Useppa Island is a barrier island located in Lee
County, Florida. It has been known for luxury resorts since the late
19th century, and it is currently the home of the private Useppa Island
Club. On May 21, 1996, it was added to the U.S. National Register of
Historic Places, due to its archaeological significance.
History
Useppa separated from the coastline about 6500 - 5000 BC. Before that,
it was inhabited by the Paleo-Indians since at least 8000 BC. Later,
it was occupied by the Calusa nation, who called it Toampe and left
behind many artifacts and sites of archaeological value, including a
burial mound. "Useppa Man", the body of a Calusa who died
in about AD 600, was discovered at the island's high point in 1989.
In the late 18th century the Spanish rancher José Caldez moved
to the island and operated fishing settlements from it. He named his
new home "Josefa," which was also the name of his schooner;
it was called both "Josefa" and "Caldez Island"
thereafter. The modern name Useppa is a corruption of Josefa. His men
intermarried with the locals and sent their children to Cuba for baptism
and schooling. They were evicted by the Seminole in 1835 during the
Second Seminole War; the island's name evolved from Josefa to Useppa
after that time. The United States build Fort Casey on the island in
1850, but it was soon abandoned. During the American Civil War Useppa
was an outpost for Union sympathizers, who launched guerrilla strikes
on Confederate ships.
When tarpon fishing became popular in the 1880s, Chicago businessman
John Roach established a resort on Useppa. Barron Collier bought the
island in 1911, but the hotel was damaged by the Labor Day Hurricane
of 1935, and was torn down after World War II.
In the early 1960s, Useppa served as a CIA training base for the Bay
of Pigs invaders.
William Snow bought the island in 1962 and refurbished its decaying
buildings, initiating a recovery in Useppa's tourism industry. James
B. "Jimmy" Turner, a Tampa dairyman bought the island in 1968.
He operated Useppa as an "adults-only" club and the sign that
announced that policy now hangs at the Museum.
In 1973 the Mariner Corporation purchased Useppa, and in 1976 one of
the original Mariner partners, Garfield Beckstead, bought the island
with a handful of other adventurers. Now Beckstead is the sole owner
of the Useppa Island Club which serves Useppa property owners and non-resident
Club members.
The beginning years of the latest transformation are shown in the pictures
of an overgrown island rejuvenated. The reality of the rest of Useppa
is seen outside the Museum on an island tour, atop middens' thousand
years of shells, a view from the Collier Inn across Pine Island Sound,
in the scales of long ago Silver Kings on the wall of the Tarpon Bar.
Folklore
Like the nearby islands of Captiva, Gasparilla, and Sanibel, Useppa
figures into Florida folklore in the stories of the legendary pirate
captain José Gaspar, also known as Gasparilla. According to these,
he named the place after Useppa, a Spanish princess he captured and
became enamored with. She rejected his advances until he threatened
to kill her. She still refused, and he beheaded her in a rage (alternately,
his crew demanded her death). He instantly regretted his actions, and
took her to Useppa, where he buried her himself. The island still bears
her name. In some versions of the story, the young lady's name was Josefa,
and the island's name allegedly evolved into "Useppa" over
time. Some versions name the lady as Josefa de Mayorga, daughter of
Martín de Mayorga, viceroy of New Spain from 1779 to 1782. Though
these folk stories are not supported by the historical record, they
have been repeatedly used as sources for fictitious treasure maps and
justification for illegal excavations in Native American archaeological
sites.
