A Business Timeline

Fort Myers is 1900 acres until the city commission annexes 15,000 more in one act.

Bonita Springs is incorporated.

The Town of Naples is incorporated.

1926

Naples's tax roll is $170,000. The town budget is $8500.

Atlantic Coast Line Railroad arrives in Naples, beating Seaboard Air Line Railroad by 10 days.

Marco Island was incorporated as Collier City, not named after Barron Collier, but after Captain W.T. Bill Collier.

The dredge Barcarmil, named for Barron Collier's sons Barron, Carnes (or Sam) and Miles, pumps two million feet of fill into Everglades City.

Barron Collier makes Useppa island his legal, full time residence.

1927

Everglades City mills are processing 10,000 board feet of lumber a day, brought in on three tractor trains that ran between the city and the logging camps daily.

Bradstreet's Book of Ratings lists 200 merchants in Fort Myers.

1928

The Naples Chamber of Commerce is founded with J.W. Chatterton as president.

The Tamiami Trail is opened. A dredge, moving blasted limestone at the rate 80 linear feet per day, left a canal 25 feet wide and 12 feet deep to raise the road surface.

Atlantic Coast Line Railroad completes the Everglades City to Immokalee line, 41 miles.

1929

Everglades City trolley tack is destroyed by weather and not replaced.

Dowling & Camp Lumber bought Slater Mill and boosted production by more than 10 percent to $2 million annually. Lumber production today in Lee County is less than $250,000 a year.

The botanist Dr. Henry Nerhling begins Caribbean Gardens, now Jungle Larry's in Naples.

1930

Federal census counts 2,883 people in Collier County.

1932

Barron Collier, in response to the Great Depression, says "Florida is all right. I find everything here that first sold me on the state and I know of no reason to change the opinion I've always held."

The City of Bonita Springs is dissolved due to bankruptcy.

The Lee County Bank closes for reorganization, to reopen in March of 1933.

1933

The Civilian Works Administration, to become the Works Progress Administration (WPA) gears up locally to build within the next 10 years the Edison Bridge, the Federal Post Office, a water/sewer plant, the Waterfront Park and Yacht Basin and Lee Memorial Hospital.

1934

Citrus freeze. Temperatures dropped to 20 degrees in the coldest areas and resulted in 90 percent defoliation in groves around Estero.

1935

State census counts 4,792 people in Collier County.

1937

Sears opens on Fort Myers's First Street.

1939

Fort Myers Broadcast gets a license from the Federal Trade Commission to operate the 250-watt WFTM.

Barron Collier dies with massive land holdings but virtually no cash, after

having achieved limited development.

1940

Citrus freeze. Temperatures dropped to 14 degrees in the coldest places in the Everglades Region. Florida Citrus Commission instituted a seven-day shipping embargo to keep growers from sending freeze-damaged fruit to market.

1941

Lee County citrus has grown to 4000 acres, and gladiolus's 1400 acres represent a $500,000 investment in the flower.

1942

The Army Air Corps has more than 20,000 troops at Buckingham Gunnery School and Page Field. Fort Myers civilian population is about 10,000.

WFTM sold to Ronald Woodyard and Reginald martin for $126,000 and changed to WAAC.

The Naples Depot ceases to serve as a train station.

1943

The first commercial oil well in Florida is sunk at Sunniland.

WAAC affiliates itself with CBS.

Fort Myers Beach boasts 473 residents and four hotels.

1944

The USDA ranked Florida as 15th nationwide in cattle production with 908,000 head.

WAAC changes call letters to WINK.

1945

The state census counts 15,198 people in Fort Myers.

1946

Lee County Vegetables produce $2 million in revenues.

H.B. Watkins and W.D. McCabe arrive in Naples from Columbus, Ohio, and start The Naples Beach Hotel and Golf Club.

1947

Everglades National Park is dedicated.

Mina Edison entrusts the City of Fort Myers with the Edison Estate.

The Doxsee cannery closes on Marco Island.

WJJD, Inc. of Chicago pays the city of Fort Myers $1000 for the right to use WFMF as its call letters.

1948

The gladiolus becomes Fort Myers biggest industry, shipping 4 million dozen glads, and producing $2.135 million in gross revenues.

Naples's building permits pass the $500,000 mark for the first time.

The Town of Naples becomes The City of Naples.

Win Ellis opens The Snack House, the first air-conditioned eatery in Fort Myers.

1950

The US Census estimates the population in Lee County at 23,404 and Collier County at 6,488. Starting this year, population in both counties will double every decade.

Shrimp are discovered near the Dry Tortugas, and Fort Myers Beach becomes home port for a large fleet of shrimpers. By 1954, the location nets one-third of the area's total 1.5 million-pound catch of "pink gold."

The Bank of Naples opens.

A fence law is passed, ending the era of open range cattle ranching.

1951

Naples organizes mosquito control.

Early houses in the Port Royal subdivision sell for $22,000 to $25,000.

Bonita Springs' Shell Factory burns to the ground and relocates to North Fort Myers.

1953

McNichols Art Gallery opens as Naples' first gallery.

Everglades City incorporates.

Inter-county telephone toll lines connect Punta Gorda and Fort Myers. Naples still relies on non-dial telephones and a central operator exchange.

1954

WNOG-FM hits the airwaves.

Fort Myers dedicates its first City Hall building.

1955

Lehigh Acres houses its first family "For $10 down and $10 a month." The community's name combines the name of its founder Lee Ratner and its high elevation, at 27 to 30 feet above sea level.

Collier County building permits near $5 million, up from $1.5 million in 1950. Assessed property values soar from $5 million to $24 million in the same period.

Commercial fishermen deliver 7-1/4 million pounds of fish to a dozen fish houses. Mullet comprise half the catch.

1956

Lee County thoroughly evaluates, maps and adjusts property appraisals for the first time. The associated boost in county budgets catalyzes unprecedented growth.

Naples Memorial Hospital debuts with 50 beds, saving local patients a 40-mile trip to Fort Myers.

Local businessmen break off from the Hendry County Association to establish their own Cattleman's Association.

1957

Lumber interests that began cutting in the 1940s tap out Collier County timber, one of the largest remaining virgin stands of cypress and pine in the country.

Arkansas attorney John R. Wood arrives in Naples. After a year, he starts his own real estate company.

1958

Cape Coral's "Waterfront Wonderland" advertising program launches its fly-over land sales campaign.

1959

Marco Island becomes home to an U.S. Air Force tracking station.

1959

Caribbean Gardens commences commercial operation as a tourist attraction.

Naples Pier ties up its last large vessel, a miniature submarine, the U.S.S. Marlin.

1960

The US Census lists Lee County's population as 54,539 and Collier County's as 15,753.

Hurricane Donna blasts through Southwest Florida on Sept. 10 at 200 miles per hour, propelling 8- to 10-foot floodwaters and leaving $20 million in damage.

The top price paid for Gulf shore property in the early 1960s is $1,750 per acre.

Dubbed the decade of the bridges, spans come to replace ferry service in the 1960s. Traffic gains access via the Bonita Beach Causeway, Caloosahatchee Bridge, Cape Coral Bridge at College Parkway, Sanibel Causeway and Pine Island Bridge.

Naples Yacht Club becomes the first private club in town.

1961

Gulf America Corporation launches Golden Gate Estates.

Developers promote Lehigh Acres by offering a free house as a grand prize on "The Price is Right" nationwide television show.

1962

Collier's county seat moves from Everglades City to Naples.

Barron Collier enterprises join with the Mackle Brothers to master plan development of Marco Island as the Deltona Corporation. The Collier family will sell its interest in 1968.

1963

Edison Community College schedules its first classes in Lee County, and will occupy its own campus by 1965. Collier and Charlotte students have their own dedicated campuses in 1992 and 1997.

1964

Bonita Springs makes the map with the upscale Shangri-la Natural Health Resort.

1965

Edison Mall development causes shoppers to drift away from downtown retailers.

Successive frosts continue to push the citrus belt to the south, and Collier County plants its first groves.

State completes widening of US 41 to four lanes along Cleveland Avenue and installs much needed storm drains.

1967

Lee County Vo-Tech opens with 180 students. The Lorenzo Walker Institute of Technology will follow in 1974 with its first 100 students.

The Naples Daily News begins daily publication, increasing from twice weekly.

1968

Alligator Alley crosses the Everglades, linking Florida's east and west coasts. It will expand from two to four lanes in 1990, continuing the Interstate 75 throughway.

1970

The US Census estimates the population in Lee County at 105,216 and in Collier County at 38,040

Cape Coral incorporates.

1971

Atlantic Coast Line's last passenger train departs Naples Depot. Fort Myers' passenger train station on Peck Street also closes after almost five decades of operation. The station will become home to the Fort Myers Historical Museum in 1982.

1974

Sanibel incorporates to protect itself from high-density development.

Congress passes legislation creating Big Cypress National Preserve.

1975

The US Census Bureau estimates Lee County's population at 154,900 and Collier County's at 63,600.

1977

Cape Coral Hospital opens with 94 beds.

The Coastland Center Mall opens in Naples.

1978

Florida now ranks eighth in U.S. oil production. In 1943, Humble Oil discovered the state's first oil field near Immokalee. By 1954, Sunniland's eleven local oil wells were producing a half-million barrels annually.

1979

Plans are unveiled for the Bonita Bay development in Bonita Springs. Construction begins in 1984.

1980

The US Census estimates Lee County's population at 205,266 and Collier County's population at 85,971.

Collier County has 36,000 acres planted in winter vegetables, generating 10,000 jobs. Collier ranks third in Florida vegetable production, after Dade and Palm Beach counties, which are fast falling to urban sprawl.