Pine Island: Old Florida in the New Millennium | Untold Stories | Florida History

[@buckeyeadventures1631]

I lived on Pine Island in the early 80s.. it was a wonderful time to be there... having traveled the world I can truly say that the island is a very special place. I can remember the manatees that lumbered in water outside the house and the colorful birds that landed on our dock...

[@Sabrina-r9v]

The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery.

[@clarisd]

Being born in Florida and missing it so much as I have lived and served overseas for 26 years, I adore the spirit and determination of these islanders for their desire to maintain such a humble and lovely community! I pray one day to be able to see this place for myself!

[@bcn365]

I grew up next door to pine island 🏝 World class fishing all over there and amazing wildlife

[@clarisd]

@@bcn365 back in the day, Pine Island was so epic.

[@Itz_me0wZyXD]

This has made me really miss my Home, left the island and moved to upstate NY 13 yeara ago. Love NY, but miss my island.

[@Marineboy22]

You wouldn’t even recognize it here anymore. Southwest florida is the fastest growing area in the entire US right now. Its so sad.

[@waltchurchill4504]

Wow nearly a mirror image of my island Cedar Key, Fla. up the gulf a piece.

[@josealberto890]

A touching and inspirational video about the wonderful, Pine Island. The first time I visited Pine Island was in 1989. I should have bought a piece of property, then...especially near the water or canals. I have been back several times since then, and each time...I fall in love with it, again! There is just something very different, very unique, very old-fashioned, about it. Yet, you can drive to several towns nearby, quickly! I do have a friend at the gym, who has a mobile home on a canal there and he travels from Fort Lauderdale to Pine Island to fish. He says he may build a regular house there, one day. I want to learn more about the island now. My spouse loves mangos so it would be easy to live there now!

[@silverbackV]

The library on Pine Island has an archive room in the back. There is a large aerial picture there that show a canal north of the Calusahatchee river that goes for miles to end between 41 & 75. It jags back to join the Calusahatchee at a severe angle. At the time I saw it they said the canal was dug by the Calusa Indians in case the were attacked, they would paddle East on the canal, make that steep angle, get onto the Calusahatchee Rive and come up behind their attackers. Check it out.

[@DylanLukeLosasso]

this is such an incredible piece of information!

[@dustinwelch9586]

Great documentary! I moved to St. James City in 1983 with my grandparents and will always cherish those years!

[@oq1616]

Moving soon! Is it cool?

[@petermcdougall1152]

Awesome. I live in Cape, so I always wondered Pine islands story. Love learning new stuff

[@franktartan6808]

Thanks for laugh! I am here, close the door, raise the bridge, don’t let anyone else in!!!

[@franktartan6808]

Enjoyed the history.

[@zerobudget2649]

When I was a kid I remember going here and my parents said we where going to locals only beaches and you couldn't find another foot print as far as you could see

[@Blackwing-q2t]

Very cool, sounds like the right place to be.

[@jzanenoche6903]

Miss Sweeney's bangs are pretty rebellious

[@jamesfreddyc]

@2:05 you can see a big fish busting bait in the background.

[@frankjamesenglishartist]

Great video thanks!! Such a beautiful natural wonder! My great grandfather Frank English moved there with a lot of our family in the early sixties after retiring from the family TV/Radio business our family had just south of the Detroit border several generations.. Still have some great photos of their fish and stories..

[@robertgembala8532]

Awesome place

[@ggstorm9777]

Loving these videos...thankypu

[@jorgetoloza269]

Grew up in Florida never knew Pine Island is the biggest island in Florida

[@henrybadd7116]

Maybe either... and I live here.

[@ericschneider8524]

RIP Bert Clubb.

[@ElricX]

I really enjoyed this. I had family in St. James City and spent many vacations there as a kid. No it's not a resort town and I hope it never becomes one. Yeah you'd probably hate it so check out Marco or something.

[@douglasedwards134]

Used to like cabbage key. Moved yrs. ago, live in key west now. Miss n. ft. meyers.

[@thatotherguy1]

Lol...check out Marco!! Perfect, that's where they belong.

[@lutzschubert7407]

Verry nice ilived there around 2000

[@georgestreicher252]

When I saw the title I thought of Pine Island NY which is close to Florida NY. I grew up in Orange county not far from these towns.

[@sarahdeshay1394]

I lived inWarwick NY and also N Ft Myers Fl and remember those small towns in NY state back in the 60’s.

[@tourdechi]

I love Pine Island

[@herbie5337]

Started watching because I thought it was about the Pine Island in Hernando County west of Weeki Watchee

[@DrEw-cx9pt]

No discussion of Pine Island being one of the premier tropical fruit growing communities in the country?

[@gabrieln3613]

Yes, my great-grandparents bought the original "Pine Island Grove" (as I recall it) in about 1970. One side of my family started farming in Florida 1822, they were from England. I have some Creek Indian and other European relatives there too.....huge family that helped build the State. Anyway, they bought the Grove from a man who was a botanist (I think Russian) and he had huge crop of palm trees too. My great parents were around until I was 17 so going down to Pine Island from where we were in Sarasota was a family activity.....helping to harvest and sell the Mangos, etc. My great grandfather developed a couple varieties and there are several other mango and tropical fruit growers there too.

[@davidchristner6522]

What a production very good.i grew up in sarasota

[@Itz_me0wZyXD]

I was born and raised on Pine Island, Bokeelia.

[@acguyer]

So fascinating. So sad to see the destruction from Hurricane Ian there and Matlacha.

[@kcsunnyone]

Sad that so many actually died there in Hurricane Ian. Interesting video but I wish it'd covered more of the "current" post-Charley - pre-Ian Pine Island too.

[@intothevoid47]

This documentary, if you couldn't tell by the fashion and the picture quality, is over a decade old.

[@bws5929]

"Soon as the Colusa Indians left Pine Island"...that's a way to gloss over the total decimation of a people after thousands of years...

[@ggstorm9777]

History books being printed now claim the Cherokee Indian Nation happily packed up and left their lands. Reality is they were hunted down and FORCED to walk to Oklahoma. The Trail Of Tears....

[@joanncrane8261]

my home, Bokeelia

[@pornsakpongthong1092]

My Chinese uncle was kept as a slave of the Calusa tribe for nearly 60 years until his death.

[@gabrielleangelica1977]

Really?! What happened?

[@pornsakpongthong1092]

@@gabrielleangelica1977 they rode him like a horse every day. It bent his back.

[@gabrielleangelica1977]

@@pornsakpongthong1092 Are you serious?

[@pornsakpongthong1092]

@@gabrielleangelica1977 YES! they are evil!

[@GulfCoastRuss]

Fish bustin over her shoulder at 2:00 !

[@RATCLIFFE-LISTENS]

Somehow the Natives have paid again.I hope they were compensated and provided an opportunity to use their talent and abilities of their beautiful environment I would love to go see the Art. Peace

[@-Erebus]

I like the pine-sol font

[@ScoriacTears]

13:05 By my reckoning that's about forty miles, now I could understand how it might take even longer through the Everglades or Big Cypress but I don't understand how it could take three days from Pine Island to Fort Myers, what am I missing?

[@herbie5337]

The Calusa were a brutal tribe that beheaded enemies but they didn’t eat animals 😂

[@mountainmandale1587]

I was born on my family's grove at 1655 Pine Island Rd. 1963 was a good year for Florida boys to be born. Pligger knees!

[@braedenplath]

If sh says UMMMMM one more time😂

[@sandienesta1467]

dog on ice, that's hot! thank you, for all these new videos being released!

[@jasong428]

At 2:05, what is that jumping in the water off that lady's right ear?

[@michaelmajor5467]

I know it's hard to see but I do believe those are diving pelicans they see small schools of fish and they slam into the water to catch their food. Or tarpon jumping out of the water

[@dumluk1984]

Most likely a mullet. They jump like crazy.

[@petermcdougall1152]

Jack chasing mullet

[@keinosmith874]

Show us on the map ..where ..pine lsland..is located

[@roomfulofblues3173]

Near Fort Myers

[@davidrollins4272]

By far the largest island in Florida. Adjacent to Cape Coral.

[@vevedehavilland4743]

I live on pine island

[@artistaloca4]

Hello neighbor ❣️🌴

[@brandyfromdaburg3859]

Great. Now people are going to rush to pine island and turn it into another wasteland of condos and McMansions.

[@dpl2617]

Na, probably just remain the wasteland it already is.

[@454bard]

Florida will not be happy till there's nothing left but a big parking lot and condos

[@JohnWilliams-pn7ft]

@@dpl2617 why i do you think pine Island a wasteland?

[@dpl2617]

@@JohnWilliams-pn7ft Maybe more of a slum. Rundown trailer park atmosphere, and lots of derelict homes, with a smattering of nicer stuff, unfortunately the minority.

[@carolbrooks9161]

@@454bard I live in Florida. And no we dont want our state covered in condos and high rise buildings. Its developers who want that and they usually come here from elsewhere to make millions off our beautiful state.

[@johnfairchild3421]

The airman Lived to fish and enjoy the sun and the cheap rum and the Beaut Ladies

[@homer5328]

Enjoyed video but so sad the Publix was allowed to be built. Such a monstrosity! Will destroy so many small and medium sized stores we frequent. Also worry about the future of Capt. Conns!

[@SSHitMan]

2:01 blowup in the water as big fish chases smaller fish.

[@petermcdougall1152]

Good eye! Probably a jack chasing mullet. it was a good size

[@TheWirdbird]

Pine Island. Here for the history of these small places that have recently been destroyed by Hurricane Ian.

[@betterthanideserve76]

I've been there since 1945, moved out 12 years ago, no talk about how the islanders hung people of color from matlacha bridge if the entered the island. Yes this was wrong but tell the good with the bad history. Trust me it happened. No family of color inhabited the island till a jamaican family moved to St James city in 1989.

[@aaronjarvenpa1743]

I was out there in Pine Island 3 years ago after the hurricane flattened it . God did it had a horrible smell

[@marianolim4767]

Note: As much as the current residents of Pine Island want to retain its "unique" culture... remember the Colusa Native american residents wanted to preserve their way of life and culture too....

[@Newgenentrepreneur]

People in Sanford Florida call theirselves Boke that's sounds similar to Bokeelia maybe those are the people who was driven off their Island

[@dam4274]

A Winn-Dixie? I thought for certain a Publix would’ve been there instead.

[@ronniedelahoussayechauvin6717]

I never heard of Pine Island.

[@Itz_me0wZyXD]

Calusa Land Trust ❤ HEROES

[@johnfontenot7861]

I lived in Fl in the 90’s, that place must have been amazing before all the yankees and foreigners.

[@lazloholyfeild]

at 2:01 a tarpon jumps in the background

[@thomasboston1887]

hello i would like to give you all a heads up on a mind blow dynamic of migration-al transition and adaptive fact the Calusa as you call them are the survivors of the Mayan /Aztec Inca populations of south America as of the post chietz sunnitize impact that is the I dotted and the T Crossed if you think about it the Native American Indian is actually the ancestor of the survivors of that event that migrated north to occupy and become the Hopei Pueblo Anasazi Apache Seminole and all the other tribes history has recorded in error

[@sarahdeshay1394]

Do the residents still refer to themselves as “mullets”?

[@richardcarter3406]

Mullet heads

[@JamesJones-cx5pk]

6000 years ago the sea levels were 4 meters lower. It looked totally different. I would think people were there much earlier than 6K, we just can't find evidence.

[@sonnyreeves8123]

We love SJC

[@LeeindaGodsTruewatermaiden]

And its all gone sadly hurricane Ian, Helene, and Milton destroyed it

[@johnfairchild3421]

There was a lot of. Ladies that met and. Their husbands at Pine island

[@SnookOnTheFly]

Our way of life is being strangled to death by “progress”.

[@dpl2617]

It's called cleaning up the trashy yards, and taking pride in home ownership...

[@SnookOnTheFly]

@@dpl2617 that’s tidiness or cleanliness, etc. this part of Florida should remain the rugged wilderness that it is. Every new business and home that is built is destroying what makes our area unique. Picking up trash will not change that.

[@SnookOnTheFly]

@OMINOID I don’t mind it being private as long as you have access to it like the neighborly people we were when I was younger. I’m just tired of seeing it all turn into concrete. The people that move here do it for the Florida charm and then destroy it by turning it into a big shopping mall. Florida is all about the outdoors.

[@sharronpettis384]

Everywhere is

[@robertj.oliver8337]

um...um...um..

[@paceflchick]

Plant some pine trees.

[@petermcdougall1152]

There's australian slash pines all over the place

[@dpl2617]

Was considering moving to the island. It was the junkie, and trailer park atmosphere that turned me off...

[@dpl2617]

@@tcook627 For sure, don't think I would have been eccentric and uneducated enough...

[@davidrollins4272]

You want condos? Go to Fort Myers, Marco Island or Naples.

[@dpl2617]

@@davidrollins4272 Some nice homes and well kept properties would be nice.

[@kahlernygard809]

Well most of them just got wiped out by ian

[@floridapunkarchivist]

I never want to leave Pine Island? yikes can you imagine how lovely these people must be

[@johnfairchild3421]

Married their husbands after meeting them at Pine island

[@haroldfletcher5493]

The jackasses at KZbin f’d up the aspect ratio.

[@John-ws5oh]

People destroy everything.

[@echodavis5738]

We are not Indian we are Native Americans

[@pornsakpongthong1092]

I thought you're guardians now

[@espinal557190]

“Boquita” means small mouth in Spanish. I can see how someone could have mispronounced it once and it became bokeelia. Idk just a guess based on what she said.

[@dhmartin8762]

Across the pass from Bokeelia is Boca Grande. So, it's "big mouth" and "little mouth."

[@simbaeast6846]

Hutchison island used to be beautiful, and now it's a piece of c*** mode over used to be so beautiful. Many pine trees, it was a beautiful forest and developers screwed it over.

[@artistaloca4]

I miss Phil ❤️

[@AmerQuin]

Did Phil pass on?

[@artistaloca4]

@@AmerQuin Yes

[@AmerQuin]

@@artistaloca4 So sorry to hear! Thanks for letting us know, Tigger. {RiP} Phil. 🙏🏽

[@mec4lifesmiley700]

There are Indians in California that call themselves colusa Indians wonder if they came by way of the trail of tears?

[@danamaddox9886]

I am a native Floriden what is she know not a native born

[@jakeornot6306]

I wonder how islanders determine a newcomer who is welcomed as opposed to those they wish to prohibit, and how long it takes for them to make that decision. When I lived in Florida in the mid-1990s, on the Gulf Coast, I witnessed the further destruction of natural habits - and in that I include "civilizing" natural paths and beaches - but, in particular, I witnessed a large, wild area destroyed in a matter of a few weeks, including the destruction of the nature-planted palm trees, and the rise of condos, and "imported" palm trees. The emotional and psychological toll was severe and translated into physical illness as well. At my stage of life, I am convinced that the only place to move and not be an "other" would be a borough of New York City, but I'd bet that no longer holds true either. Besides, I am, by most standards, poor. But I am no threat, either. I don't want places I have lived to change beyond their soul identities. I'm glad I saw the video. That they haven't been able to keep the palm tree growers out isn't surprising. But who would choose to live there... or here where I am. (By the way - you were filming long enough to tell the older woman historian to stick her bra strap under her blouse). But this video was thoroughly informative and well-produced, save for the need for better audio levels in the voice-over.

[@worngimimajosplaynholmes6907]

Theres a lot of old Florida left dont give up ✌

[@Zbakenmcak]

What

[@orange70383]

Imported trees gave you mental and physical problems, wow.

[@SnookOnTheFly]

It’s all about assimilation. If you can assimilate; you’re ok, but if you want to yankeefy our area (like it has become very much) we don’t like you.

[@richc3437]

Did you mean "I witnessed the further destruction of natural habitats"? If not, what does the destruction of natural habits mean? What is a natural habit?

[@christopherliebler]

Wouldn't it have been good to actually shell in the beginning where the hell Pine Island is

[@justynjonn]

Better to leave them alone to sacrifice people to their gods. Rip those eyes out!

[@VEE-rd7cu]

I love how the colonizers say " colusa people left" instead of the Colusa were genocided and their lands stolen!

[@SoloTravelerOffTheBeatenPath]

Bro you are cringe af. Virtually every piece of land on earth has been fought over, stolen, won, lost, etc through conquest and domination time and time again. That is general human history for the last several thousand years.. To call any group of people “colonizers” in some attempt at being derogatory is just utterly moronic. The entire world has been colonized at one point or another.

[@kahlernygard809]

Makes sense to go inland if boats are doing viking style raids of costal areas

[@priestessliletheudora432]

Bull. The Windover bog people were southern florida , and were here 7,000-8,000 years ago. Theyve been here

[@bulldogneon]

vince tapager is slow

[@nickboles9649]

She says oh we dont know where they came from but the estuaries weren't even formed until 6000 yrs ago. That's when God made the Earth. The ENTIRE Bible is true. Jesus Christ is the way, truth, and life.

[@eifionjones559]

crap

[@eifionjones559]

@OMINOID it does the way US evangelists re write it LOL

[@dennisbudzynski7733]

M

[@johnclark1612]

I'm sure they met a Spanish war dog or two

[@Itz_me0wZyXD]

This has made me really miss my Home, left the island and moved to upstate NY 13 yeara ago. Love NY, but miss my island.