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.