Useppa Island facts for kids
Quick facts for kids |
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Useppa Island
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 Location in Florida
Location in the United States
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| Location | Lee County, Florida |
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| Nearest city | Cape Coral, Florida |
| MPS | Archeological Resources of the Caloosahatchee Region MPS |
| NRHP reference No. | 96000532 |
| Added to NRHP | May 21, 1996 |
Useppa Island is a small island in Lee County, Florida. It's found near the top of Pine Island Sound. For a long time, since the late 1800s, it has been famous for its fancy resorts. Today, it is home to the private Useppa Island Club. Because of its important ancient sites, Useppa Island was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on May 21, 1996.
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What's in a Name?
In the early 1830s, Useppa Island had a few different names. People called it Caldez's Island, Toampe, and Joseffa. Records show that a man named José Caldez ran a fishing camp, or rancho, on the island. When he sold it in 1833, he called it Josepha's. The name Useppa first showed up on a map of the area in 1855.
Like other nearby islands such as Gasparilla, Sanibel, and Captiva, Useppa Island has a fun folk story about its name. This story connects the island's name to a famous pirate captain named José Gaspar, also known as Gasparilla.
One local legend says that Gaspar kidnapped a Spanish princess. He fell in love with her, but she didn't love him back. In sadness, he killed her and buried her himself on the beach. One version of the story says the princess was named Josefa. She was the daughter of Martín de Mayorga, who was a very important leader in New Spain from 1779 to 1782. The story claims that Useppa Island still carries her name, just changed a little bit.
Island's Shape and Land
Useppa Island is about 1 mile (1.6 km) long from north to south. It can be up to 0.5 miles (0.8 km) wide. A high ridge, about 18 feet (5.5 m) tall, runs along most of the island's eastern side. Another ridge, up to 40 feet (12 m) high, is in the middle of the island on the western side.
On the west side, towards the southern end, there's a 30-foot (9 m) tall shell mound shaped like a cone, with ramps. The very southern part of the island might have grown by as much as 1,640 feet (500 m) during the 1900s. This might have happened when a golf course was built there.
Thousands of years ago, during the last Ice Age, the sea level was much lower. Useppa Island was actually part of the Florida mainland back then. Around 4500 BCE, the sea level rose, separating Useppa Island from the mainland. This high ground is thought to be old sand dunes that formed when the sea level was high before the last Ice Age. From 4500 BCE to 3000 BCE, barrier islands formed to the west of Useppa Island. These islands created Pine Island Sound and protected Useppa Island from the open Gulf of Mexico.
Island's Past: A Look Back
Long before Useppa Island became an island, people called Paleo-Indians visited the area. They were in Florida by at least 8,000 BCE.
After the sea level rose and made Useppa an island, around 4500 BCE, people from the Archaic period started living there. They stayed for part of the year, mostly in the spring and summer. They left behind piles of oyster shells, called middens, from this time. Tools made from seashells between 4500 BCE and 3000 BCE show that these people were connected to the culture at Horr's Island to the south.
After about 3000 BCE, people began burying bodies on Useppa Island. The bodies were placed in a bent position. Stone bowls and pottery with plant fibers in them started to be used after 2000 BCE. Pottery with sand in it appeared after 1200 BCE. People continued to live on the island seasonally until about 1200, during the Caloosahatchee culture period.
After 1200, the island might have been used sometimes as a fishing camp. However, we don't know of anyone living there all the time until after 1700. Soon after 1700, the Calusa people, who lived in this area, were sadly killed, taken as slaves, or driven away. This happened because of attacks from Creek and Yamasee people, who later became the Seminole.
Later in the 1700s and up to 1835, Muspa Indians were reported to be living near Charlotte Harbor and Pine Island. These might have been descendants of people who lived in the Calusa town of Muspa. Around 1784, Jose Caldez from Cuba started using Useppa Island as a base for his seasonal fishing business. Caldez hired both Cubans and local Native Americans for his fishing camp. By 1833, this camp had nearly 20 houses made of palmetto leaves and about 60 people.
The Second Seminole War began in late 1835. Henry Crews, a U.S. Customs officer on Josefa Island (Useppa), was killed in March 1836. This might have been by Seminoles or by Native Americans working at the fishing camp. Crews had disagreed with the Spanish people at the camp. He thought they were using fishing as a way to smuggle things.
After Crews died, the "Americans" living around Charlotte Harbor, including Spanish people and Native Americans from the camps, ran away to a camp run by William Bunce in Tampa Bay. In late 1836, the fishing camps around Charlotte Harbor, including Caldez's camp on Useppa, were reported to be empty and "largely destroyed." Native Americans from the camps, including those married to Cubans or who were half-Cuban, were gathered by the Army and sent west to Indian Territory.
The area around Charlotte Harbor and Pine Island, including Josefa Island, had very few people living there for many decades. The U.S. Army set up Fort Casey on Useppa Island in early 1850, but they left before the end of that year. Union soldiers and people who supported the Union took over the island in December 1863. They launched a small attack into Charlotte Harbor and up the Myakka River. This led to some small fights with Confederate soldiers. The troops on Useppa Island moved to Fort Myers after it was built in January 1864. The Census of 1870 found only two people living on the island. In 1885, it was said to be empty, and in 1895, only one family lived there.
In 1896, a businessman from Chicago named John Roach built a hotel on Useppa Island. Barron Collier bought the island in 1911. He made the resort bigger, adding to the hotel and building tennis courts and a 9-hole golf course. Collier made the island his official home. From there, he managed his large real estate business.
Collier passed away in 1939. The resort then closed during World War II. Hurricanes in 1944 and 1946 damaged the hotel, and it was eventually torn down. The island opened again as a resort in 1946 and stayed open until 1960. For a short time in 1960, Useppa was used by the CIA to train Cuban exiles for the Bay of Pigs Invasion.
Useppa Island was sold four times in the 1960s and 1970s. There were two short attempts to run it as a resort during this time. Gar Beckstead bought the island in 1976. His company, Useppa Inn and Dock Company, has run it as a private resort ever since. Hurricane Charley caused a lot of damage to the island in 2004. The rebuilt Collier Inn reopened one year later.
The Useppa Island Historical Society runs the Barbara Sumwalt Museum on the island.
Exploring Ancient Sites
While some archaeologists visited Useppa Island in the 1800s, the first scientific dig happened in 1947. John Griffin and Hale Smith collected pottery from a disturbed shell midden. Jerald Milanich and Jefferson Chapman did more detailed digs on Collier Mound and nearby middens in 1979 and 1980.
William Marquardt and Michael Hansinger dug at Collier Ridge in 1985. Marquardt and Corbett Torrence explored several spots on the island in 1989. Marquardt also dug up a burial site in 1994 before construction started on a lot. In 2006, volunteers from the Rendell Research Society, the University of California Los Angeles, and the Useppa Island Historical Society dug up a workshop where shell axes were made.
