Lacking Hard stone, the Calusa used shell, bone antler and shark's teeth  to make effective tools. Hammers and axes were made from conch shells of all sizes. Hand held hammers were made from the inner whorls of conch shells.

 

History of Marco Island

When Spanish explorers reached the southwest coast of Florida in 1513, they encountered a fierce and dominant Native American tribe called by historians the Calusa Indians.  The natives fought constantly with the Conquistadors and are said to be responsible for the death of their leader Ponce de Leon, who died in Cuba of wounds inflicted in battle.  The Spaniards never settled on Marco Island, content instead to anchor offshore and send longboats in for fresh water at Caxambas on the south end of Marco Island.

There were perhaps half a million natives on the Florida peninsula at that time.  When the British took over in 1750’s, the area was just about deserted.  The Natives had died in battle, been captured as slaves, or fled to Cuba, but most had succumbed to white men’s diseases.

History says nothing about the island until 1870 when settlers appeared here, the W. T. Collier family at the north end of the island and the Barfields at the south endand the pioneer period began in earnest.  Clam factories, schools, post offices and even a railroad came to Marco Island along with increasing population.  The enterprising Tommie Camilla Barfield, in partnership with the millionaire Barron Collier (no relation to the other family) successfully petitioned the legislature to divide Lee County and create Collier County.  For this, Barron Collier agreed to complete the Tamiami Trail as far as Dade County.  The story of that construction is a tale in itself.

Everglades (now Everglades City) was the new county seat and the population continued to grow until the Great Depression.   Growth languished for many years until the advent of what is called Modern Marco.

This came about with the arrival of the Mackle brothers in the guise of the Deltona Corporation.  Skilled at raising communities from scratch, they purchased the entire island from the heirs of Barron Collier and set about creating a modern paradise.  They opened with a huge fanfare in 1965, and 25,000 people showed up.  The venture was resoundingly successful until the Wetlands Act forced the Corps of Engineers to withdraw permits for the construction, and Deltona had to scale back it ambitious plans.

Other builders have filled in the gaps since the heyday of the Mackles, and Marco is now an independent city with a permanent population of 15,000 that swells to almost 40,000 in the winter season.  

The Marco Island Historical Society was founded in 1994 and now has around 400 members.  The Society is dedicated to discovery, research, acquisition and preservation of the multi-faceted history of the Marco Island-Goodland region and to educating and informing the community and visitors of our dynamic heritage.