Archaeological evidence shows that mound-building Native Americans inhabited the island at least since the birth of Christ. The tribe of artisans thrived on the abundance of fish and animal prey, as well as the warm, year-round climate.

During the mid-1500s, Spanish explorers would stop at Marco to fill casks with natural spring water. Legend suggests that the island subsequently became known as La Isla de San Marco, named for Saint Mark, a Christian evangelist. But, according to Marco historian Betsy Perdichizzi, that myth has never been substantiated.

Records indicate that in the 19th century, the U.S. government recognized the island as "Malco," Perdichizzi says "I'm not sure when it became Marco. It's one of the modern-day mysteries," says Perdichizzi, president of the Marco Historical Society. Development on the island dates back to the 1870s, when W.T. Collier homesteaded the acreage. In 1886, his son Capt. Bill Collier built the Marco Hotel, a 20-room inn with a two-story outhouse. Around that time, an archaeological dig spearheaded by Frank Hamilton Cushing unearthed natives' artifacts that included tools, masks and the famed Key Marco Cat, a wooden sculpture now housed in the Smithsonian Institution.

At the turn of the century, the island contained three separate communities accessible to each other only by boat: Goodland Point, Caxambas and Marco. Commerce revolved around fishing, clamming, vegetable farming and coastal shipping. According to Perdichizzi, E.S. Burnham opened the first clam factory at the urging of Tommie Barfield, a woman who ran a mercantile store. Burnham would supply Barfield with clams to sell, and, in exchange, she gave Burnham five acres of waterfront for the operation. Barfield ¯ struck a similar deal with J.H. Doxsee, a New York native who served as the island's first and only mayor, circa 1927. For a brief time, Marco was known as Collier City. In 1922, 90 percent of the island's acreage was purchased by Barron Collier-no relation to the Marco Colliers. It wasn't until 1949, a decade after Barron Collier had died, that his family began moving homes from other sites into Goodland, signaling the beginning of greater development.

"There's kind of a complicated history here," says Perdichizzi, author of A Girl Called Tommie: Queen of Marco Island, a book about Tommie Barfield. To help spread Marco's remarkable story, Perdichizzi and her group have been pushing to build a museum at Indian Hills, where Indians piled several feet of clam shells to reside upon, escaping hurricanes, storms and high water; to bury their dead; and for religious purposes.