Fort Myers Field Trip

Today I sat at Centennial Park. The weather was bad and it going to rain so I could not stay at the park very long. There was a great view of the harbor from the bench I decided to sit at. I could hear the cars on the bridge and thunder from the upcoming storm. The smell of mulch and the harbor filled the air. I wondered where the park got its name from. So when I got home I looked it up. The park was named because of the centennial of the founding of Fort Myers.

There was a fountain in the park, Uncommon Friend Fountain. The fountain has Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and Harvey Firestone in conversation. This was because all three had winter homes in Fort Myers. Also in the fountain were some otters, an alligator, and a manatee. These are three great inventors in thought together. The fountain was designed by D.J. Wilkins.

Jacob Summerlin was a cattle herder who would bring his herd past the old fort grounds on the way to Punta Rassa, just like Tobias in A Land Remembered. McGregor boulevard use to be Riverside Drive, which was the road that all three men in the Uncommon Friend Fountain lived on in their summer homes. George Washington Hendry was a Captain for the U.S. Army and was ordered to send ten men to scope out Fort Myers. He then lived in Fort Myers for three to four years.

Ft. Myers was one of the first forts built along the Caloosahatchee River as a base of operations against the Seminole Indians. Ft. Denaud, Ft. Thompson, and Ft. Dulany (Punta Rassa) all pre-date Ft. Myers. When a hurricane destroyed Ft. Dulany in October 1841, the military was forced to look for a site less exposed to storms from the Gulf of Mexico. As a result of the search, Ft. Harvie was built on the grounds that now comprise Downtown Ft. Myers.