The City of Fort Myers
Then & Now
Residents Discover Downtown B
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PA
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WAT
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It was the coldest day in January, but that did not stop the intrepid group of Shell Point residents who traveled to downtown Fort Myers for an educational walking tour of the city as part of the program, Academy-on-the-Go. They spent an entire morning discovering the history of Fort Myers. The residents learned that the history of Southwest Florida and the city of Fort Myers begins with the Calusa Indians – a fierce and intelligent people who took advantage of the surrounding ecosystem. By the mid 1700s, they became one of Florida’s lost tribes, but they had left their mark on the landscape with an intricate system of canals and numerous shell mounds. The United States bought Florida from Spain in 1821, and Seminole Indians migrated south from the areas now known as Alabama and Georgia, but in 1830, President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act and three Seminole Indian wars followed. It was during the second war that several forts popped up along the Caloosahatchee River. One such fort was Fort Harvie which was abandoned in 1842 and later burned
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down. Eight years later in 1850, Major General David Twiggs ordered the building of another fort on that same spot and named it Fort Myers for Lieutenant Colonel Abraham Myers who was engaged to General Twiggs’ daughter.
Shell Point Life | February 2009
Early Settlers
After the Civil War, the fort was plundered by local fishing villagers and abandoned until Manuel Gonzalez settled in the fort with his family and friends as a squatter. Early settlers raised cattle brought from Spain or grew citrus or sugar cane. But, the biggest draw to Fort Myers in the post Civil War era was the lure of land and the opportunity to become a cattle supplier. Captain Francis Hendry and Jacob Summerlin were two powerful cattlemen of the time.
Captain Francis Hendry (standing center) posing with Seminole Indians.
Residents Experienced History
As Shell Pointers proceeded to walk the streets of Fort Myers they learned it became an official town in 1885. City growth was slow until the arrival of the railroad and automobile in 1904. Train travel grew at a rapid pace, and the Atlantic Coast Line Train Depot was completed in 1924 to accommodate travelers until it was decommissioned in 1971. The Tamiami Trail (US 41) also opened to Fort Myers in 1924 and was com-
President Herbert Hoover, and an unidentified White House aide, visit with famous winter residents Thomas Edison and Henry Ford.
pleted to Miami in 1928. With Fort Myers accessible by train and auto, a land boom followed, bringing more people to Fort Myers in addition to the rich and famous already in residence – Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, John Burroughs, Harvey Firestone, Ambrose McGregor, Harvie Heitman, etc. The boom changed the landscape of Fort Myers forever. The “cow town” look was replaced by Edison’s imported royal palm trees, and Fort Myers became the City of Palms.