Lee County Centennial Time Capsule - Ft. Myers, FL
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lazyCachers
N 26° 38.548 W 081° 52.229
17R E 413361 N 2947131
Located on Main Street between Monroe Street and Broadway in front of the Old Lee County Courthouse in downtown Fort Myers, Florida.
Waymark Code: WM9GPF
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 08/19/2010
Views: 9
Lee County Centennial
Placed May 13, 1987
A capsule of our times, our pride, our patriotism and our love.
This time capsule celebrates the centennial of the creation of Lee County (1887).
Lee County was created in 1887 from Monroe County. It was named for Robert E. Lee, Confederate general in the American Civil War. Incorporated in 1886, Fort Myers is the center of a popular tourist area in Southwest Florida and the seat of Lee County. Fort Myers, built in 1850 as a military fort to fend off Seminole Indians that were massacring the area’s few settlers, was named after Col. Abraham C. Myers, who was stationed in Florida for seven years and was the son-in-law of the fort’s establisher and commander. In 1858, after years of elusive battle, chief Billy Bowlegs and his warriors were persuaded to surrender and move west, and the fort was abandoned. Billy’s Creek, which flows into the Caloosahatchee River, was named after a temporary camp where Billy Bowlegs and his men awaited ships to take them west.
In 1863, the fort was reoccupied by Federal troops during the Civil War. In 1865 the fort was attacked unsuccessfully by a small group of Confederates. After the war, the fort was again deserted.
The first settlers arrived in 1866, but it was not until 1882 when the city experienced a significant influx of settlers. By 1885, when Fort Myers was incorporated, it was the second largest city only to Tampa on Florida’s west coast south of Cedar Key, even larger than Clearwater and Sarasota, also growing cities at the time.
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