Collier County: Florida's Final Frontier | Untold Stories

this segment of WGC use local untold stories' is underwritten by Collier County government County Commission the District School Board of Collier County city of Naples City Council the Barron Collier jr. Foundation incorporated and the Collier County Museum [Music] modern-day Collier County on the southwestern tip of the Florida peninsula is one of the fastest-growing regions in the country larger than the state of Delaware the county is home to a number of unique communities Marco Island and Naples are known far and wide as a boaters and golfer's paradise their beautiful beaches and luxury living have attracted visitors and newcomers for more than a hundred years sport fishermen and nature enthusiasts flocked to Everglades City their gateway to the 10,000 Islands and the Everglades further inland the farm fields near Immokalee supply most of the East Coast's winter vegetables growth and development are visible everywhere so it is often difficult for visitors and newcomers to imagine that not so long ago this region of Florida was still a rugged wilderness representing the state's final frontier thousands of years ago paleo-indians were the first people to make their home in Southwest Florida well we know that they certainly were likely here for as long as twenty times the range of recorded history possibly as long as ten thousand years during the Pleistocene period which ended 10,000 years ago this region of the country resembled the African Serengeti large game roamed the area providing food for the Paleo Indians they were actually hunting things like woolly mammoths and mastodons and they lived here in very small groups small bands just traveling around following the the herds of game animals later these people settled down particularly near the mouths of various rivers and began exploiting the marine resources mostly because the large animals had become extinct these Paleo Indians were the ancestors of a group of Native Americans that became known as the Colusa the Colusa were fierce and powerful non agricultural society that mainly inhabited shell mounds that they constructed on Southwest Florida's barrier islands these people the Colusa lived here for almost 4,000 years as an identifiable culture just fishing and hunting and gathering native plant foods and they were highly successful they developed a very sophisticated organized society they had permanently inhabited cities large cities some cases a population of over a thousand they had public works projects such as Canal building and mound building the Colusa inhabited sites all along the Southwest Florida coast their primary residences in modern-day Collier County would have been at key Marco qex Ambus Goodland and in other parts of the 10,000 Islands hundreds of years later artifacts discovered by some of the first white settlers in the area drew the attention of anthropologist Frank Hamilton Cushing whose expedition to Marco Island in 1895 unearthed some remarkable finds well he found hundreds of wooden artifacts he found series of masks he found a little cat Cod figure he found utilitarian objects like bowls and dishes and all sorts of amazing things made of wood weapon tree it's a it was a very important collection and considering how early it was in the 1890s he was lucky to preserve a lot of it roughly 500 years ago the arrival of the first European explorers on Southwest Florida's shores signaled the beginning of the end for the Colusa civilization in 1513 Ponce de Leon claimed Florida for Spain several Spanish attempts to colonize Southwest Florida failed but their interaction with the Colusa had a devastating consequence contagious diseases these Indians had no immunity to them and they died frequently old villages would be decimated years of warfare disease and Spanish and British slave raiding missions led to the closest demise [Music] during the 1700s small groups of Creek Indians from Georgia Alabama and Mississippi made their way into unoccupied North Florida over time more Indians followed to escape the pressures of white settlement and political upheaval in their homelands these small bands of Indians joined forces with each other and with runaway slaves eventually they became known as the Seminoles if you look back to 1780 1790 there's no such thing as Seminole the name comes from the Spanish word sim similar oneis which meant at the time people who were not living in their native home or we think of the term refugee or or foreigners in 1821 Florida became a US territory as Indians and white settlers continued to move into Florida disputes and skirmishes developed between the two groups the US government's ultimate goal at the time was to move the Native Americans to reservations west of the Mississippi but many of the Indians resistive this led to a series of three Wars called the Seminole Wars during each of these conflicts the Seminoles were pushed further south in 1842 at the end of the Second Seminole War fewer than 500 Seminoles were left living in Southwest Florida from 1842 to 1855 there was a very uneasy peace here in Southwest Florida the army was still interested in removing the Indians and routinely patrolled through Indian land the Seminoles chose to keep their villages far in the inland area the largest village in Southwest Florida at that time was called bowlegs town with Billy bowlegs who was considered the principal chief and bowlegs was a pretty pragmatic person he attempted to keep his people away from the soldiers and and maintain some kind of a peaceful relationship as long as the soldiers left them alone Billy bowlegs village is thought to have been near modern-day Immokalee bowlegs was known for his garden which he kept not far from his village in 1855 one of the u.s. army patrols under the command of Lieutenant George Hart stuff came across his garden the events that ensued would incite the third and last Seminole War lieutenant Harte stuff was probably not as a tight a commander as he should have been he allowed his men to begin using the pumpkins that were there as target practice shooting their muskets and of course the Indians heard this and sent a scouting party out to find out what was going on and they found the soldiers literally destroying their garden which was important to them this is important food for the for the tribe and they told Billy bowlegs who then got an armed group of about 40 warriors the next morning the Seminole warriors attacked the 11 members of the US surveying party killing 4 soldiers and wounding another for lieutenant Harte stuff was among the injured and he crawled back to Fort Myers to safety I mean literally crawl all the way to Fort Myers from what today would be present-day Immokalee and inform the authorities of what had happened and of course this kicks off what becomes known as the third Seminole War now the United States Army is just duty-bound they are going to remove every last Seminole from Florida no matter what it costs for the next three years the US Army raided Indian villages all across what now is Collier County as well as parts of Lee and Hendry County they burn Indian villages everywhere they can they capture women and children and take them out for relocation this goes on until May of 1858 when Billy bowlegs and his followers accepted a government offer to relocate to Indian reservations west of the Mississippi in modern-day Oklahoma while the majority of Seminole Indians left to go west a few hundred of them never surrendered instead they retreated deeper into the Everglades and the Big Cypress Swamp for literally 30 years almost no one sees Seminole occasionally a traitor or a hunter would see you know a Seminole off in the distance but they made no contact though these Seminoles remained the war was officially over once Billy bowlegs and his followers left for Oklahoma the remaining Indians inhabited what was considered by the government as useless swampland and they no longer were thought of as a threat the Seminole Wars had cost the US government a tremendous amount of money the resulting debt contributed to the growing tension among the states soon all attention would be focused on the impending war between the North and the South by 1861 Florida had seceded from the Union to join the Confederacy and later that year of bloody civil war would begin it wouldn't be until after the Civil War that the first white settlers would begin homesteading in the remote wilderness that would eventually become Collier County it's only after the Civil War where this area becomes open for settling and partly it's because there isn't anybody here and partly it's because it's it's still open for settling you can still claim lands you can still homestead here many of the other areas that the good lands were taken many of the new settlers had been to Southwest Florida as soldiers during the War Between the States many of them you know lost everything they had they lost the homestead they lost their jobs many cases their families had abandoned them and they're just starting out on a new life this was a place where you could go and also get away from Authority get away from you know civilization and to some extent to get away from the unpleasantness of reconstruction Florida in the 1800s the area now referred to as Collier County was a wild and rugged frontier much of it flooded nine months out of the year and it took several days to reach the nearest roads and railways to stay high and dry many of these early settlers built their cabins on the coastal shale mounds left behind by the Colusa small pioneer communities developed at Chokoloskee Everglade marco qex Ambus naples and further inland at corkscrew and Henderson Creek most of them came here with the idea of hunting and fishing to make a living another settlement formed on gopher Ridge which is now called Immokalee cow hunters came because they knew that wild cows left behind by the Spanish could still be found in the area during the Civil War many of the men had been to the region as part of the Confederate POW cavalry which rounded up wild cows and drove them north to help feed the Confederate Army many of the early pioneers formed a good relationship with the remaining Seminoles and trading posts were established in several places these pioneer communities were all settled around the same time yet each community developed a unique character while the communities of Marco Everglade Chokoloskee and Immokalee developed around the home sites of early settlers the town of Naples was primarily a planned community similar developments were springing up all across South Florida at the time in 1886 the Naples town improvement company formed by a group of investors purchased 8700 acres for its new town they felt that they had a pretty good real estate venture and all they had to do was begin advertising and selling selling Lots they're gonna make a lot of money they began bringing investors and buyers down here to Southwest Florida and and also building homes but from the onset Naples would attract wealthy winter residents and tourists during the wintertime usually from up north or wealthy people from from Chicago or Philadelphia or Washington would come here and spend a month or two or three you know during what today we think of as our tourist season fishing and hunting and enjoying the weather in 1911 a man would discover Southwest Florida who would change the area forever that year Memphis born millionaire Baron gift Collier visited a business acquaintance on you SEPA Island Collier who had made his fortune in streetcar advertising like the island so much he purchased it soon he would buy other Southwest Florida properties as well though Carter just began accumulating land I don't know that he necessarily thought he was making a huge real-estate Empire he just began accumulating land as it was available to him once he had fairly large land holdings and at one point in 1923 Barron Collier was one of the largest land holders in in Florida he began looking at ways to open his land for development to improve him it wasn't long before an opportunity to do just that presented itself to Barron Collier in 1915 the state had begun an ambitious Road building project that was to connect Tampa with Miami but by the early 1920s the construction of the Tamiami Trail as it was called was only partially completed the final stretch of roadway across the Everglades had been put on hold because of a lack of funding actually no one really believed you could build a road across the Everglades they they felt certain you were going to go out there and sink into quicksand so they were reluctant to even begin this unfinished part of the Tamiami Trail was to cross Barron Colliers vast land holdings in what was then southern Lee County there was a growing political movement to divide the Lee County into several counties that would be able to better serve constituents and their specific needs knowing this Barron Collier presented the state with a plan he offered to use his own funds to build the final stretch of the trail if the county would agree to split his land holdings from southern Lee County so in May of 1923 a governor hardy signed the the paper officially found in Collier County there was named Collier County because Collier promised to complete the Tamiami Trail through the largest portion of his land and and he began almost immediately on the trail project Collier decided to locate his headquarters at the small community of Everglade he renamed it Everglades and made it the county seat so he made that his base of operations he improved the channel going into the town of Everglades and made it deeper so that he could bring in larger ships now Collier did own the steamship line Collier live so he had steam ships and he could bring supplies and materials he began immediately bringing supplies and materials tracts concrete trucks dredges material to build a sawmill and he begins creating first of all the town of Everglades City which was going to house his workers and tool shops and warehouses for supplies and materials building the trail was no small feat aside from the obvious challenges that came with constructing a road across a swamp filled with poisonous snakes and alligators getting there also proved to be an undertaking was not really easy it was extremely remote remember this was the absolute frontier in the United States in 1923 the first County Commission reported to work cattle rancher Robert Roberts from Immokalee was the second person to represent his district on the Commission my dad was elected but it was a terrible trip at that time the county seat was in Everglades and he had to go from here to the mail to Fort Myers naples Marco campus ready and take a boat across to Everglades there's a three-day trip Barun gift Collier was a highly successful man known for his many innovations he was also said to have been a fair person who treated his employees and the locals who lived on his land well Collier told everybody Seminole lives on Carly County they live where they want it they wherever they make the landmark that's where they stay nobody picks on Collier tell everybody that and nobody ever had probably one part of the county it would take five years and six million dollars to complete Florida's new Appian Way on April 26 1928 the Tamiami Trail officially opened it literally opened up the last frontier area of Florida for development the sad thing really about the the Tamiami Trail and Barron Collier puts all this money into building everglades city building this this whole community and he completes the Tamiami Trail in April of 1928 and of course the very next year we we have the stock market crash and Florida real estate is a real dog on the market nobody's interests nobody has any money [Music] the few full-time residents of Collier County white and Seminole may do during the Depression years by reverting to what had sustained them in the past hunting fishing and growing winter vegetables but World War two brought a new energy to the depressed state of the county maple saw an influx of thousands of young men when the Army Air Force built an airfield in town to Train fighter pilots they brought Lassa young man who had never had the opportunity to travel to Florida a really beautiful place and a lot of these man after the war began coming back to Naples and Fort Myers because they discovered that you know what a beautiful place it was particularly in the wintertime and many of these guys built vacation homes here or came down here and started a family or started a business here in 1948 President Harry Truman brought additional attention to the area when he came to Everglades City to announce the opening of Everglades National Park with time more and more visitors discovered Collier County we really see the tourism industry begin to blossom 1950 even you know pretty much every year from that time engine continues to grow and grow and grow since its days as Barron Colliers company town Everglades City had been the hub of activity in Collier County in those days a lot of Collier people were here a lot of people worked from Collier companies and the Rod & Gun Club was was very busy they had large staff fishing was was going if you wanted to see a judge or if you want to see an attorney you come to Everglades you didn't go to Naples you come to Everglades because they would be here especially on Monday court date but before long all that would change in September of 1960 Hurricane Donna slammed into Southwest Florida leaving behind a trail of destruction it was actually devastating to Everglades City there was quite a bit of damage on Marco Island as well as in the city of Naples actually is kind of a dark cloud with a with a silver lining by November there was very little evidence that Naples had taken this terrible blow and the insurance companies had come in and made an example of Naples and paid off all the insurance so we had a huge influx of money and people took that money to rebuild bigger and better than ever the other great thing that happened was that the rats abandoned of the sinking ship a lot of people that did not have the stomach for what we would face in the future did not want to be in a place that had hurricanes and left so a lot of people did leave and a lot of people took advantage of the situation that the real-estate prices went way down and bought up a lot of real estate the infusion of insurance money after the storm wasn't the only event that provided a boost to Naples shortly after the hurricane the Collier corporation moved its headquarters there and by 1962 the county seat had been moved from Everglades City to Naples while growth in Everglades City stagnated in the early 1960s it really began taking off in other parts of the county the Gulf American corporation began building what they hoped would become the world's largest subdivision Golden Gate and the Golden Gate estates on Marco the deltona corporation transformed the island into the upscale boaters paradise it is today over the next several decades new and often exclusive neighborhoods started springing up all around Naples the town itself grew into a world-class vacation spot known for its art galleries fine dining and luxury accommodations Everglades City made the transition from being a company town to being an eco tourism destination at the western entrance to Everglades National Park over the decades Immokalee shifted its focus from cattle-ranching to farming each winter hundreds of migrant farm workers from Mexico and Central America flocked to the town to harvest crops today growth and development are visible everywhere the sad thing that's the baron collier did not live to see the fruition of his his dream which was the development of Collier County and the the growth that you know that we have today and this this really incredibly beautiful well-thought-out community that has developed based on his beginnings much has changed in the area since the Colusa the Seminoles and later the first American pioneers made their home in this remote wilderness less than a hundred years ago a paved roadway in the area was only a dream today more than 250,000 residents live in four distinct communities in Collier County in only a few decades florida's final frontier transformed itself into one of the fastest-growing and most desirable regions in the country to order a video of this program call one eight eight eight eight two four zero zero three zero or visit our website at wcco.com/links [Music] become a member of WGC you a business supporter or leave a legacy through a state or planned gift visit our web site at WGU org or call the number on your screen [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: WGCU Public Media

Views: 34,646

Keywords: Collier County, Collier County Florida, Collier County FL, Collier County Untold Story, Untold Stories Collier County, Collier County History, History of Collier County, Collier County Florida History, collier, PBS SWFL, Untold Stories PBS, WGCU PBS, WGCU Untold Stories, Untold Stories Florida, Florida History, Final, Frontier, Stories, Barron Gift Collier, County, WGCU, Untold Stories, Florida Story, PBS Florida, WGCU TV, SWFL, Barron Collier, Untold, Southwest Florida, Florida

Id: VrCNcqW8u_8

Length: 26min 49sec (1609 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 01 2019