Field Trip to Mosquito Pass

As a field trip, our class visited the Estero Island Cottage and we walked through Matanzas Pass. We first went to the cottage to listen to one of the curators of the cottage who was an older lady whose name escapes me at the moment. She talked to us about the various ways the land, people, wildlife, and conservation efforts have change over her lifespan and even a bit of history before that. The cottage itself was built in 1921 and was almost demolished by a hurricane in the 1940’s. It was then move and made into the Estero Island Historical Societies headquarters.

One interesting bit of information was when she talked about the tomb of Cyrus Tweed, who started his “New Jerusalem” in the Fort Myers Beach area in the late 1800’s. He died in 1908 and his followers put him in a bathtub while waiting for him to rise from the dead. They were finally forced to bury him in a tomb which was later carried out to sea by a storm and moved as a result. “Koresh” was the Hebrew name for Cyrus and that is where the Koreshan Historical site was founded on US 41 and Corkscrew Road. Some other topics included the history of the people, fish and wildlife such as the mullet and the Caloosa Indian tribes that inhabited that area.

After her presentation we walked the Matanzas Preserve Pass with Dr. Durham. In his usual style he picked up various plants for us to taste such as the Mangrove Leaf which just tasted salty. We stopped to look at various wildlife, insects, and an area along the water but the mosquitoes were eating me alive so I was trying to move as fast as possible. If anyone takes this tour, I would advise wearing pants and bringing bug spray because it is a conservation area and it does not allow planes to spray for mosquitos there. All in all not a bad trip and it was interesting for someone who is not a local to get a history lesson.