The Changing Face of Southwest Florida Waterways

Perhaps nowhere else in Florida are manmade alterations to our shoreline and waterways more visible than in the Southwest, between Tampa Bay and Marco Island.  This 250-mile reach of the coast, once dotted with fishing villages and small, scattered agricultural communities is today a bustling chain of waterfront communities and thriving cities.  The string of once isolated, shoal-choked bays and estuaries are now part of a functional waterway system.  Today, the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) is the main north-south arterial, which at Ft. Myers, its southern terminus, connects with the Okeechobee Waterway, to provide an east-west corridor for boat traffic through Lake Okeechobee to the Atlantic Coast.  Numerous feeder channels link the ICW with an extensive network of neighborhood canals that make up the 1,500-mile waterway system of southwest Florida. There are twenty-two strategically located navigable inlets, from Tampa Bay to Marco Island, that connect these inland waterways and the Gulf of Mexico. The history of waterway changes is a powerful lesson about coastal development and an important guide as the West Coast Inland Navigation District charts its policies and programs in the years ahead.  Only by learning of the past can we understand the needs of the future.

 Step back in time and learn about your waterways!  (Click here to download a pdf map of Cayo Costa, Useppa Island and Cabbage Key.)

Here’s a snippet from the District’s Historical Geography Series, exhaustively researched accounts using navigation charts, hydrographic survey and photographs, that document the navigation and coastal development of southwest Florida.  Vol. 1 covers the region from Anna Maria Sound to Lemon Bay, and is out-of-print.  There are limited copies available of Vol. 2, which includes the Placida Harbor to Marco Island region.  A CD-ROM containing both volumes will be available soon.  

Punta Blanca Settlement

Punta Blanca's Settlement, which occupied the south tip of the island until the late 1950s, typifies the smaller, self-contained fishing communities that dotted the Charlotte Harbor shoreline in the early 20th century.  Settled by some of the same fishing families that populated Cayo Costa, Boca Grande, and Pine Island, some 15 households lived there in the years preceding World War II.  The village included a schoolhouse and general store.  Small-boat repairs and fishing were the mainstays of the economy.

The aerial view taken in 1994 shows many features of the historic settlement (Figure 3A). The dredged approach channel (a) and boat basin (b) are prominent elements.  Note the fish-house (c) south of the entrance to the approach channel, which was a favorite photo subject of boaters heading down Pine Island Sound channel until it burned in 1995 (Figure 3B). Prop-wash of the run-boats, as they came alongside and serviced the fish-house, created the shoal (d). The boat building shed at (e) had a marine ways used for launching.  Other structures shown on the photo are the school (f), general store (g), community dock (h) and out-houses (i).

The settlement had one telephone, connected to Boca Grande by an underwater cable crossing the inlet and overhead wires strung on poles across Pelican Bay.  School-age children from neighboring islands were shuttled to and from Punta Blanca until the school burned down in the late 1950s and Lee County terminated boat pickup service.

Today, little remains of this pioneer fishing community (Figure C). The site is overgrown with exotic vegetation, mostly Australian pine.  The wellhead pipe of an artesian spring that once supplied drinking water rotted out years ago. The dredged entrance channel still accommodates deep-draft boats that venture into the basin and seek shelter from northers during the winter season.

The following link provides additional information on anchorage location and amenities:

http://www.flseagrant.org/science/anchorage/maps/point_blanco.htm

Useppa Island

Useppa Island was settled by the ancestors of Calusa Indians thousands of years ago.  Fort Casey was established here during the Seminole Wars, but was short-lived.  A fishing community, called "Guiseppe," later developed on the island.  During the Civil War, a Union naval station garrisoned here to protect refugees and curtail the smuggling of provisions to the Confederacy.  Useppa's modern post-19th century history stems from its purchase by John Roach, president of the Chicago Street Railway Company, who built a home and small hotel, the Useppa Inn, where he entertained friends and business associates Henry Ford and Thomas Edison by fishing for tarpon during the winter months.  Barron Collier bought the property in 1911 for his Florida residence.  Today, the former Collier Mansion is the site of the Useppa Island Club and the island has been developed into an exclusive residential community.

The following links provides additional information on anchorage location and amenities:

http://www.flseagrant.org/science/anchorage/maps/useppa_island_cabbage_key_01.htm

http://www.flseagrant.org/science/anchorage/maps/useppa_island_cabbage_key_02.htm

Cabbage Key

This island in Pine Island Sound, just west of Useppa, is 100 acres upon which is a resort, marina and restaurant.  The resort is built atop a 38-foot high Native American shell mound.  The island is easy to locate because of the tall water tower, which provides visitors and guests a panoramic view of the bays and Gulf of Mexico.  The resort was once the home of novelist Mary Roberts Rinehart.  Contemporary novelist Randy Wayne White describes Cabbage Key as having "an oasis feel to it, sitting out there all by itself, like it could have been Abaco or Tangiers or Caicos, soaking up the sun through the decades while travelers tromped up the shell path to the old house on the mound."

(Pictured:  Gasparilla Pass with causeway to Placida in foreground, looking south, down Gasparilla Island to Boca Grande, Lacosta Island (Cayo Costa) at upper right and Pine Island at upper left.

The above is from Volume Two of the "Historical Geography of Southwest Florida Waterways, " written by Gustavo Antonini, David Fann and Paul Roat.