St. James City

As you enter St. James City, you will pass the entrance to St. Jude’s Harbor, which is also the entrance to the Calusa Land Trust’s St. Jude Nature Trail.  Here you can hike or bicycle through the woods and wetlands to the waters of Matlacha Pass over ground and over wood decking.  Observe the native flora and fauna. 

St. James City is Pine Island’s most heavily populated area.  It was incorporated before Ft. Myers.  But, showing itself in true Pine Island character, it “dis-incorporated” itself some time ago.  It, too,  is a mix of people, mostly a mix of retired residents, many of them who maintain two homes, one in St. James and one “up North”.  You’ll see modest mobile homes, luxurious concrete block and piling homes, vacation cottages, and a small amount of condominiums and motels.  None of the condos are over 38 feet tall (one of Pine Island’s few rules).  Almost everything is waterfront.  This is a boater’s community.  The water is deep and Gulf access is easy.  There are some good places to eat, some offering frequent entertainment.  Pine Island is home to a many songwriters and  musicians.  They seem to congregate in Saint James.  Even the hardware store has them perform on its grounds.  There is a Song Writers Festival each January.

In Between Communities - North

Go North from Pine Island Center toward Bokeelia (about eight miles) at Charlotte Harbor. Along the way you will find some small businesses, a few churches, a restaurant or two, a mobile home park, but mostly you will see specialized agriculture.  Here are Pine Islanders defying the American trend of abandoning the farm.  They are intent to make it “farming”.  And proud they are with unique crops and methods.  There are growers of hybrid hibiscus ,  organic vegetable growers, growers of all kinds of palms, mango, lychee and other tropical fruit.  You can buy some of the products at produce stands or in their nurseries.  Pine Island mangoes are known throughout Florida. Pine Islands palms are shipped worldwide.  If you happen to travel to Kuwait City or the United Arab Emirates, you’ll probably see palms that were born in Pine Island.  Stop in one of the nurseries along the way to take home one of the palms or tropical fruit trees or to learn more about them.

Bokeelia

Arrive in the Bokeelia area.  Here you can spend some time looking at the waters of Charlotte Harbor.  On good clear days you can see right across this large water to Cape Haze and Boca Grande Pass where the Gulf meets the Harbor.  Bicycle or walk through  Bokeelia rich in pirate history. Enjoy the scenery of nice homes, nicely landscaped short rise condominiums, vacation residences, art galleries, marinas, etc.  Spend some money to spend some time on the long pier where you can drop your fishing line.  Enjoy a meal on or across from the water, take a day cruise to Cayo Costa State Park with its seven miles of beach and multitudes of sand dollars.  Cruise to Cabbage Key for lunch.  Leave the money on the wall!  Stay at one of the fine condominiums or motels or cottages in Bokeelia for a relaxing couple of days or longer.  Go boating on your own; rent a kayak or canoe.  Buy fresh shrimp or fish from one of 

Pineland

Travel North from Pine Island Center and take a left onto Pineland Road.  For your safety, there’s a new left turn lane at this intersection.  Follow the winding road to arrive at Pineland.  Agriculture gives way to history along this road.  At the first curve you’ll pass a small reddish residence which at one time housed a church, then a school for the early pioneers to Pine Island.  There is an old cemetery on the grounds, but it is not open to the public.  Further on down is the second smallest post office in Florida.  Stop in and say hello to the postmistress who runs this building totally on her own.  In addition to regular postal duties, she maintains the facility and is responsible for keeping up the grounds, fixing and installing PO boxes, painting, cleaning, etc.  She takes a one-hour lunch break so you can’t do business between noon and 1PM.

Leave the post office and travel Pineland Road west.  Look to the right and you will notice the land elevation rises as well. All to your right are the remnants of the mounds of the capital of the Calusa Indian Empire.  The Calusa controlled from Marco Island north to the present city of  Sarasota and are credited to have dominated some areas all the way to what is now West Palm Beach.  They had a remarkable system of man made canals, some of which are still visible in Pineland and in the Pine Island Ridge area just east of Pineland.  The turn of the 20th century pioneers to Pineland built their houses on the Indian mounds for they had great vistas of Pine Island Sound and the outer barrier islands as you will on your left as the road curves.  There is a small park on your left with an historical marker, which you can read.  Take some pictures.  Drive a bit again and observe some dazzling old Jamaican Tall coconut palms near the old Tarpon Lodge which served more recently as substance abuse rehabilitation center.  It has recently changed hands and its ultimate use is being debated.  Across the road from the large marina is the unimposing entrance road to the Randell Research Center.  The Center is operated by the University of Florida which is doing substantial digs on the grounds to study the history of the Indians who built them and then disappeared.  Narrated tours are offered each Saturday morning for a $5 per person fee.  Finally, you drive into Alden Pines, Pine Island’s only golf course community with beautiful homes, many elevated, backing up to the golf course.  The golf course is open to the public at fairly reasonable rates.  So, if you are into the sport, try your luck here.  While you are golfing, you will be in a nature lover’s paradise sharing your space with osprey, eagles, even pond alligators.

I don’t think we covered it all, but, you can see that Greater Pine Island may be “off the beaten path”, but it does offer worthy sites to see and a variety of things to do.  Pine Island has been called “The Forgotten Island” in the past.  Now because of  MangoMania and our other attractions, and because of its “different than the rest” aura, we don’t think you will forget Pine Island anymore.