Fort Myers Beach: A Colorful History
Fort Myers Beach’s reputation as a laid-back beach community believes its original roots are home to Indians and a host of adventurers. Part of its tumultuous history includes the unlikely mix of pirates, settlers, and mosquitoes. Today, Estero Island and its sister island, San Carlos, make up the community of Fort Myers Beach.
Estero Island was once the heart center of the Caloosa Indians. This geologically young barrier island formed long after Earth’s last ice age. Before the arrival of the white man, the Caloosa Indians used many of the islands off Florida’s west coast as hunting and fishing grounds. “Shell mounds,” or the remains of their communal meals and debris, mark Estero Island and other key landmarks around Fort Myers Beach.
Historians agree that Juan Ponce de León and his men were the first to see Florida and gave the lush state its name in the early 16th century. They were followed by various other European explorers seeking their fortune. The Caloosa bitterly resisted these arrivals. In 1566, a fortune hunter named Menendez landed near his beach hunting grounds and killed King Carlos, the chief of the Caloosas, and 20 of his men. It is from this event that the name “Carlos” dominates much of the West Coast nomenclature, including Carlos Bay, Carlos Pass, and San Carlos Island. The origins of the Caloosa remain a mystery, but some scholars believe they may have traveled on rafts from Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Ultimately, they met their deaths from many of the diseases brought back by European explorers, including measles.
The explorers were not the only sailors who frequented the western coast. During the 1870s, pirates ruled the shores of Black Island. After the defeat by the US Navy, a renowned pirate named Black Augustus (for whom the island was later named), took the loot from him and settled on the island. John Butterfield’s family occupied Mound Key in Estero Bay during this time, providing the elderly pirate with sugar, coffee, and other luxuries in exchange for vegetables. When the pirate finally died, legend has it that he paid off the Butterfield family by showing them where to dig for treasure. Rumors of forgotten and still buried treasures abound.
The Sam Ellis family were the first white family to stay on Estero Island in Shell Mound on the Bay in the late 1870s. Instead of settling permanently, they later moved to Sanibel, where they occupied a tract of land at the head of Tarpon Bay. Many of the “landowners” who filed the original patents failed to settle permanently due to difficulties in fighting the storms and resulting crop problems. In fact, in 1899, a freeze hit Florida with temperatures as low as two degrees below zero in Tallahassee, killing trees, oranges and other fledgling crops. It was so cold in western Florida, legend has it, that thousands of icy migratory birds fell from the sky to freeze to the ground.
The last farmer to claim his share of Estero Island in 1914 was Leroy Lemoreaux, who cleared his land and survived by growing vegetables and fishing. In various historical treatises, Lemoreaux ponders which predator was worse: the bears and panthers that stalked the island, or the deadly mosquitoes that clouded the air. In the 1890s, the only weapon against marauding mosquitoes was smoke. All of this was before a bridge linked the island to the mainland of the Fort Myers area. In 1921, the first bridge built was a wooden swing bridge that charged 50 cents for five people. The 1926 hurricane swept it away and cut the strip of land that linked San Carlos to the mainland, turning it into an island. Today it is still known as Hurricane Pass.
During the World War II years, growth throughout Florida stagnated, but in the early 1950s, the area “came hot” again. Fort Myers Beach grew more as a permanent destination than a stopover for visitors. Tourists were slow to discover Fort Myers Beach, as it was at the end of the street and not particularly well lit. There were no motels, although hotels existed and various country yards flourished. Recently, the beach has been “rediscovered” as gentrification projects and new shopping and dining sites open. A great source of pride for the area is the deeply rooted celebrations of the Fourth of July and the Blessing of the Shrimp Fleet. For several years, the beach was the site of the county’s only major fireworks display. When the weather is cooler in March, the community celebrates the blessing of the fleet with a week-long shrimp festival, which includes many specialty dishes based on the popular “pink gold” shrimp.