SOUTHWEST FLORIDA The Uncommon Friends statue at Centennial Park in downtown Fort Myers pays homage to inventors Ford, Edison and Firestone.
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2014 TRAVEL GUIDE TO FLORIDA
Saturday of each month between November and April. Other art festivals in the downtown area include the prestigious Naples National Art Festival in February. Explore free art galleries at the von Liebig Art Center in downtown Naples and at the Marco Island Center for the Arts. Entrance is free at all Collier County museum locations, including the main Collier County Museum campus in Naples, the Naples Depot Museum, the Museum of the Everglades in Everglades City, the Marco
Island Historical Museum and the Pioneer Museum at Roberts Ranch in Immokalee.
MUST SEE, MUST DO To understand the social history of Southwest Florida, visit the homes of famous past residents, however the sites themselves tell so much more than the stories of the people who lived there. Where else in the world do you find the homes of two history-making inventors next to each
PHOTO: LEE COUNTY VCB
Site preserves the culture of a scholarly religious sect that settled there. In Punta Gorda, the Blanchard House Museum informs about the importance of the town’s AfricanAmerican early settlers, while Sanibel Island’s Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum explains the importance of shells locally, globally and historically. Naples features many free art shows, including the Art in the Park arts and crafts show on the first