Anne and Jack Although the story of Anne Bonny and Calico Jack honeymooning on Estero Island may be less fact than fiction, it is a refreshing part of the history of Estero Island. According to Jack Beater’s book, Pirates and Buried Treasure on Florida Islands, Anne Bonny was the daughter of a wealthy lawyer who […]
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The early part of the 20th century brought more development as the first subdivisions were platted on Fort Myers Beach. H.C. Case platted the first of these subdivisions in 1911. Originally this was part of the Robert Gilbert homestead. Starting at Connecticut Street, the subdivision extended about three quarters of a mile both north and
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For many years, Estero Island was home to Calusa Indians, Cuban Fishermen, Spanish Missionaries, and some say, pirates. It was not until the mid-1870s that the first family settled on Fort Myers Beach. Sam Ellis, his wife, and his son, George Underhill, settled at the end of Connecticut Street where the Mound House now sits.
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Over 5,000 years ago, the Calusa Indians made their home on the sandy shores of Estero Island. In fact, carbon dating suggests that southwest Florida was the cultural center of the Calusas. Perhaps the most impressive historical proof of the Calusa can be found in the shell mounds on many barrier islands in southwest Florida.
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Mound Key is well known as the capital of the Calusa Indians. However, recently archaeologists from Florida and Georgia have discovered that this small island in the middle of Estero Bay was also the location of one of the first Jesuit missions in North America. The Spanish fort, known as Fort San Anton de Carlos
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