According to some historians, the
Calusa capital was located near Fort Myers. Following European contact, Spain had colonial influence in Florida, succeeded by Great Britain and lastly the United States.
Seminole Wars During the
Second Seminole War, the U.S. Army operated Fort Dulaney at
Punta Rassa, at the mouth of the
Caloosahatchee River (see the
Battle of the Caloosahatchee). When a hurricane destroyed Fort Dulaney in October 1841, army operations were moved up the Caloosahatchee River to a site named Fort Harvie. Fort Harvie was abandoned in 1842, as the Second Seminole War wound down. After the
Paynes Creek incident in 1849, the Army returned to the Caloosahatchee River in 1850. Major
David E. Twiggs, then stationed at
Fort Brooke (present day-
Tampa), gave orders for two companies of artillery to "select a suitable place for the establishment of a post and immediately throw up such light works as may secure [their] stores, and remove from the Indians any temptation to which [their] isolated position may give rise." The new Fort Myers was built on the burned ruins of Fort Harvie. The fort was named for
Brevet Colonel
Abraham Charles Myers, quartermaster for the Army's Department of Florida and future son-in-law of Major Twiggs. It covered about , and soon had 57 buildings, including a two-story blockhouse that was pictured in ''
Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper'', and a wharf at which ships could dock. Irvin Solomon notes that Fort Myers was described "as 'one of the finest and largest' forts of the Seminole Wars". It was abandoned in 1858, at the end of the
Third Seminole War.
Civil War During the
American Civil War,
Confederate blockade runners and cattle ranchers were based in Fort Myers. These settlers prospered through trading with the Seminole and Union soldiers. The United States Army set up a camp on
Useppa Island, near the entrance to
Charlotte Harbor, in December 1863. It was intended as a place from which to recruit Union sympathizers and Confederate
deserters and
conscription-evaders and to raid into the interior and interfere with Confederate efforts to round up cattle for supply to the Confederate Army. After some probes along the
Peace and
Myakka rivers, which had mixed results, operations were moved to the mainland. Troops from the
47th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment and the 2nd Regiment of Florida Rangers, later reorganized as the
2nd Florida Cavalry Regiment, left
Key West, Florida for Fort Myers early in January 1864. The Union soldiers reached Fort Myers quickly enough to capture three Confederate sympathizers before they could act on orders to burn the fort to keep it out of Union hands. Beyond the principal cause for occupying the fort of providing support for Union sympathizers and local residents disaffected with Confederate taxation and conscription, the fort provided access to the large cattle herds in southern Florida, support for the blockade of the southwest Florida coast being conducted by the U.S. Navy, and a haven for any escaped slaves in the area. In April 1864, after the troops from the 47th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment had been transferred to Louisiana, Companies D and I of the
2nd United States Colored Infantry Regiment were transferred from Key West to Fort Myers, and remained at the fort until it was abandoned. Company G of the regiment had also been sent to Fort Myers by early May. Solomon argues that
Brevet Brigadier General
Daniel Phineas Woodbury, commandant of the District of Key West and the Tortugas, intended that action to be an irritant to the Confederacy. The presence of the black soldiers, who made up the majority of troops used in raids into Confederate territory, played on Confederate fears of armed blacks. It was reported that Woodbury took pleasure in placing a "prickly pear cactus under the Confederate saddle". By the spring of 1864, Fort Myers was protected by a
breastwork, high and wide, extending in an arc around the land side of the fort. The Seminole War-era blockhouse had been repaired and another two-story blockhouse built. The fort was soon harboring more than 400 civilians and Confederate army deserters. Many of the white men enlisted in the
2nd Florida Union Cavalry. Although designated as cavalry, the members of the regiment stationed at Fort Myers were never mounted. Escaped slaves that came to the fort were recruited into the
2nd United States Colored Infantry Regiment. The Union achieved control of the full length of the Mississippi River after the
fall of Vicksburg in July 1863. The Confederate Army then became dependent on Florida for most of its supply of beef. By the end of 1863 between 1,000 and 2,000 head of cattle were being shipped to the Confederate Army from Florida every week. As 1864 progressed, Union troops and sympathizers began driving cattle to Punta Rassa to supply Union ships on blockade duty and Union-held Key West, reducing the supply of cattle available to Confederate forces. The increased shipping from Punta Rassa led the Union Army to build a barracks and a wharf there. By one Confederate estimate, the Union shipped 4,500 head of cattle from Punta Rassa. The
Battle of Fort Myers was fought on February 20, 1865, in
Lee County, Florida, during the last months of the American Civil War. This small engagement is known as the "southernmost land battle of the Civil War." However, see
Battle of Palmito Ranch.
Settlement and founding The Fort Myers community was founded after the American Civil War by Captain
Manuel A. Gonzalez on February 21, 1866. Captain Gonzalez was familiar with the area as a result of his years of service delivering mail and supplies to the Union Army at the fort during the Seminole Indian Wars and Civil War. Three weeks later, Joseph Vivas and his wife, Christianna Stirrup Vivas, arrived with Gonzalez's wife, Evalina, and daughter Mary. Gonzalez settled his family near the abandoned Fort Myers, where he began the area's first trading post. He traded tobacco, beads, and gunpowder, and sold otter, bobcat, and gator hide to the neighboring Seminole. In 1885, inventor
Thomas Alva Edison was cruising Florida's west coast and stopped to visit Fort Myers. Despite an initial offer by Edison to light the town, on New Year's Day in 1898 Fort Myers was first electrified by the Seminole Canning Company, a local company that canned and preserved fruit. In 1898, the Royal Palm Hotel was constructed. This luxury hotel attracted tourists and established Fort Myers nationally as a winter resort destination.
20th century On May 10, 1904, access to the Fort Myers area was greatly improved with the opening of the
Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, connecting
Punta Gorda to Fort Myers. This route provided Lee County both passenger and freight railroad service. The arrival of the railroad, however, also led to greater segregation in Fort Myers. With the railroad came the need for more unskilled labor and the arrival of a more uneducated workforce, compared to many African Americans who had already resided in town, some of whom had been tradespersons, vendors, and landowners. These more middle-class black citizens, as well as the new African-American laborers, were increasingly pressured to move to the segregated area that would become known as Safety Hill. This area of town, as can be seen by contemporary photographs, had a lower quality of houses and street surfaces. The area, now known as Dunbar, is still highly segregated from the rest of Fort Myers. In 1907, the Seminole tribes' Federal Agency headquarters was relocated to Fort Myers. It remained there until 1913. In 1908, the Arcade Theater was constructed in Downtown Fort Myers. Originally a vaudeville house, Edison viewed films here for the first time with friends
Henry Ford and
Harvey Firestone. With the growth of the film industry, the Arcade Theatre was converted into a full movie house. A wall divided the stage in order to form two screening rooms. Changes in moviegoing habits since the late 20th century have led to the renovation of the theater for use again in live performance. It is now host to the Florida Repertory Theatre, a performing arts hall. During World War I, Edison became concerned about America's reliance on foreign supplies of rubber. He partnered with tire producer Harvey Firestone (of the
Firestone Tire and Rubber Company) and Henry Ford (of the
Ford Motor Company) to try to find a rubber tree or plant that could grow quickly in the United States. He sought one that would contain enough latex to support his research endeavor. In 1927, the three men contributed $25,000 each, and created the Edison Botanic Research Corporation in an attempt to find a solution to this problem. The population of Fort Myers City had been 575 citizens in 1890. By 1930, it had climbed to 9,082. In 1947, Mina Edison deeded Seminole Lodge to the city of Fort Myers, in memory of her late husband and for the enjoyment of the public. By 1988, the adjacent Henry Ford winter estate was purchased by the city and opened for public tours in 1990. The combined properties today are known as the
Edison and Ford Winter Estates.
Hurricane Ian Fort Myers suffered catastrophic damage from
Hurricane Ian on September 28, 2022. ==Geography and climate==