Urban Environment and Southwest Florida Historical Museum

URBAN ENVIRONMENT AND SWFL HISTORICAL MUSEUM

This is me on a hot spring day on my trek through downtown Fort Myers. The above
is a photograph of me infront of the Uncommon Friends Statue. It's actually really beautiful along the river. I've never really noticed this statue so I'm glad I really took my time to
examine the area.




This above is a photograph of the old Post Office for Fort Myers. There was a plaque indicating that this use to be an ancient site for the Caloosa Indian villages. During the Seminole War, a fort was constructed and named Ltn. Harvie and was later renamed Fort Myers honoring Ltn. Abraham Myers. During the Civil War, the base was reactivated to round up wild cattle.

This is the Old Courthouse for Fort Myers and the new one is located directly across from it. I learned many facts such as 1) the first courthouse was built on this site for $3,640 2) on May 13, 1887 the State of Florida created Lee County with a population of 1,414 and was named after Civil War General Robert E. Lee 3) on October 26, 1914 citizens tore down the county courthouse demanding a larger more modern facility be built.

The above is a picture of the Patio De Leon constructed in 1924. It was originally called Tonnelier Court and was designed to have an old Spanish European style. At one point, this fountain was transfored to house two alligators which were used as tourist attractions. It has just been recently remodeled within the last year.

This is my trip to the Southwest Florid Historical Museum. I would have to say this is my least favorite trip. I absolutely hated the whole process. I have a bad neck injury so trying to listen to the audio tour, take notes, and photograph was a huge ordeal. I thought the audio tour meant that you could walk up to the display and hit a button and it would tell you about the exhibit. Instead, I had my neck crinked to the side the whole time and having in dial buttons. I actually had to go to a massage therapist that night. It was a huge pain. It certainly wasn't worth 8 dollars. I don't even eat lunch out but I had to pay for this "museum". There was hardly anything interesting in there and I found the trip extremely boring. It seems they had a lot of replicas but very little actuall artifacts.

The above is a picture of the tools used by the Calusa Indians who were stone age people. This is called hafting in which handles are attached to tools. These were used for cutting and hammering. Basically, the used the resources around them to make tools of all kinds.

This is a photograph depicting how they burnt out the bowl of a basswood spoon. It was interesting to learn what kind of tools they made and how they used them. You can see how creative and resourceful they were.

Above is a exhibit of an ancient water burial taking place. When an individual died they would wrap the body in cloth. The body would then sink to the bottom of the pond. The muck at hte bottom of the pond would then cover it.

I also learned about the Seminole War in December 28, 1835 in which a band of Seminole Indians attacked troops. All of the soldier were killed and thus there was a second Seminole War.

This shows Buckingham and Page Field during World War II in which a gunnery school was built to help with the war efforts.

These are some of the items soldiers carried with them during World War II. So, overall the museum experience kind of let me down. I was hoping that there was going to be more to it. However, I did learn a few new things but I don't think I'll be going back.