Five unusual things you may not know about Collier County

Collier County is brimming with stories of its hunting, fishing, herding and agricultural history and anecdotes about its sleek tourist appeal today. But its quirky history has so many more stories. Here are some parts of its colorful whole you may not have been aware of. And there are plenty more where those came from. 

1 and 2. The spies next door.

Our career with the U.S. military intelligence is a two-part series. In the first, the CIA became the tenants of a fish camp central building known as Cottage Manatee on the Gordon River where it proceeded to quietly supply the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.

Urban legends abound about carloads of Cubans coming to the city to learn where they could join the ultimately failed attempt to wrest control from dictator Fidel Castro. 

But the person who has the facts is Lila Zuck, Naples historian. Her book, "Naples, A Second Paradise" (Collier County Historical Research Center, Inc.: 2013; 1,005 pages) describes the group's front as the Keys Navigation and Research Company. It largely funneled arms, hidden under the house, to the Cuban exile troops via PT boat. (The book is available from the Naples Historical Society at napleshistoricalsociety.org.)

It was not hard for Naples to figure out what the true intent was, according to Zuck; one of the checks for its outboard motor repair was signed by the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, Virginia.

Later, on Marco Island, the U.S. Air Force openly built missile tracking stations at Caxambas Point to watch the skies around Cuba. Russia, then the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, had begun installing nuclear missile sites in Cuba, a prime vantage point from which to intimidate the U.S.

The tensions built to an ultimatum Oct. 22, 1962, when President John F. Kennedy addressed the nation on television, announcing a naval blockade of Cuba and threatening military strikes to back it up.

The blockade was to forestall any additional nuclear missiles arriving from the USSR. But there were already missiles there. Southwest Floridians doubtlessly felt the tension of the moment much more than most Americans, who were, to say it mildly, clenched.

A  week of diplomacy through the United Nations defused the situation: Russia would remove the missiles; we would not support another Bay of Pigs. Eventually both sites would become high-end homes and commercial developments where owners may be unaware that they're on historical ground.

3. Cemeteries like no other

Lisa Marciano, manager of the Naples Depot Museum, says she's counted 15 unique cemeteries, but that's an undercount of burial places: "It doesn't include any memorial gardens, columbariums or the Eternal Reef garden."

Yes, we have a cemetery-at-sea, or, actually, two: The Southwest Florida Eternal Reefs garden is a concrete reef form given additional surfaces with the installation of balls containing cremated ashes. It is about 3 miles off the Gulf coast in Collier County.  Another reef garden is off the Isles of Capri near Marco Island.

Rest in reef:What artificial reef burials can do

Most of the other unusual cemeteries are private family burial grounds, created when Collier was still part of Lee County. The expense and travel to bury a person in Fort Myers was burdensome, so families buried their own nearby.

Marciano and her staff cataloged as many of the cemeteries as possible for a 2016 show, "Rest in Peace: Cemeteries of Collier County." 

There were some she couldn't reach: "There's one on Fakahatchee Island that's only accessible by boat," she recalled. 

Most of these family burial places are hidden in woods or near homes on private property. But some have become fenced oases surrounded by the hum of commerce  that has grown up around them. Those include the Episcopal Cemetery on West Main Street in Immokalee and the Rosemary Cemetery on Pine Ridge Road between U.S. 41 and Goodlette-Frank Road (just north of the CVS, between the parking lot and store entrance).

A block from the latter are four concrete posts that are said to mark an African-American cemetery. The cemetery at Plot N, as it's known, apparently holds the remains of eight Black residents, but there's no signage in place. Their burial places survey the Goodlette-Pine Ridge intersection, and Goodlette Corners, a strip mall of sushi and wallpaper stores and a familiar nightlife spot, South Street City Oven and Grill. 

There have been attempts to add a memorial plaque, and another is underway at the county level now.

In the meantime, tread softly as you pass. 

4. The natives to avoid

Fire ants aren't enough; we have scorpions. Most of us didn't know it until our newest park received a bronze sculpture of one. Or we went camping. 

That's because the Florida bark scorpion is a nocturnal arthropod, from 2-to-3 inches in real life, unlike the 3-foot, 200-pound Baker Park work by Kathy Spalding. It's actually one of three kinds in Florida, including the striped variety and a rare Guiana striped scorpion that appears only in Collier, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties. 

Sign of the scorpion:Baker Park gets sculpture with both sides of nature

The scorpion lives under bark or in piles of wood or stone, another good reason to use heavy leather gloves when handling any of the above. Its sting is searingly painful and that poison can be under your skin for up to five hours.

And if you're not nervous enough, it's classified as an arachnid.

5. The gift spires on Artis—Naples

Donors were promised plaques on the turrets of Artis for donating certain amounts during construction of that imposing building at 5833 Pelican Bay Blvd. back in 1989.

Myra Janco Daniels, its retired founder and CEO, knows that because she promoted the idea. Interviewed for the 20th anniversary of what was then the Philharmonic Center for the Arts, she recalled being visited by a couple who wanted to help.

They wanted to contribute something of permanence in the building that houses Hayes Hall and four galleries. But they didn't have a massive amount of money, they lamented.

Not one to turn away a donation, Daniels came up with a plan to offer them naming rights to one of the spires that frame the roof. Although invisible to visitors, a plaque with their name would be affixed to it.

It wouldn't be the last spire sold, although Daniels can't be sure of the number.

"We did have names on those," she recalled of the spires. "But that's been long ago, and I don't know whether they're still there."

But there is likely someone in this city who can point to a turret and say, "That's mom and dad's."

Harriet Howard Heithaus covers arts and entertainment for the Naples Daily News/naplesnews.com. Reach her at 239-213-6091.

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