FORT MYERS, Fla. — Along Fowler Street in the City of Fort Myers, between First and Second Streets, there is a plaque marking the location of what was once a U.S. Military Cemetery in that spot, dating back nearly 200 years to the early days of Fort Myers.
Nowadays it’s a construction zone, but some locals, and even archaeologists from the Florida Public Archaeological Network are worried that there could still be history left to be uncovered.
“This is THE Fort of where Fort Myers gets its name, and this used to be a military cemetery,” said Natalie De La Torre-Salas, a Public Archaeologist from FPAN.
Based out of Fort Myers, she explained how the early days of Fort Myers and the cemetery are still shrouded in mystery.
“There are no records that delineate the extent of it, and there might be a second burial ground associated with a 19th century Methodist Church, and we don’t know where one starts, where one finished or where they overlap,” Torre-Salas said.
These days though, its a construction site, owned by Zimmer Development Company out of Wilmington, North Carolina. They plan to turn the plot into an apartment complex.
Recently though, artifacts, including several small, brightly colored glass beads were found in the disturbed soil.
Peter Galli, a Fort Myers native and local bead collector said the site is of particular interest. He even compared the beads found to other beads unearthed back in the 90s at a North Fort Myers site known as the “Durham Bead Site” on Barret Street.
“The most likely the beads were made in the 1500s, in Italy, and they were shipped over here as trade for the Native Americans,” Galli said.
Actual archaeologists, like Torre-Salas, said they can’t reliably authenticate or date beads like them.
Torre-Salas went onto to explain that archaeological discoveries like that have to be documented as they are found, including what layer of soil they were found in. That way, a more accurate idea of what time period they came from can be made.
However, she also mentioned that FPAN has been trying to see if Zimmer Development Company paid to have an archaeological survey done on the property before digging.
“It would be very important to have that archaeological report, if they did one before the construction happened. We have tried to ask county leaders, city leaders for the development report, but we still have not seen it.” she said.
On Tuesday, Zimmer Development did not respond to our requests for comment on the site.
The City of Fort Myers said they are looking into whether or not a survey was done, but that developers usually aren’t required to do them before digging.
Meanwhile, some fear that whatever history is still there, could soon be lost forever.
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