Now, we go to perhaps the biggest chain of museums in all of Naples – The Collier County Museums. This chain offers five unique and interesting facilities scattered all across the city that are definitely both fun and educational. There is the Collier County Museum, the Immokalee museum, the Marco Island Historical museum, the Museum of the Everglades and, last but not the least, The Napes Depot Museum. All these five locations offer fresh takes on different aspects of the rich and vibrant history of Naples. Let us go through each of them and see what they have in store for us.
1. Collier County Museum
This sprawling 10,000 square foot facility, offers various educational displays and travelling exhibit rooms that showcase the wealth of history long before southwest Florida was settled by humans and also by the Seminole people, the first people who settled on the bay. Its amazing displays include skeletons, saber cat skulls and fossils of mammals and reptiles alike from pre-historical times. There are also mannequins that depict the appearance and clothing of the ancient Seminole people plus spaces that exhibit replicas of villages and settlements of this captivating culture. Discover how they hunted, fished and warded off vicious predators through guided tours and interactive displays that inform both children and adults alike
2. Immokalee Pioneer Museum
This museum is actually a cattle ranch that was restored and preserved and turned into a museum. The place was first occupied by the Calusa and then later by the Seminole. Historically, the area served as sort of a shelter for ranchmen, hunters, trappers, cow herders, missionaries and traders since it was first settled around 1873. The early pioneers of Naples later renamed the ranch to “Immokalee” which roughly translates to, ‘somebody’s home’ in the Seminole language. The exhibit includes a Main Ranch House, a Hide House, a Bunkhouse, an old Cane Mill, a horse barn and many others all inside a 15 acre living museum.
3. Marco Island Historical Museum
This amazing place features figures that depict the ancient peoples and their way of life. It is also home to the famous Marco Key cat. It is a six inch tall wooden figurine depicting a half human and a half cat being. It is considered one of the more intriguing archeological finds in the entire region. Excavated in 1896 by archeologist Frank Hamilton and his team, this artifact and several others that have been dug up (such as shells carvings, bowls, spears, fish hooks, etc.) in what is known as the Key Marco site offer a significant amount of information about southwest Florida’s mysterious past.
4. Museum of the Everglades
The place was once a trading town for the frontiersmen but by 1923, it was turned into a swanky real estate hub by Barron Collier. The main museum itself first opened in 1927 as a commercial laundry. This is a time when the construction of the iconic Tamiami trail was still underway and the place served as a resting ground for the workers and the construction people. The museum offers mounted text boards that detail the rich history of the place complete with photographs that were taken from that time. The facility’s permanent and rotating exhibits provide a good glimpse of what life was like during the Collier era, in the roaring 20’s.
5. Naples Depot Museum
The museum showcases the finest pieces from the roaring 20’s with all its unique and elegant charm. You have to see it to be impressed by the vintage 1955 Chevy, the train cars, the 1909 Caboose, the railroad equipment and metal parts, the trains and the boats and down to even the suitcases the people from that era were used to carrying. The place truly takes you back in time to an elegant era.
