Fort Myers, Florida - Fort Myers Beach Resorts

Fort Myers is the county seat and commercial center of Lee County, Florida. Fort Myers is a gateway to the Southwest Florida region and a major tourist destination within Florida. The winter homes of Thomas Edison (Seminole Lodge) and Henry Ford (The Mangoes) are a primary tourist attraction in the region. The city is named after Colonel Abraham Myers. The geographic statistical area is serviced by Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW), located southeast of the city.

History

Fort Myers was one of the first forts built along the Caloosahatchee River as a base of operations against the Seminole Indians during the American Indian Wars. During the Seminole Wars, Fort Myers was a strategic location for its visibility and access to Atlantic waterways.

After the Wars, Confederate blockade runners and cattle ranchers called Fort Myers home. These settlers prospered through trading with Seminole Indians and Union Soldiers.

The settlement and founding of Fort Myers

On February 21, 1866, Manuel A. Gonzalez and his five-year-old son, Manuel S. Gonzalez, became the first permanent settlers of Fort Myers after arriving from Key West, Florida. Three weeks later, Joseph Vivas and his wife, Christianna Stirrup Vivas, arrived with Gonzalez's wife, Evalina Gonzalez, and daughter, Mary Gonzalez.

Gonzales had shipped supplies and carried mail during the war and settled his family near the abandoned Fort Myers to begin the town's first trading post. Gonzalez traded tobacco, beads, and gunpowder, and sold otter, bobcat, and gator hide, to the neighboring Seminole Indians.

In 1881, the wealthy industrialist Hamilton Disston of Philadelphia came to the Caloosahatchee Valley to dredge and drain the everglades for development. Diston connected Lake Okeechobee with the Caloosahatchee River, which allowed steamboats to run from the Gulf of Mexico to Lake Okeechobee and up the Kissimmee River.

On August 12, 1885, the small town of Fort Myers--all 349 residents--was incorporated.

In 1898, Fort Myers became a nationally known winter resort destination with the building of the Royal Palm Hotel.

On May 10, 1904, access to the Fort Myers area was greatly improved with the opening of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, connecting Punta Gorda to Fort Myers. This route provided Lee County both passenger and freight railroad service.

In 1924, with the construction of the Tamiami Trail Bridge, the city's population steadily grew. In the decade following the bridge's construction, the city experienced its first real estate boom, which created several new housing subdivisions throughout the city.

Geography and climate

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 40.4 square miles (105 km²). 31.8 square miles (82 km²) of it is land, and 8.6 square miles (22 km²) of it (21.25%) is water.

Fort Myers has short, warm winters, and long, hot, humid summers, with most of the year's rain falling from June to September.

The temperature rarely rises to 100 °F (38 °C) or lowers to the freezing mark. At 89, Fort Myers leads the nation in the number of days annually in which a thunderstorm is close enough for thunder to be heard.

Fort Myers has a tropical savanna climate. A tropical savanna climate is a type of climate that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification category "Aw". Tropical savanna climates have monthly mean temperatures above 18 °C (64 °F) in every month of the year and typically a pronounced dry season, with the driest month having precipitation less than 60 mm.

The monthly daily average temperature ranges from 64.2 °F (17.9 °C) in January to 83.4 °F (28.6 °C) in August, with the annual mean being 75.1 °F (23.9 °C).

Records range from 24 °F (-4 °C) on December 29, 1894 up to 103 °F (39 °C) on June 16-17, 1981.

Demographics

The population of Fort Myers was 62,298 during the 2010 census. Between the 2000 census and 2010 census, the city's population increased at a rate of 29.2 percent.

Fort Myers is one of two cities that make up the Cape Coral-Fort Myers Metropolitan Statistical Area. The 2010 population for the metropolitan area was 618,754.

The population of Lee County, Florida and the Cape Coral-Fort Myers Metropolitan Statistical Area has grown 40.3 percent since the census in 2000, much faster than the average growth rate of 17.6 percent experienced throughout the State of Florida.

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Government

Fort Myers is governed by a six-member city council where each member is elected from a single member ward. The city practices a council-manager form of government where the city council is responsible for the legislative functions of the municipality. The city council is responsible for establishing policy, passing local ordinances, voting appropriations, and developing an overall vision for the city.

The mayor is elected in a citywide vote. The current mayor of Fort Myers is Randy Henderson, Jr.

Policing of Fort Myers is performed by the Fort Myers Police Department.

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Education

Secondary schools

See: Lee County School District for other public schools in the area.

• Dunbar High School whose Science Olympiad teams won 15th place overall in the 2007 Florida State Science Olympiad, including a win in the remote sensing category.
• Fort Myers Senior High School, an International Baccalaureate school, is ranked as one of the best public schools in the nation by Newsweek magazine.
• Bishop Verot High School, a private, Roman Catholic high school in Ft. Myers, operated by the Diocese of Venice, Florida.

Higher education

Institutions of higher learning in the city include:

• Hodges University
• Keiser University
• Nova Southeastern University
• Rasmussen College
• Southern Technical College

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Sports

City of Palms Classic

The City of Palms Classic is an annual high school basketball tournament held in Fort Myers, Florida, since 1973. Several of its alumni have made it to the NBA.

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Points of interest

• The Calusa Nature Center and Planetarium is a private, not-for-profit, environmental education organization. Set on a 105-acre (0.42 km²) site, it has a museum, three nature trails, a planetarium, butterfly and bird aviaries, a gift shop and meeting and picnic areas.
• City of Palms Park, former home of the Boston Red Sox spring training program, close to downtown Fort Myers.
• Edison and Ford Winter Estates
• Edison Mall
• Historic Downtown, waterfront entertainment district
• Murphy-Burroughs House
• Imaginarium Science Center

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Notable people

Present

• Nate Allen, safety for the Philadelphia Eagles
• Jason Bartlett - Tampa Bay Rays shortstop
• Bob Beamon - former track and field athlete in the 1968 Summer Olympics
• Bert Blyleven - Hall of Fame pitcher for the Minnesota Twins, Texas Rangers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cleveland Indians and California Angels
• James Carlos Blake - author and former faculty member of Edison Community College
• Phillip Buchanon - cornerback for the Washington Redskins, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Houston Texans, Oakland Raiders
• Stacy Carter - former WWE wrestler
• Terrence Cody - nose tackle for Baltimore Ravens
• Casey Coleman - pitcher for the Chicago Cubs
• Bill Davey - professional bodybuilder
• Noel Devine - running back for the Montreal Alouettes
• Richard Fain - former NFL player
• Earnest Graham - NFL running back, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
• Mike Greenwell - former Boston Red Sox left fielder and former NASCAR driver
• Mario Henderson - offensive tackle, Oakland Raiders
• Nolan Henke - professional golfer
• Anthony Henry - cornerback, Detroit Lions, Dallas Cowboys, Cleveland Browns
• Sara Hildebrand - United States Olympic diver (2000, 2004)
• Adam Johnson - former pitcher for the Minnesota Twins
• Jevon Kearse - defensive end, Philadelphia Eagles, Tennessee Titans
• Terri Kimball - Playboy Playmate of the Month for May 1964
• Derek Lamely - professional golfer
• Craig Leon - music and visual producer of the Ramones, Blondie, Luciano Pavarotti, Joshua Bell
• Reconcile (rapper) (Ronnie Lillard)
• Erick McIntosh - American football player
• George McNeill - professional golfer
• Terry-Jo Myers - professional golfer, winner of three LPGA Tour tournaments
• Seth Petruzelli - professional MMA fighter
• Plies (Algernod Lanier Washington) - rapper
• Deion Sanders - Hall of Fame NFL cornerback for six teams, inducted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a Dallas Cowboy, and Major League Baseball outfielder for five teams
• Peggy Schoolcraft - professional bodybuilder, 1997 NPC Team Universe Champion
• Vonzell Solomon - American Idol third-place finisher
• Greg Spires- former NFL player
• Elissa Steamer - professional skateboarder
• Sammy Watkins - wide receiver for the Buffalo Bills
• Tommy Watkins - former Minnesota Twins baseball player
• Jeremy Ware- cornerback for the Oakland Raiders
• Walt Wesley - professional basketball player (1966-1976) for the Cincinnati Royals and six other NBA teams.
• Cliff Williams - bass player for AC/DC
• Julio Zuleta - former first baseman for the Chicago Cubs

Past

• Verna Aardema - children's book author
• G. Harold Alexander - Florida Republican Party state chairman, c. 1952-1964
• Patty Berg - Hall of Fame golfer, one of LPGA's founders
• Gerard Damiano - adult film director
• Thomas Edison - improved and perfected the incandescent light bulb and audio recording methods, had a winter estate next to Henry Ford's
• Harvey Firestone - founded Firestone Tire Company, had a winter estate near Edison and Ford's homes
• Henry Ford - founded the Ford Motor Company, and father of the assembly line, had a winter estate next to Thomas Edison's
• Charles Ghigna - poet and children's author known as "Father Goose;" boyhood home 1950-1973
• Jerry Lawler - WWE wrestler and announcer
• Denise Masino - professional bodybuilder
• Mindy McCready - country music artist
• Diamond Dallas Page - former WCW and WWE wrestler, actor
• Kimberly Page - former member of the WCW Nitro Girls and Playboy model
• Marius Russo- professional baseball player; played for the New York Yankees from 1939-43 and 1946

Public transportation

Buses run by LeeTran provide local service in Fort Myers.

Fort Myers in popular culture

In film

• The abandoned city scene with the Edison Theatre, from the movie Day of the Dead (1985) was filmed in downtown Fort Myers.
• Some courthouse and other "city" scenes in Just Cause (1995) were filmed in downtown Ft. Myers and the beach scenes were filmed in Sanibel, Florida.
• Part of the independent film Trans (1999) was filmed in Fort Myers, Florida.

In print

• Fort Myers is part of the setting of Red Grass River: A Legend (1998), an award-winning novel by James Carlos Blake

References

External links

• City of Fort Myers
• Lee County Visitor and Convention Bureau
• Fort Myers Economy at a Glance, U.S. Department of Labor
• Ft. Myers River District
• Art Walk

Interesting Informations

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