The Story of the Chokoloskee Bay Country, With Reminiscences of Pioneer C. S. "Ted" Smallwood by Charlton W. Tebeau - 1955

Miami, FL: Florida Flair Books: Copeland Studies in Florida History, (2008). Octavo, paperbound (stiff tan wrappers), 88 pp. Illustrated with black & white photographs. Near Fine. In lower Collier County, south of the Tamiami Trail at the end of the State Road 29 lies a fascinating segment of the Florida Frontier. Seminole indians called the region Chokoloskee, meaning old house, but no legend survives to relate the reason for the name. Long time residents pronounce it “Chuck-aluskee” which is closer to the Indian name than the modern spelling suggests. Chokoloskee now denotes only the island in lower Chokoloskee Bay and the settlement on the island. But until about 1900 it was the name given to the entire region touching on the bay of that name. This bay is a shallow inland sea almost ten miles in length and less than two miles wide lying roughly southeast to northwest along the shore of the mainland, nowhere more than five feet deep. A strong northwest wind at low tide may blow almost… Read More