09/25/2026
Very interesting...
Southwest Florida Living
Long before Fort Myers or Naples existed, an island in Estero Bay was the capital of one of the most powerful societies in the Southeast. 🐚
Mound Key was the political center of the Calusa, a people who ruled much of Southwest Florida and collected tribute from towns across the southern peninsula. What makes their story so remarkable is how they did it. The Calusa did not rely on farming like many societies of their time. They built their power on the incredibly rich estuaries, harvesting fish and shellfish on a massive scale. Over generations they literally built the island higher, piling up shell into mounds that rise more than 30 feet, and they cut a canal straight through the middle of it.
When Spanish explorer Pedro Menéndez de Avilés arrived in 1566, he met the Calusa leader known to the Spanish as Carlos, and the Spanish briefly set up a fort and mission there. Within two centuries, disease, warfare, and slave raids had devastated the Calusa people. 🌅
Today Mound Key is an archaeological state park reachable only by boat, and researchers are still uncovering how this capital actually worked.
Did you know the Calusa built entire islands out of shell?
