Estero Island Historic Society hosts local author Woody Hanson
The Historic Society is welcoming the public to attend a free event with a speaker on a topic close-to-home: Estero then and now.
Local author Woody Hanson, who wrote Finding Utopia: Estero, a Dream or an Ideal, will be present to speak.
For centuries, Florida a land of endless possibilities has been the destination of choice for those in search of utopia and immortality. During the late-1800s and the early-1900s, the U.S. witnessed the emergence of utopian societies places characterized by communal living, alternative lifestyles, immortality, and oftentimes, charismatic leaders. Estero, Florida home to the Koreshan Unity Settlement was no exception.
Focusing on the Unity’s efforts to incorporate in 1904, and contrasting them to the Village of Estero’s pathway to incorporation in 2014, Hanson argues that little has changed, although much is different. Hoping to find alternative lifestyles, seekers left their northern homes and came to southwest Florida. Did they find what they had set out to find?
The event begins at 7 p.m. Monday, March 13 in the 3rd floor community room of the Fort Myers Beach Public Library, 2755 Estero Blvd.