Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary and SWFL Before Humans

The Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary appears as a respite from the concrete jungle of Naples showing the natural beauty of what Southwest Florida used to look like before the settling and building took over. This place shows many the different habitats of SWFL such as pine flatwoods, wet prairie, marshes, and swamp. Each one of these habitats are home to different types of wildlife and vegetation. The pine flatwoods are defined by their namesake, pine trees, and inhabited by fauna such as woodpeckers and squirrels. Natural wildfires occur here to spur the reproduction of these pine trees and to cull invasive species and dead vegetation. Where the wet prairie begins is indicated by the lack of trees that grow there. Long grass and wildflowers dominate the landscape and most wildlife is hidden beneath the sea of grass; deer also are found here using the long grass as cover and graze on the vegetation. As the elevation takes a slight dip the wet prairie ends and the trees begin along with the swamp. Towering bald cypress trees, hundreds of years old, their bottoms concealed by water are home to many different animals such as apple snails, alligators, and wading birds. At points the swamp gives way to marshes where there are no trees, but fields of alligator flag sway in the water in their place. All of these different places give us insight into how the terrain and landscape of SWFL used to be and how far it has changed with human interference and modernity.

Wet Praire

Swamp

The Mound House and the History of Fort Myers Beach

On our class' visit to the Mound House I was surprised to learn that the history of people living on Fort Myers Beach went back millennia. I have lived in Fort Myers and gone to the beach countless times for the last 19 years and never would have guessed that this tourist hot spot had been lived on thousands of years of earlier by the Calusa people. Prior to this trip, my belief was that the only people in Florida prior to the colonization of North America were the Seminole and that they lived in the northern and central parts of the state due to the southern half being almost unlivable with the Everglades, swamps, and wetlands. This trip opened my eyes up to the thriving civilization that lived on the mounds of shells they built to protect them from the floods and hurricanes common to our area. This group of hunter-gatherers built up an entire city at Mound Key and the area around the Mound House was home to a thriving village of people.

I also learned why, after the fall of the Calusa, people moved to live in Fort Myers Beach. Contrary to the current tourist nature of Fort Myers beach where the economy and people rely on people visiting for vacation and the beach's beauty, the people who came to live at the Mound House were people living upon the land and trading with the other people who had come to settle in Southwest Florida. It was not until much later that tourist and seasonal based life we live came to fruition.

This trip was a very eye opening experience to me. It allowed me to learn much more about the place I was raised and the circumstances upon which this city and area was built. I think more people who live in the area should make the trip out there to learn what I learn. I think those that do will enjoy learning more about the place they have made home and also be more aware of the life of those before us had in order to make Fort Myers and Fort Myers Beach into what it is today.