Fort Myers From the POV of a Tampa Native (Entry #3)

When I decided on going to Florida Gulf Coast University a couple years back, I never did look into the history of Fort Myers. Going in, I assumed it was a bit of a sleepy town that was just getting larger amounts of traffic due to the university and all the construction and development that goes with that. My initial impressions seemed to support this, as the only major areas of interest to me were the Gulf Coast Town Center mall and the various beaches around Fort Myers. After watching the Untold Stories of Fort Myers video, I feel enlightened about the hidden history of Fort Myers which I had previously left untouched.

To start with, I was surprised with the money and time that both Thomas Edison and Henry Ford invested into Fort Myers. Edison, in particular, built a sprawling winter home here, which is now a major tourist attraction. I visited Edison's estate myself when I was younger, and was amazed at the collection of oddities from Edison's life, along with the serenity of the whole home. Untold Stories also related Fort Myer's beginning, in which the town wasn't named Fort Myers at all. It was originally a small outpost called Fort Harvey which was an outpost during the Seminole wars. Later, the outpost became a Union base during the Civil War. It was around this time that Fort Harvey became Fort Myers, and a sleepy town of 350 people broke off from Monroe County to form Lee County, named after the Confederate General Robert E. Lee. The town continued to grow, with the downtown area being the main hub of growth. Then, like the rest of the nation, the Great Depression stopped all of that cold. But the second World War helped Fort Myers back onto its feet, giving it a concrete airport and bringing an influx of young servicemen and women who returned to Fort Myers after the war. The town was also one of the last in Florida to integrate the schools. Speaking of schools, Fort Myers was a bit of an educational desert until the founding of Edison Community College in the 1960's. It was not until 1991, when Florida Gulf Coast University was established, that Fort Myers residents could get a four-year baccalaureate or graduate degree without leaving the area.

Overall, the history of Fort Myers wasn't at all what I expected, and having learned about it, I'm excited for the trip to the downtown Fort Myers area tomorrow with the rest of the class.