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Best Reminder Of Old Florida
Chokoloskee Island
At the southern end of Route 29, 3 miles south of Everglades City, 239/695-2414,
www.chokoloskee.com
Before the invention of air conditioning, and before developers and the Department
of Transportation covered the place with concrete and asphalt, South Florida
was a mosquito-infested hideout for iconoclasts who wanted little to do with
civilization. The 150-acre Chokoloskee Island is pretty much like that still,
though air conditioning has made the summer months tolerable. Located two hours
west of Miami off the Tamiami Trail, Chokoloskee was settled by whites in the
1870s and got its first causeway to the mainland in 1956, connecting its 100
or so residents to Everglades City. The population hasn’t changed much
since, nor has the island. The “tourist attraction” is Smallwood Store,
which was built in 1906 as a trading post and is on the National Register of
Historic Places. Beyond that, there are tours of the Everglades, fishing, canoeing,
kayaking and boating. You can also observe alligators, manatees, dolphins, Florida
panthers and more than 300 species of birds. Nearby Everglades City is known
as the stone crab capital of the world, so great eats are just miles north across
the causeway from October to May. And an 80-foot observation tower provides
a view of the nearby 10,000 Islands.
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