has it, buried their personal
wealth here and linger to prevent treasure hunters from disturbing
their plunder.
The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel is widely
recognized and consistently ranked as one of the nation’s top
destinations for beach combing, shelling, kayaking and bird
watching.
The walls of Cabbage Key’s historic inn are
papered in more than $30,000 autographed dollar bills. The inn,
built by playwright Mary Roberts Rinehart and her son in 1938,
serves breakfast, lunch and dinner to guests and boaters at
Milemarker 60 on the Intracoastal Waterway.
Fort Myers’ McCollum Hall, built in 1938, was a
renowned “dance hall” that featured nationally famous
African-American performers like Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Louis
Armstrong and B.B. King.
