Focus Magazine of SWFL Cheers To Your Style | Page 117

Both McGreevy and Comisar are supportive of Estero’s incorporation, as Comisar says, “Estero has a cachet of its own, very different from Naples or Fort Myers. It makes sense that residents
would want to protect and preserve its brand.”

Artistic conception of Calusa encounter with Ponce de León in 1513. Artwork of Merald Clark,
courtesy of the Florida Museum of Natural History

A Fascinating History

While so many have come to regard modern Estero as a Southwest Florida paradise, the fact remains that reputation began
centuries ago, or even millennia when considering these very
lands were once sacred to the Calusa Indians, among Florida’s
earliest and most enigmatic of inhabitants. Given the abundance
of natural resources in flora and fauna on which the Calusa so
thoroughly thrived, they were able to develop a highly complex
civilization that flourished while other aboriginals struggled
to survive. The Calusa advanced in the creation of a two-tier
caste system with laborers and nobles, enacted elaborate ritual
ceremonies, engineered the building of canals and shell mounds,

Calusa Indian ceremonial mask.

but also took time to produce creative works of art, and produce
a highly formidable army, in fact, the word “Calusa" equivocates
to “Fierce People.” The Calusa were so feared that other indian
tribes brought tributes to their king in hope that they would be
left to live in peace. The tribe’s hostility was particularly hyped
after interaction with early Spanish explorers who often had
to be reminded that their visitations
were neither wanted nor welcomed.
In one such instance, Ponce De Leon’s
fabled quest for the Fountain of Youth
abruptly ended after he died from an
infection prompted from meeting the
business-end of a poison arrow. There
were occasional periods of peace.
History accords that Captain Pedro
Menendez forged a tentative peace with
King Carlos. The meeting took place in
a massive earthen & thatched structure with walls bedecked in ceremonial
masks. The building hosted thousands
who attended, and King Carlos apparently took a liking to Menendez,
allowing several Spanish prisoners to be
released and he even offered his own
sister to become the Captain’s bride.
Menedez would play her like a pawn
in future negotiations. That practice,
along with his forging of alliances with
competing tribes led to a severing of
the relationship with King Carlos, then
again, the Spanish order to have King
Carlos killed didn’t help mend any
fences either.
Though the mangroves along the Estero River offer excellent opportunity to see a variety of avian species that make a home here, there’s
potential for other encounters too.

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