On the western edge of the Everglades and deep in the heart of the 10,000 Islands, Chokoloskee Island has been called one of Florida’s last frontiers.
The Smallwood Store, a trading post, served a remote and isolated area buying hides, furs, and farm produce in exchange for providing the goods required to survive.
Ted Smallwood’s Store was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, it remained opened until 1982.
In 1990 Ted’s granddaughter reopened the store as a museum and today it serves as a time capsule of Florida pioneer history. The center section of the building remains as Ted would have known it. The hide room has been turned into exhibit space, telling the history of Southwest Florida’s pioneers.
It is also worth to note that serial killer Edgar Watson was gunned down on the property and there is a Watson section in the store.
Comments