History

In 1870 the west coast of Florida (from Tampa Bay south) was made up of only 3 counties: Hillsborough, Manatee and Monroe.

• Manatee was created in 1855 from portions of Hillsborough and Mosquito counties.
• In 1887 DeSoto was formed from Manatee and Lee was detached from Monroe.
• In 1921 Highlands, Hardee, Sarasota, Charlotte and Glades Counties were detached from DeSoto.
• In 1923 Hendry and Collier were detached from Lee.

1841, November 4th - Fort Myers was occupied by United States Troops and abandoned March 21, 1842 during the last period of the Second Seminole war. The Fort received its present name in February, 1850, when it was formally selected by the Government as a military post and named in honor of Colonel Abraham C. Myers, a distinguished veteran of the Mexican War and at that time chief quartermaster of the War Department of Florida. It was occupied by the militia for eight years, and was abandoned as an army post in May 1858.

"Fort Thompson", at the head of the tidewater on the southern bank of the Caloosahatchee, was named in honor of Colonel Alexander R. Thompson, a gallant officer killed at the head of his regiment, at the battle of Okeechobee, on December 25, 1837. It is in the midst of a great cattle country, and is the location of electric light and ice plants, which furnish both light and ice to various points on the river. [1923]*

"Fort Denaud", about twenty-four miles east of Fort Myers, was established in the late 1830s as an army depot of supplies and was located on land belonging to a Frenchman, Pierre Denaud. It was evacuated in 1858, and is now [1923]* a hamlet center of a citrus, sugar cane and trucking country.

1887, May 13 - Lee County was detached from Monroe County.

1890 - The first census taken after Lee was created numbered 1,414 inhabitants. 1900 - The second census taken numbered 3,071

"Labelle", between Denaud and Fort Thompson, is a growing village of several hundred people, and has long been prominent for years.[1923]*

"Alva", eighteen miles east of Fort Myers, is the highest point on the Caloosahatchee River, and has one of the largest grapefruit groves in the State, along with a first-class packing house.

On the north side of the river, opposite Fort Myers, are "New Prospect" and "Woodrow" (the latter on the Atlantic Coast Line christened in honor of the former president). Productive fruit and vegetable lands lie around them. "Punta Rassa", which is at the mouth of the river, has maintained the office of the cable to Havana and had the melancholy honor of being the first station in the United States to receive news of the sinking of the Maine.
"Sanibel", "Estero" and "Captiva" islands, along the western shores of San Carlos Bay, are well known winter resorts.[1923]*

"Cayo Costa Island", northwest of Captiva, is the site of a Government lighthouse reservation and quarantine station.[1923]*

"Boca Grande" is the home of the Silver King and other game fish. Going south from Fort Myers, along the Dixie Highway and the Tamiami Trail are such pleasant towns as "Estero" and "Bonita Springs". On the coast is Naples-on-the-Gulf, a charming resort and some miles farther south on Marco Island is the town of "Caxambas", the headquarters of a large clam-canning industry.[1923]*

"Cape Romano" is still to the south, and "Everglades", an Indian trading post south of Marco is a point of interest to tourists and curio collectors who have never long to wait for a delegation of Seminoles emerging with their wares from the Big Cypress Swamp, twenty miles to the north.[1923]*

"Immokalee" is located near the center of Lee County on high ground. Fertile area of sugar-cane surround it. Which is also the terminus of a branch of the Atlantic Coast Line.[1923]*

* Extracted from History of Florida: Past and Present; Historical and Biographical, 3 Volumes (1923)