Edison and Ford Winter Estates: Neighbors on the River
Thomas Edison and Henry Ford wintered as next-door neighbors on the Caloosahatchee. Their Fort Myers estates still hold a rubber lab and the largest banyan tree in the country.
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Barron Collier: The Advertising King Who Built the Road Across the Everglades
Barron Collier made his fortune in advertising, then spent it connecting southwest Florida to the world. He financed the completion of the Tamiami Trail through the Everglades and built the infrastructure for what became one of Florida’s most prosperous regions.
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The Mango Tree: A Fort Myers Memoir That Opens with a Felony
A Filipino American food critic’s mother shoots at a mango thief in Fort Myers, and that’s just the first chapter. Annabelle Tometich’s memoir is funny, tender, and completely Florida.
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Swamp Buggy Races: 75 Years of Getting Dirty at the Mile O’ Mud
Since 1949, Naples has hosted the Swamp Buggy Races at the Mile O’ Mud, where custom-built machines blast through standing water at speeds topping 100 mph.
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Koreshan State Park: The Hollow Earth Colony on the Estero River
In 1894, a Chicago doctor led 200 followers to Estero to build a utopia inside a hollow Earth. Eleven original buildings still stand at Koreshan State Park.
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Randy Wayne White: The Fishing Guide Who Wrote Florida’s Best Thrillers
From 3,000 charters on Sanibel Island to the New York Times bestseller list, Randy Wayne White turned a life on the water into Doc Ford.
