"everglades city florida" Top 5 Page for this destination Everglades City by doug48

everglades city is located on chokoloskee bay in southwest florida. the area around chokoloskee bay was inhabited for thousands of years by the native american glades culture. around the time of the european explorers the glades culture disappeared and was replaced by calusas. william smith allen was everglades city's first white settler in 1873. in 1889 george storter came to everglades city to grow sugar cane. george storter's house was later to become the famous rod and gun club. in 1922 barron collier bought large tracts of land in southern lee county and in 1923 collier county was created from the southern part of lee county. everglades city was made the county seat of the new collier county. the collier county courthouse was built in 1929. through the first two thirds of the 20th century everglades city and chokoloskee island were fishing villages. in the 1970's and 1980's this area became a major marijuana smuggling center. many area fishermen turned to drug smuggling to make a living. it got so out of hand that the government funded "operation everglades" lead by deputy charles sanders. this drug raid arrested 125 locals. operation everglades put an end to drug smuggling in the area. of interest to the tourist is the gulf coast section of the everglades national park and nearby big cypress swamp. also this area is world famous for it's excellent salt water fishing.