I am ashamed to say I have lived in Florida my whole life and didn't know any history about Fort Myers at all. I learned so much about Fort Myers history when we took a walk in downtown Fort Myers. I felt like I was exploring the downtown area for the first time, even though I have been there on numerous occasions. I really enjoyed the garden of different palms; It was very shady and calming. It seems like the downtown area is very lively at night, and we learned that the annual zombiecon took place there.
Taking a walk by the Caloosahatchee was very cool. I had never taken a walk by the Caloosahatchee, I only ever drove over it. The fountain had a lot of history behind it. For instance, I didn't realize that Firestone, Ford, and Edison were in the fountain sculpture, and I didn't realize that they were all friends and vacationed in Fort Myers together. It was also interesting to find out that Fort Myers was called Fort Harvie first, during the second Seminole War.
The way some of the buildings were constructed were amazing. For example, the art building had columns in the front made from limestone. The old coral was visible throughout the columns, it was very cool. The National Bank, we found out, had a "bank holiday" which are very very bad. Many people couldn't get their money out for a year when this happened. But, what I found the most interesting was that the first sidewalk in Fort Myers had 7UP circle advertisements every couple inches from each other on the sidewalk.
I had a lot of fun in the History Museum. I had no idea that in Prehistoric times, in Florida, there was giant sloths and saber-toothed tigers. Some of their bone remains are in the History Museum. It was also interesting walking through the typical Florida home from back in the early 1900s. It was so small compared to homes today, but the tour guide told us that most people spent most their time outside so the need for a big home wasn't neccesary.
Photos taken by Kayla Bjerke
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