Friends of the Mound House Christmas Market has successful landing
In 1521, somewhere in Southwest Florida near here or possibly exactly here on Fort Myers Beach, Juan Ponce de Leon’s last attempt to establish a Spanish colony came to an end.
Historians debate whether the Spanish explorer was looking for the Fountain of Youth but they agree that he was fatally attacked by the Calusa tribe. The exact location of the fateful skirmish is lost to history though experts place it somewhere in this region.
While the Calusa vanished from Florida more than 200 years ago, one of their shell mounds survive under the Mound House on Connecticut Street in Fort Myers Beach. The Friends of the Mound House held a Christmas market fundraiser Dec. 14 at the site where the Calusa lived and which now holds status on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Mound House was busy with visitors Saturday for its market in what was an opportunity for the public to become familiar with the story of an ancient people who coincidentally didn’t observe Christmas.
The fascination with the Mound House led the Town of Fort Myers Beach to turn the oldest home in town into a public site. The Friends of the Mound House dedicate some of the space to preserving the home as it was and the rest to the ancient Calusas who were overrun by the Spanish, competing tribes and decimated by disease. The house itself has been open to the public since 2015.
A Christmas market with vendors survived an early rain Saturday. One of the big attractions at the market were colorful handmade items from Mali. They were brought to the sale by Friends of the Mound House President Ellen Vaughn, whose daughter teaches there. There were wax prints from the African country with can’t-miss backpacks, pocketbooks and wraps.
Linda Bedell, of Estero, was selling handcrafted pine-needle baskets with her husband Jim.
“They are all made of pine needles we harvest off the ground,” Mrs. Bedell said. They collect the needles at Estero Community Park. They thread the baskets with wax linen and artificial sinew and create emblems of bears, pumpkins, fish, butterflies and other assorted creatures.
Gayle Crabtree-Pergoli, a Mound House volunteer, marveled at the approximately 200-year-old giant strangler fig tree in the front yard which was split in half after Hurricane Irma two years ago, she said. Wood carvers use its remnants to carve images of birds and the masks that the Calusa priests are believed to have worn during special ceremonies. A number of the carvings were up for sale Saturday.
Gracie Stam won a raffle prize of a mystery box which included a necklace, pocket purse, earrings, shells, a photo frame and the book “Educate: A Memoir,” by Tara Westover. “It’s a lot of cool stuff,” Stam said. “I’ll definitely use all of it.”
Mayor Anita Cereceda, who was instrumental in leading the town in acquiring the site, opening it up to the public and turning the home into a museum, was selling jewelry at the market. In addition to the Mound House, she stressed the importance of giving the public access to Estero Bay through the land. There is kayaking and boat access there as well. “Not everybody can have a back bay house,” she said.
“I remember the first time we came by here and looked at the property. It was just breathtaking,” Cereceda said. “There is something just magical about it.”