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The Calusa, or “fierce people,” ruled the Southwest Florida coastline for thousands of years.
Explore Arts, Culture & History
Indoor and outdoor spaces on The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel delight and educate. Check out prehistoric Calusa Indian mounds, preserved Cracker cottages and elegant bayfront homes where history comes alive. When the sun goes down, head out for entertainment at theaters large and small.
Indoor and outdoor spaces on The Beaches of Fort Myers & Sanibel delight and educate. Check out prehistoric Calusa Indian mounds, preserved Cracker cottages and elegant bayfront homes where history comes alive. When the sun goes down, head out for entertainment at theaters large and small.
  Calusa Indian royalty |
The Calusa, or “fierce people," ruled the Southwest Florida coastline for thousands of years. This advanced civilization included a royal hierarchy headed by kings and a system of collecting tribute from neighboring tribes.
Huge shell mounds, remnants of the Calusa’s seafaring culture, are still visible today at the Calusa Heritage Trail in Pineland, Mound Key in Estero Bay, the Fort Myers Cultural Museum and Environmental Learning Center (aka the Mound House) on Fort Myers Beach and on Useppa Island.
Calusa dominance of the region ended in 1513 with the arrival of the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León. For more than 200 years, the Spanish sought to control the Calusa. Fighting and European-borne disease diminished their numbers greatly, and it’s believed the remaining Calusa fled to Cuba, a destination for fish and cattle from Southwest Florida during the 18th and 19th centuries.
The Early Colonists
Near the turn of the last century, pioneer settlers made their way to the pine flatwoods and open prairies in the Fort Myers area to fell and mill lumber. Agriculturalists established citrus and tropical fruit plantations on the islands, and people came to work the fields. Fishermen flocked to the coastal areas and eked out a hard and salty existence.
This progress is chronicled in small collections at museums such as the Southwest Florida Museum of History in Fort Myers, the Museum of the Islands on Pine Island, Sanibel Historical Village on Sanibel Island, the Mound House and the Davison cottage, home to the Estero Island Historic Society and next to Matanzas Pass Preserve in Fort Myers Beach.
 Uncommon Friends statue |
In the late 1800s, Dunbar emerged east of downtown Fort Myers. The story of this industrious African-American community is told at Williams Academy Black History Museum at Clemente Park.
About the same time, the wealthy discovered a paradise playground. Thomas Edison and Henry Ford established winter homes on the banks of the Caloosahatchee River. Others followed for the superb sport fishing and mild climate, including Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Edna St. Vincent Millay and Mary Roberts Rinehart, to name a few. Presidents continue to visit to this day.
Go Museum Hopping
Many museums have collections from the First and Second World Wars; Fort Myers was an important training ground for airmen and support staff at Buckingham and Page Field airports. Ancient Indian as well as more recent history (1950s and 60s) is on display at the Cape Coral Historical Museum. See the marketing genius of the Rosen brothers, developers of Cape Coral, come to life in buttons, banners and publicity shots of celebrities. You can almost hear the Rat Pack crooning in the background.
History buffs will want to see as many of the museums as possible to piece together the various parts into a cohesive “collage" of Lee County’s development.
Professional Productions
A theater that started in a historic schoolhouse, another in a restored Vaudeville theater and yet other spaces devoted to the charms of live musical theater dot the area’s performance landscape. The 1,871-seat Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall features Broadway musicals, as well as performances by the Southwest Florida Symphony; Florida Rep is known for high-quality productions featuring equity actors and calls the restored Arcade Theater in downtown Fort Myers home.
On Sanibel, the Schoolhouse Theater’s intimate space almost feels like theater-in-the round and offers musicals and revues.
The Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre presents professional, musical theater in a warm, family-friendly atmosphere – and the food’s good too.
Art Galleries
Sanibel is rightly called an “island of the arts," and in addition to live-performance spaces, has art galleries numbering in the teens, as well as BIG ARTS, a community gallery and performance space.
The tiny community of Matlacha on the way to Pine Island is dotted with a kaleidoscope of brightly colored galleries with colorful characters inside to match.
Alliance for the Arts in Fort Myers offers changing exhibitions of national and local member artists, as well as indoor and outdoor theater space. And the Art League of Bonita Springs offers classes and exhibitions by local artists and traveling national shows.
If you go…
Alliance for the Arts, 239-939-2787, www.artinlee.org
Art League, 239-275-3970, www.artleagueoffortmyers.org
Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall, 239-481-4849, 800-440-7469, www.bbmannpah.com
BIG Arts, 239-395-0900, www.bigarts.org
Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre, 239-278-4422, 800-475-7256, www.broadwaypalm.com
Calusa Heritage Trail, 239-283-2062, www.flmnh.ufl.edu/anthro/sflarch/pineland.htm
Cape Coral Historical Museum, 239-772-7037, www.capecoralhistoricalmuseum.org
Davison Cottage, 239-463-0435, www.ecotrail.com/historic_cottage.htm
Florida Rep, 239-332-4488, 877-787-8053, www.floridarep.org
Fort Myers Cultural Museum and Environmental Learning Center, 239-765-0865, www.moundhouse.org
Matanzas Pass Preserve, 239-765-4222
Mound Key, 239-992-0311, floridastateparks.org
Museum of the Islands, 239-283-1525, www.museumoftheislands.com
Sanibel Historical Village, 239-472-4648
Schoolhouse Theater, 239-472-6862, www.theschoolhousetheater.com
Southwest Florida Museum of History, 239-321-7430, www.cityftmyers.com/museum/index.aspx
Southwest Florida Symphony, 239-418-1500, www.swflso.org
Williams Academy Black History Museum, 239-332-8778
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