Everglades City is the kind of place that exists at the very end of the road. The Ten Thousand Islands stretch out into the Gulf in a labyrinth of mangroves so dense it earned the nickname “the impenetrable labyrinth,” and the only practical way to enter is by boat. The America250 initiative is a fitting moment to retrace how this remote corner of Florida became one of the most important gateways to a national park. At Everglades Florida Adventures, a proud part of the Adventures Unbound family, we are the modern guides into a region that has been guiding travelers for far longer than the United States has been a country.

The History

Everglades City sits at the mouth of the Ten Thousand Islands region, a maze of mangrove islands and coastal waterways historically used by Indigenous peoples, fishermen, and early explorers. After the Seminole Wars (1816 to 1858), the Everglades became a final refuge for the Seminole and Miccosukee, who used the labyrinth of wetlands to survive three wars against U.S. troops. Following that period, persistent settlers known as “Gladesmen” established small, isolated outposts around Cape Sable, Flamingo, and Chokoloskee, living off the land by fishing, hunting, and trapping.

The town’s modern identity took shape in 1923, when advertising tycoon Barron Gift Collier incorporated Everglades City and developed it as a sportsman’s destination. Before that, the Smallwood Store on Chokoloskee Island had been operating since 1906 as a trading post for pioneers and Seminoles, and it still stands today as a museum documenting frontier life. The Museum of the Everglades in Everglades City picks up the story from there, showcasing the Collier development era, the early settlers, and the pioneering Gladesmen culture that defined the region.

In 1947, the area was designated as Everglades National Park, one of the largest national parks in the country and the centerpiece of a long, ongoing American conversation about how to live alongside a wild place rather than drain it.

The Connection

Long before any town, road, or trading post, the Calusa lived here. Emerging around 1000 B.C. and centered at Mound Key, the Calusa built massive shell mounds, engineered complex watercraft and canals, and resisted Spanish intrusion until disease and raids forced their decline by the 1760s. Their shell works still rise out of the mangroves on certain islands in the Ten Thousand Islands, visible from the deck of a tour boat if you know where to look.

A boat tour through the 10,000 Islands or a paddle into the Fakahatchee Strand follows a route that has been a route for thousands of years. The mangroves were a refuge for the Seminole, a transit corridor for the Gladesmen, and the lifeblood of the Calusa long before either of them. When you slip a kayak into the water from our launch, you are joining a procession that started a very long time ago.

For more America250 stories from across our properties, visit Adventures Unbound’s America250 page.