Lee County Islands

By Mary Kaye Stevens

When Ponce de Leon visited Southwest Florida in 1513, he discovered some of North America’s most pristine tropical islands. Yet it was here where the explorer met his death at the hands of Calusa Indians who had made their home on the islands since 500 bc. Remaining relatively isolated from mainland society until the mid-1900s, the islands were home to a few hardscrabble pioneers who endured stifling heat, swarming mosquitoes, and deadly storms. Famous anglers such as Thomas Edison, Zane Grey, and Teddy Roosevelt enjoyed stalking the elusive tarpon in this sports fishing paradise. Likewise, the pervasive solitude inspired writers, including Edna St. Vincent Millay, Mary Roberts Rinehart, and Richard Powell. Home to some of the world’s best beaches, it is not surprising visitors and residents find the lifestyles and histories of Lee County’s quaint islands worth preserving.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Nov 30, 2009
• ISBN: 9781439622360

Mary Kaye Stevens

Author Mary Kaye Stevens is an educator who made Lee County her home in 1972. The vintage photographs in this book appear courtesy of multigenerational island families and local museums. As with her previous Arcadia Publishing book, Images of America: Pine Island, Images of America: Lee County Islands will take readers on a delightful journey through the islands’ unique past.

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(EIHS).

INTRODUCTION

Imagine straw hats, vibrant hibiscus and palm trees, the intense color and sound of the Gulf of Mexico. This fantasy is reality.

—India Hicks, Island Life

Some of the most pristine tropical islands in North America lie scattered along the Lee County, Florida, coastline. The islands have each developed their own unique personality while sharing in some basic historical similarities. Relatively isolated from mainland society until the mid-1900s, the islands were inhabited by the fierce Calusa Indians as early as 500 BC. Later, in 1513, Juan Ponce de León was to be the first documented Spanish explorer to visit the islands. On Ponce de León’s final voyage, the crew fought a fierce battle with the Calusa Indians on Pine Island. Suffering extensive battle injuries, Ponce de León and his men returned to Cuba, where he died of his wounds.

By the late 1700s, Lee County’s islands were home to legendary pirates, including Brewster Baker, José Gaspar (Gasparilla), Black Caesar, and Juan Gomez. Although never substantiated, it is still believed by islanders that treasure remains hidden on most of the islands, keeping the anticipation of discovery alive.

Lee County’s islands remained basically untouched by civilization for about 20 years after Florida was granted statehood in 1845. Fishermen, setting up camps, were the first communities to dot the islands in the mid-1800s. These fishermen of pre–power engine days plied the waters in lighterns (rustic, flat-bottomed houseboats), skiffs, and wooden pole boats. The Homestead Act of 1862 brought an influx of hardscrabble pioneers to the islands. Beginning in 1885, when the first tarpon was caught at the mouth of the Caloosahatchee River, a new breed of fisherman—the sports fisherman—arrived. Classy hotels and elegant resorts offering adventure appeared on each of Lee County’s main islands. Celebrities, including Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Shirley Temple, Theodore Roosevelt, Hedy Lamar, and Edna St. Vincent Millay, fished or wintered on the islands.

The isolated lifestyles of the previous dwellers are what set the stage for today’s residents. Lee County’s islanders pride themselves in being just a bit more eccentric than mainlanders. Today’s residents and visitors, as those before, live on island time. They live by their own inner clocks, not following any standard set by the mainland world. It is this lackadaisical pace that tourists find intriguing and charming. So it is with a determined fervor that Lee County’s islanders fight to preserve their piece of paradise, as the future of the islands rests in the caring, nurturing hands of island residents determined to preserve both the beauty and tranquil lifestyle they cherish.

One

GASPARILLA ISLAND

If there is better tarpon fishing in the world than can be had at Boca Grande, I have never heard of it.

—A. W. Dimock, The Book of Tarpon

Split between Charlotte County and Lee County, Gasparilla Island is home to Lee County’s most northern island address. Boca Grande lies on the southern end of Gasparilla Island, a stone’s throw from Cayo Costa Island. Until the late 19th century, the island remained sparsely settled by a handful of fishing families. In 1848, the federal government established a military reservation at Boca Grande, overseeing the northern end of Cayo Costa Island and the southern end of Gasparilla Island.

It was not until 1897 that Boca Grande became the legal name, when Albert W. Gilchrist purchased land and filed a plat for The Town of Boca Grande in the Lee County Courthouse in Fort Myers. Earlier the Spanish settlers had referred to the location as Boca Grande, or Big Mouth, to identify the exceptionally wide passage to Charlotte Harbor.

Beginning in 1905, construction began on a port facility and railroad spur to receive and ship phosphate ore mined in the Peace River Valley. With the development of the Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railway (CH&N) came access to the outside world. In addition to the fish camps or ranchos of the area, fish houses were established along the rail line, which brought in ice from the mainland (Punta Gorda) and shipped out fresh fish. In 1911, the Gasparilla Inn opened. The hotel was such a success that by 1914 a casino was built near the inn and a boathouse was added on the bayou.

Game fishing and tourism are responsible for most of the development during the 1920s. By 1925, more and more eastern Florida residents were becoming disenchanted with the Florida boom and opted to give up their east coast homes for the remoteness of Southwest Florida’s islands. With the attraction of unparalleled tarpon fishing along with the relatively unspoiled island setting, Boca Grande became a very desirable location.

As with other island communities, development tapered off after the Florida land boom. Yet, because of the tropical weather, the sandy beaches, and some of the world’s best game fishing, Boca Grande continues to grow. Fortunately, due to the sensitivity of the island’s residents, much of the early bungalow-style architectural heritage still remains today, preserving the quaint ambience of the past.

The first official surveys of Lee County’s islands and the Everglades were conducted by a team hired by the surveyor general of Florida led by Horatio Jenkins and Marcellus Williams beginning in 1874. Although they charged $12 per mile (the going rate for the time was $4 or $5), it was determined that the notations on the documents [were] indicated ‘by calculation;’ in other words, not surveyed on the ground but by mathematical means, according to Joe Knetsch in Boca Grande. The surveys were determined to be fraudulent. Albert W. Gilchrist was responsible for correcting the Jenkins surveys in 1897. His bill to the government was $566.83. These surveyors conducted a later survey in 1915. (SHMV.)

The journal of Harry Pete Goulding, who fished with his father, Joseph, in the early 1900s, is recorded in Williams and Cleveland’s book on Charlotte Harbor, Our Fascinating Past, Charlotte Harbour: The Early Years. Pete, describing the run boats, wrote, "They could carry thousands of pounds of ice or fish. They left Punta Gorda at 7 a.m. on Monday,