Marco Island is home to many huge hotel chains that have towering buildings. This is the hotel central of the region. Housing and real properties are booming here as well, with the number of housing units reaching almost as many as the number of people in Marco Island at one point. However, the people keep in touch with their natural environment as well since Marco Island acts as a natural barrier to the famous Ten Thousand Islands which you can appreciate better when flying across it. The other main attractions of this side of the region are the beaches. When a beach in Marco Island is mentioned, the Tigertail beach is one of the first things that come into mind with its many beach-related activities. There is also the Keewaydin Island, an isolated stretch of grass and sand, perfect for dating couples and the like. And if you want to know more about the island’s history, head down to Marco Island Historic Gallery where they showcase the early inhabitants and their way of life from a time long gone.
When visiting the Historic Gallery, one will learn that the history of Marco Island goes back as far as 500 A.D. according to archeological evidence. The Calusa people were the ones who inhabited the place as well as the rest of the region and as far back as 1896, archeologists have already found Calusa artifacts that were a bit intriguing. Apart from the usual mortar and pestle, utensils and other tools, the team who did excavations at that time found relics made of painted wood and the famous Key Marco Cat, a small wooden carved artifact in the image of a cat. This provided a clue that the Calusa people lived in a culturally rich environment and had a more sophisticated culture than previously thought. However, it was only in the 1500’s when the Spanish missionaries arrived in the area when Marco Island got its current name. The missionaries named the island La Isla De San Marcos – Marcos being the Gospel writer St. Mark. Then development came, as with the rest of southwestern Florida, in the late 1800’s. In 1896, Barron Gift Collier’s son, Willian D. Collier, founded a hotel in the island and we now know it today as the Olde Marco Inn. Then, just like the rest of the region, it Marco Island met its ups and downs but had a relatively steady growth within much of the 20th century until it became what it is today.
- Watersports are a thing in Marco Island. Water Jet Packs and Jet Skis are just a couple of the things that are for rent in many of the hotels in the island.
- Visiting Cape Romano will introduce you to some bizarre looking abandoned structures that give you a kind of eerie feeling. But worry not, they are simply the art pieces of an architect who had a lot of time in his hands back in the 70’s
- Shelling is a relaxing activity if you’re not into the high speed, high flying action the watersports bring. Sand dollar shells are the most abundant and they look amazing.
