Everglades National Park was dedicated in 1947 for the purpose of establishing conservation boundaries aimed at protecting one of the worlds most remarkable environments. Its unique mangrove habitat is a natural nursery, providing warm water, shelter, and food for many native species of trees, plants, fish and rare animals. Because of that protection The Everglades remain timeless, and virtually untouched by man.
Chokoloskee:A Seminole word meaning "old house"
The land around Chokoloskee Bay, both on the mainland and the islands, is very low-lying. Chokoloskee Island is an exception, as it reaches a high-point of 20 feet (6 m) above sea level. This height is due to the shell mounds built on the island during more than 2,000 years of occupation by Native Americans of the Ten Thousand Islands district of the Glades culture.
Before European settlement
Chokoloskee Island was inhabited by Indians for more than 1,500 years before European explorers reached the area. By the time Spain transferred Florida to Great Britain in 1763, the area was uninhabited. During the first three-quarters of the 19th Century, Chokoloskee Island may have been occasionally visited by Seminoles, white hunters, "Spanish Indian" fishermen from Cuba and various "refugees from justice."
Chokoloskee was briefly occupied by the United States Army during the Third Seminole War. In November 1856 110 men of the Florida Mounted Volunteers reached Chokoloskee Island. From there, an expedition of 75 men went up the Turner River, where they burned a Seminole settlement and a couple of planted fields. After a skirmish with the Seminoles in which a Captain John Parkhill was killed, the expedition returned to Chokoloskee Island to find that their base had been moved to Cape Romano, because of a lack of fresh water on the island.
Early settlement
The modern settlement of Chokoloskee Island started in 1874. The second family on the island was that of Adolphus Santini, who was soon joined by his brother and his parents. By around 1880 the Santini family held claim to most of the island. In 1882 there were five families living on the island, including those of the two Santini brothers. These early residents farmed, fished and caught turtles, selling any surpluses in Key West. Other residents came and went fairly requently. Due to the efforts of C. G. McKinney, a post office was established in Chokoloskee in 1891, although it was known as "Comfort" for the first few months.
In 1897 Ted Smallwood moved to Chokoloskee Island. There were still just five other families on the island, including the Santini brothers. In 1899 The Santinis left and sold their claims to Smallwood, who became the major landholder on the island. Chokoloskee had acquired a post office in 1891, at first called Comfort, but changed to Chokoloskee within a year. At first, mail for Chokoloskee came by boat from Key West, then as the railroads extended down the Florida peninsula, the mail came from Punta Gorda, and later from Fort Myers. After the highway reached Everglades City, it came by boat from there until the causeway to Chokoloskee Island was completed in 1956. Because of the uncertainty of the mail boat schedule, a conch shell would be blown to alert the islanders that the mail had arrived.
Chokoloskee Island was quite isolated. At first it was in Monroe County, with the county seat in Key West, 90 miles away. In 1887, Lee County was created out of part of Monroe County, including Chokoloskee, but the county seat was in Fort Myers, almost 90 miles in the opposite direction from Key West. Finally, in 1923, Collier County was created out of Lee County, with the county seat at Everglades City, just a few miles across Chokoloskee Bay from Chokoloskee Island. However, access to the outside world was still by boat to Key West or Fort Myers until the Tamiami Trail was completed and connected to Everglades City in the late 1920s.
C. G. McKinney had moved to Chokoloskee in 1886. He had opened a small store soon afterwards and had been instrumental in getting the post office for Chokoloskee,. In 1912 McKinney wrote a complaint about how Chokoloskee was being ignored. He was insulted that two recent letters to him had been addressed to Everglade (Everglades City). He wrote, Now I wish folks could learn that there is another part of this neck of the woods beside Everglade. Everglade is a small place beside Chokoloskee. We have two business houses ... we have ten families living here.
Ted Smallwood
Starting in 1896 Ted Smallwood carried the mail by sailboat between Chokoloskee and Marco via Everglades [City]. In 1897 he married and settled down on Chokoloskee Island. He hunted alligators, cut buttonwood (for charcoal), fished and raised tomatoes. In 1906 he became postmaster for Chokoloskee and opened a general store which housed the post office. He remained postmaster until he retired in 1941. His daughter succeeded him as postmaster.
Ted Smallwood died in 1951,but his daughters kept the store open until 1982. Ted Smallwood's store was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. His granddaughter has opened the store as a museum.
Edgar Watson of edgar j watson photo1.jpg "Ed Watson")
The Ten Thousand Islands country, including Chokoloskee, had a reputation as being a refuge for outlaws. The Ed Watson story, as related by Ted Smallwood, is the best known example of that. Ed Watson first showed up in the Chokoloskee Bay country in the early 1880s. He had supposedly gotten into trouble in his native Columbia County, in northern Florida, and then gone out to the Oklahoma Territory where he allegedly was involved with the female outlaw Belle Starr. He then returned to Florida, and killed a man in Arcadia, apparently in self-defense. After that Ed Watson moved to the Ten Thousand Islands, where he bought a claim on the Chatham Bend River and began raising vegetables.
On a trip to Key West, Watson got into an argument with Adolphus Santini and tried to cut his throat. Santini survived, but the incident cost Watson $900. After that Watson bought a claim on Lostman's River. A man named Tucker soon squatted on the claim and would not leave. Eventually Tucker and his nephew were found murdered, and suspicion fell on Watson. After that Watson went back to Columbia County. While there he again became involved with bad company, and came under suspicion in the deaths of two men.
Watson returned to the Chatham Bend area and began making syrup (from sugar cane). Soon Watson had several people living at his place, including a man named Duchy Melvin, who is said to have killed a policeman and burned a factory or two. While Watson and Melvin were in Chokoloskee, a man named Cox and someone identified only as “the black man” killed an old woman named Hannah Smith and a man named Walker at the Watson place. When Watson and Melvin returned, Cox and “The black man” Melvin as well. Hannah Smith's body was found in the Chatham Bend River by some settlers and given a burial.
At this time, on October 17, 1910, a major hurricane struck the area. Ed Watson went to Fort Myers during the hurricane, and tried to bring the sheriff back afterwards to arrest Cox, but the sheriff would not go past Marco. Watson then bought some shells at Ted Smallwood's store and said he was going back to his place to kill Cox. When Watson returned to Chokoloskee a few days later a crowd met him at the landing and killed him. The sheriff did come down to Chokoloskee after that, and took a number of Chokoloskee residents back to Fort Myers for a court session, but nothing came of it.
