Marking sands of time: Delnor-Wiggins turns 50 and historian documents its past

Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park, the invaluable strip of unspoiled beach land and mangrove swamp that forms the northeast corner of North Naples, turned 50 this year.

Yet few of the hundreds of thousands who annually visit the park to swim, barbecue, fish, sunbathe, savor diverse wildlife, walk, go shelling, get married, take photos, or just gather with friends and relatives, knew Delnor-Wiggins had celebrated its half-century birthday in September.

Nor, in fact, are many aware of the popular park’s history or how it migrated from being an overgrown private estate, passed through the hands of an Illinois couple to Collier County possession, and finally became a gem in the state’s recreation domain.

Now, however, some of the park's obscure history is being dusted off.

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Park officials recently appointed a retired professional historian with the task of ferreting out documentation and stories of the park’s past and compiling it in a format that can enrich people’s enjoyment and understanding of Delnor-Wiggins.

“This park is why I located here,” said James K. Matthews, a former military historian who moved to the area full time in August after annually visiting Naples over the previous decade.

“It’s fun,” he said of his project of delving into Delnor-Wiggins’ past. “I’m enthusiastic about it.” (The California native, who has a doctorate in history from the University of California, also has become am enthusiastic regular on the sands of Delnor-Wiggins. “I’m a beach boy,” he said. “My whole career, all I thought about was returning to the beach.)

Yet researching the park’s history can be painstaking and frustrating for the man who had served as historian for various U.S. military outfits, the most recent being 16 years with the U.S. Transportation Command. He retired from the Department of Defense in 2003 as the Command’s director of research, historian, archivist and curator.

One knotty challenge now confronting Matthews is that the park’s own files lack helpful documentation on its history.  

“The first thing I did after I got official status as the park historian was to research the files of the park,” Matthews said. “But there’s a dearth of information in the files,” he quickly discovered.

Organizations often “don’t think historically,” according to Matthews, and fail to keep accounts for future perusal. One exception, he said, is his former employer, the nation’s military. Matthews chronicled the U.S. invasion of Grenada and the development of the B-52 bomber.

But other organizations seldom engage in ongoing archival work and frequently wind up with little accounting of their organization’s past activities. That leaves historians like Matthews struggling to search for secondary sources of information.

One such source that exists today but didn’t as recently as a few decades ago is the internet. “I did a massive internet search” of Delnor-Wiggins, Matthews explained. “I found a lot of park service and environmental documents about the park.” 

What he hasn’t yet found, though, is information explaining the transformation in the 1970s of what then was rugged wildness into what now is a vibrant public asset.

Collier County bought the mile-long beach property, once a privately held estate, in 1964. But the county could not have made the purchase without the financial help of Dellora and Lester Norris, Illinois philanthropists who wintered in Naples and gave generously to the local community. The Delnor portion of the park’s name is a tribute to them. The Wiggins part comes from Joseph Wiggins, an early settler in the region who opened a trading post near what is now known as Wiggins Pass at the park’s northern tip.

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The state of Florida purchased the property from the county in 1970 and turned it into a state park.

Matthews is trying to learn how the park land was developed — how its buildings were erected, its roadways laid, its parking lots constructed and amenities (such as a recently demolished observation tower) added.

He hasn’t had much luck yet searching old newspaper clippings. Nor has he found files in the parks archives to shed light on those particulars.

“I’m hoping I can fill these holes by visiting the (state) archives in Tallahassee,” he said, though that task has been delayed by difficulties born of the coronavirus epidemic.

He also is hoping someone from the community might be able to enlighten him on the park’s early days. “If there’s anybody out there and they want to tell me what the park was like when it was being built, that would be great,” he said.

Matthews, who began his work in October, plans to talk with long-time park employees, both current and retired, to learn more about Delnor-Wiggins’ genesis.

“Oral histories are important, but I first have to get smarter on the history of the park before I ask questions,” he said. “I’m not there yet.”

His eventual goal is to produce an annotated chronology of Delnor-Wiggins that might be woven into interpretive programs park rangers can present to visitors.

“This is something I (can) do and really contribute to the park,” said Matthews. “I want to give back to the beach, to the park I love.” 

If you have information about the park's early days to share with Matthews, email him at parkhistory@yahoo.com.