Florida's Port Charlotte, Manasota Key, Gasparilla Island & Punta Gorda

By Chelle Koster Walton

Filled with practical information and enticing facts that make it fun to read. It's easy to find what you're looking for, whether it be suggestions for finding the best food, lodging, kayaking, fishing, or shopping; even driving directions are included.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hunter Publishing
• Release date: Feb 11, 2010
• ISBN: 9781588439253

Book preview

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The History of Adventure

If you're looking for adventure, you're in the right place. West Coast Florida, as one of the nation's final frontiers, claims a history and heritage of rugged outdoorsmanship.

While the rest of the nation was busily traveling along paved roads and buying their supplies from general stores, in the farthest corners of Florida's Gulf Coast -a down Naples way and in the Florida Everglades - folks were still trading with the natives for victuals and dredging enough land out of the swamps to build the Tamiami Trail. The West Coast of Florida was considered a wild, exotic place then, a place for safaris and catching giant silver fish; a place where prehistoric turtles, alligators, manatees, and horseshoe crabs thrived, where trees danced, birds dive-bombed, dolphins grinned, flowers bloomed at night, and winter never came.

The First Visitors

The first white men traveled to western Florida for adventure. And they found it aplenty: half-naked natives, tricky waterways, impenetrable swamps, and enough fowl and fish to thicken seas, sky, and fire-brewed stews. In search of gold and youth, they chose to grumble, kill the natives, and curse the rest. They brought their own hogs, cows, and citrus to eat, then eventually left, discouraged by the persistent onslaughts from the resident Amerindian tribes - the Calusa in the south, the Timucua around today's Tampa and Sarasota. Evidence of important Amerindian centers of culture has been found in Marco Island, Mound Key, Pine Island, Useppa Island, Manasota Key, Terra Ceia, Safety Harbor, and Crystal River.

Juan Ponce de León was the first recorded European to set foot upon these shores, somewhere in Charlotte Harbor. Hernando De Soto landed at today's Fort Myers Beach or Bradenton, depending upon whom you believe. Ensuing parties established forts, missions, and colonies at Mound Key, Fort Myers Beach, Pine Island, and other strategic spots along the coast.

Juan Ponce de León

Legends fill the region's early timelines with dastardly pirates who came to prey upon ships sailing between the Caribbean and established towns in northern Florida. Much has been exaggerated, particularly the legend of Gasparilla, upon which a Tampa festival and a coastline attitude of devil-may-care thrive. The mottled backwaters of the West Coast undoubtedly harbored many a refugee from the law, but few as colorful as publicity agents have painted them.

More prevalent in the 17th through the 19th centuries were Spanish fishermen and gutsy farmers. Later, in the Charlotte Harbor area, commercial fishing developed into a thriving industry. Fishermen lived in stilt houses built on sand shoals from Placida to the Ten Thousand Islands. A handful of the historic shacks remain.

In many ways, fishing settled the West Coast. Farming proved less dependable, what with hurricanes and pests. Sugar plantations around Bradenton and Homosassa came and went with the wind. In later years, a reputation for great sportfishing brought well-heeled adventurers to the coast, which eventually put the region on the map of the socially connected.

The 1800s

In the meantime, war introduced others to this balmy, palmy land. Florida, after being passed back and forth between Spain and England, became a US territory in the early 1820s. Shortly thereafter, Governor Andrew Jackson, to defend against the Seminole tribes he had angered, built forts on Lake Holathlikaha near today's Inverness, Tampa Bay, and the Caloosahatchee River at today's Fort Myers. Later, Civil and Spanish-American War fortifications were built on Egmont and Mullet keys, at the mouth of Tampa Bay. In the wake of war came ex-soldiers and their families. Then followed industry and tourism.

St. Petersburg was built in 1887 as a health resort, and Tampa, formerly Fort Brooke, gained a reputation as such. Railroads, cigar factories, and hotels started the twin cities down the path to becoming the region's metropolitan hub. Islands and coastal towns to the south remained the domain of the intrepid. It wasn't until big names such as Ringling and Edison became associated with the region that people sat up and took serious notice.

The 1900s to the Present

They came to fish. They came to swim in the warm, gentle Gulf waves. They came to hunt, to escape, to winter. They came to stay. Since the 1940s, the coast's population has built steadily. As more people came to reside permanently, cities developed along typical lines, adding services and culture to their slate of resorts, restaurants, and beachside facilities.

Adventure has always been a major part of what the coast offers. As eco-tourism came into fashion, emphasis shifted to this aspect of vacationing. To the fishing charters, tour boats, parasailing concessions, and Hobie Cat rentals were added bike trails, sea kayaking, and nature-oriented tours. The West Coast has firmly put its foot down about wanton development. This makes it especially desirable for adventurers seeking a return to what those first intrepid fishermen, hunters, and sailors found.