The downtown Fort Myers trip was one of my favorite, and I thought most interesting. I never realized just traveling through, and near down town Fort Myers all the rich history that you experience. At the cemetery it was amazing to see all the old graves in general, but especially of the some of the founding people and families of Florida, and the rich history behind some. Some graves had the names Collier, and Hendry like the two surrounding counties. There was also people from the Koreshan group who were some of the first people in the Estero, Florida area, not too far from Florida Gulf Coast University. It was really neat, and amazing to hear about the story of somebody who was supposedly abusing, and sometimes killing his workers and also not paying them. He was actually shot by a violent mob of people, and was shot over 20 ties, yet nobody reported seeing anything to the Sheriffs. It was one of the first of the very few unsolved homicides in Lee County. Its crazy, yet understandable that nobody would have seen anything. Obviously, everybody knew what happened, including the people who pulled the triggers. However, since this man was known as being a bad, and pretty evil person, this was justice. There was so much history, and you see how important this region is, and was. Fort Myers is still a city, even if it is small, and it always has been a small city, or large town. Sort of like in Land Remembered , the family traveled to Fort Myers with their cattle, and for goods sometimes. Even today, Fort Myers and nearby Naples are utilized by many people all over, but especially the people more inland in between Lake Okeechobee, and the gulf. Some people all over especially inland in Hendry, Glades, parts of Lee, parts of Collier (like Immokolee), Highlands, Charlotte, Hardee counties and all over South-Central Florida, and more eastern areas of South-West Florida have to come to Fort Myers occasionally for the greater resources and options available.
Downtown Fort Myer's River District is really nice. It is great to see Lee County, and the City of Fort Myers taking steps to preserve and bring back our downtown areas. Nowadays with suburbs, and the wide variety of places like Wal-Mart, there is no reason for people to go to down towns like they used to, say 50 to 100 years ago. Many downtown places get forgotten about, and end up becoming sort of ghost towns, or crime havens. However, despite there being small pockets of places like this in Fort Myers, the River District is great. There are restaurants, and greatly preserved historic buildings. They kept up the traditional look, and even the newer buildings are designed in the reflection of the historical style, and surrounding buildings. Its great to see a city, and county taking steps to conserve, and preserve the down town area. It is also better for businesses to be able to operate in an area like this. Obviously, being in a nicer area, where people enjoy being it is more likely to be successful, and also if there are many business around that are open, it gives people more reason to be down there, like in downtown Fort Myers. I really enjoyed the trip a lot. I didn't know so much about the rich history of Fort Myers, Lee County, and the surrounding counties. There many famous people like Thomas Edison who had winter estates in South-West Florida, or called Fort Myers home. I liked hearing about all the rich history of Fort Myers, and experiencing how the county, and city has maintained their downtown, and created an incentive for businesses to open, and for people to travel to the downtown area. Perhaps, the city and county can implement some of their successful policies in some areas where their urban areas are blighted, and the down towns are being forgotten about.
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