Useppa Island

Useppa Island
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Location:	Lee County, Florida
Nearest city:	Fort Myers
Coordinates:	26°39′41″N 82°12′46″W
Governing body:	Private
MPS:	Archeological Resources of the Caloosahatchee Region MPS
NRHP Reference#:	96000532
Added to NRHP:	May 21, 1996

Useppa Island is an island located near the northern end of Pine Island Sound in Lee County, Florida. It has been known for luxury resorts since the late 19th century, and it is currently the home of the private Useppa Island Club. On May 21, 1996, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places, due to its archaeological significance.

Name

In the early 1830s the island was variously called Caldez's Island, Toampe, and Joseffa. Records indicate that Jose Caldez, who had operated a fishing rancho on the island, called it Josepha's when he sold it to Joseph Ximenez in 1833. The name Useppa first appeared on a hydrological chart of the area in 1855.

Like the nearby islands of Gasparilla, Sanibel, and Captiva, a folk etymology has developed connecting Useppa Island's name to the legendary pirate captain José Gaspar, also known as Gasparilla. A local folk story, extant in at least two versions, tells of Gaspar kidnapping a Spanish princess, with whom he becomes enamored. When she spurns his advances he kills her, but is overtaken by remorse and buries her himself on the beach. One version identifies the princess as Josefa, daughter of Martín de Mayorga, Viceroy of New Spain from 1779 to 1782, and indicates that her burial place of Useppa Island still bears her name in an altered form.

Geology

Useppa Island is 1.7 km long north to south, and up to 0.56 km wide. A ridge, up to 18 feet (5.5 m) high, runs along much of the eastern edge of the island. A ridge up to 10 feet (3.0 m) high is in the middle of the island along the western side. A 9 m tall conical shell midden with ramps is located on the west side of the island towards the southern end. The southern end of the island may have grown by as much as 500 m during the 20th century, possibly when a golf course was developed there. The island was part of the Florida mainland during the last glacial period, when the sea level around Florida was 100 m or more lower than today. Useppa Island is high ground that became separated from the mainland by a rising sea level around 4500 BCE. This high ground is believed to be stabilized sand dunes formed during a high sea level episode prior to the last glacial episode. During the period from 4500 BCE to 3000 BCE barrier islands formed to the west of Useppa Island, creating Pine Island Sound and protecting Useppa Island from the open Gulf of Mexico.

History

Before Useppa Island separated from the mainland, the area was visited by Paleo-Indians, who were present in Florida by at least 8,000 BCE. Soon after the sea level had risen enough to separate the island from the mainland, around 4500 BCE, Indians of the Archaic period began living on the island for part of the year, primarily during the spring and summer. Oyster shells were deposited in middens from this time. Tools made from seashells during the period from 4500 BCE to 3000 BCE show a cultural affinity with Horr's Island to the south.

After about 3000 BCE bodies were buried on Useppa Island in a flexed position. Steatite stone vessels and fiber-tempered pottery came into use on the island after 2000 BCE. Sand-tempered pottery appeared after 1200 BCE. Seasonal occupation of the island continued through the end of the Archaic period (c. 500 BCE) and into the Caloosahatchee culture period, until about 1200. While the island may have been used occassionally as a fishing camp after that date, there is no known sustained occupation of the island until after 1700. Shortly after 1700, the Calusa people (the people of the Caloosahatchee culture region during the historic period) were killed, carried away to slavery, or driven out of the area by Creek and Yamasee people (who later coalesced into the Seminole.

Later in the 18th century and as late as 1835 Muspa Indians, possibly descendants of people who lived in the Calusa town of Muspa (on or near Marco Island) were reported to be living in the Charlotte Harbor and Pine Island area. Around 1784, Jose Caldez of Cuba began using Useppa Island as the base for his seasonal fishing operations. Caldez employed both Cubans and local Native Americans at this fishing rancho. By 1833 the rancho consisted of close to 20 palmetto-thatched houses and about 60 people. The Second Seminole War began in late 1835. The U.S. Customs officer on Useppa was killed in 1836. Fishing ranchos, including the Caldez rancho on Useppa, were burned by the U.S. Army on suspicion that they were aiding the Seminoles. Rancho Indians, including those who were married to Cubans or were half-Cuban, were gathered up by the Army and sent west to Indian Territory.

When tarpon fishing became popular in the 1880s, Chicago businessman John Roach established a resort on Useppa. Barron Collier bought the island in 1911, but the hotel was damaged by the Labor Day Hurricane of 1935, and was torn down after World War II.

In 1960, Useppa briefly served as a CIA training base for Cuban exiles in preparation for the Bay of Pigs Invasion.

References

• Milanich, J. T., J. Chapman, A. S. Cordell, S. Hale, and R. A. Marrinan (1984). "Prehistoric Development of Calusa Society in Southwest Florida: Excavations on Useppa Island". In Dav D. Davis. Perspectives on Gulf Coast Prehistory. Gainesville, Florida: University of Florida Press. pp. 258-314. ISBN 0-8130-0756-9. 

External links

• Useppa Island Club website
• Florida's Office of Cultural and Historical Programs
  • Lee County listings
  • Useppa Island Museum