ONCE UPON A TIME

Experience Southwest Florida’s colorful culture, art and history at these local museums.

BY LYNN WAALKES

Mastodons and saber-tooth tigers. Seminole Indians, rugged settlers, brilliant inventors. A fascinating region abundantly supplied by a rich variety of bird, animals and fish living in tropical splendor. Experience all these fascinating aspects of Southwest Florida and more at local museums. Take a break from sun, sand and sunburn and enjoy getting to know this incredible region.

AH-TAH-THI-KI SEMINOLE INDIAN MUSEUM

Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki means “a place to learn and remember,” a fitting name for the Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Seminole Indian Museum, where visitors explore traditional Seminole history and culture through exhibits, artifacts, an art gallery and a recreated village. Located within the Everglades on the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation, the museum is open daily.

Stroll the beautiful, mile-long Cypress Dome boardwalk and explore the Clan Pavilion and the Ceremonial Grounds. View and purchase arts and crafts at the Seminole Village, a reconstructed version of Seminole tourist camps popular in the early to mid-20th century. Near the end of the boardwalk is the Hunting Camp, which depicts the temporary camps Seminoles built during hunting season.

Not all of this Smithsonian-affiliated museum is dedicated to the past. Although Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki curates more than 180,000 artifacts and archival items, it also highlights today’s Seminole artists at the Mosaic Community Art Gallery and celebrates native people associated with the Seminoles at the Nook Gallery.

COLLIER COUNTY MUSEUMS

Collier County operates five free, well-curated museums that explore local history through art, artifacts, interactive displays and exhibits. While Collier Museum at Government Center and Naples Depot Museum are located in Naples, consider a short road trip to explore the following

Opposite page: Tour the Edison Botanic Research Laboratory at the Edison and Ford Winter Estates to learn about the quest to find a domestic source of rubber. This page: One of the many antique cars at the museum; Thomas Edison’s winter estate.

three as well. Immokalee Pioneer Museum tells the stories of pioneer families settling on the edge of the Big Cypress Swamp and the Everglades. You’ll learn about the cattle business at this 13-acre ranch, home of the Robert Roberts family.

Famous for its archaeological discovery of the Marco Cat, Marco Island Historical Museum highlights the Calusa Indians through interactive displays and a recreated village. The Marco Cat is on loan from the Smithsonian.

Next, drive to Everglades City and step into the 1920s-era Museum of the Everglades, where you’ll find more than 2,000 years of the area’s history. Learn more about the tenacious settlers who managed the Florida tropics without air conditioning or bug spray.

EDISON AND FORD WINTER ESTATES

Rub elbows, figuratively speaking, with towering geniuses Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, who gave us the light bulb, affordable cars and so much more. The Edison and Ford Winter Estates spans 20 acres and more than a century of brilliance in invention. Take the self-guided, or better yet, guided tour of the grounds, gardens and research lab, then explore the museum, which includes exhibits and videos, thousands of artifacts and several early Ford cars.

Thomas and Mina Edison made Fort Myers their winter retreat in 1885. Friend and auto magnate Henry Ford was so taken with the area that he later bought the property next door. In 1927, Edison, Ford and Harvey Firestone formed Edison Botanical Research Corporation to seek a domestic source of rubber. Be sure to explore the research lab and gardens, which boasts more than 1,700 plants, and includes 400 species from six continents.

Linger in the Moonlight Garden, designed in 1929 by renowned landscape architect Ellen Biddle Shipman. It includes night-blooming, fragrant plants, shrubs and a reflecting pool. Before you leave, browse the Edison Ford Garden Shoppe’s hundreds of plants and garden-related items.

GOLISANO CHILDREN’S MUSEUM (C’MON)

C’mon’s colorful, playful exterior promises fun, and boy, does it deliver. Inside, 30,000 square feet of inventive, educational and downright

Opposite page: IMAG LIVE! Shows at the IMAG Museum are designed to engage, entertain and inspire. This page: C’Mon, the Golisano Children’s Museum of Naples, teaches through interactive play.

entertaining galleries and play space can keep kids happily occupied for a full day.

C’mon invites children to express their creativity, discover other cultures and nature, and try their hands at occupations ranging from weather forecaster to veterinarian to farmer. Children learn while exploring Mother Nature House, Art Studio, Inventioneer’s Lab, Build It!, Journey Through the Everglades, Race to Space, Adopt-a-Pet veterinary clinic, World Café, a produce market, a farm and much more.

At the center of the museum, a two-story Banyan tree invites kids to crawl inside and climb to its top branches. C’mon’s outdoor play space, Johnsonville Backyardville, also gets kids moving with a hedge maze, water play area, art space and shaded amphitheater. Picnic tables provide a place to enjoy snacks and drinks purchased at the Museum Store.

Child development experts designed the nonprofit museum to stimulate children’s learning abilities, motor and social skills, and sense of curiosity. Exhibits are accessible for individuals with developmental, hearing, physical, social/ emotional and visual challenges.

IMAG HISTORY & SCIENCE CENTER

Dust off your inner earth-science geek to explore more than 60 exhibits at Fort Myers’ IMAG History & Science Center. Take an hour or three to enjoy interactive displays, videos, live animal and science demonstrations, videos and more.

Weather fans of all ages will enjoy Science on a Sphere, designed to illustrate climate change and weather through a room-sized animated globe. Shaping SWFL Watersheds offers an opportunity to play in an augmented reality sandbox and make it rain. Earth and Space Science invites visitors to touch a cloud, learn how electricity works and star in their own weather forecasts.

Meet some area residents at Our Living Lab, home to snakes, turtles, frogs and several species of lizards. The exhibit also houses a 3,200-gallon aquarium whose denizens include bamboo sharks, angelfish and a zebra moray eel. Two touch tanks feature stingrays and more SpongeBob SquarePants-type critters.

Complete your visit outdoors with a stroll along a walkway to learn about landscaping, indigenous wildlife and the Caloosahatchee River. View alligators at the aquarium and migrating birds, geese, ducks, turtles and a variety of fish at the Fisheye Lagoon.

AH-TAH-THI-KI SEMINOLE INDIAN MUSEUM

34725 West Boundary Road Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation, Clewiston 877.902.1113 ahtahthiki.com

COLLIER MUSEUM AT GOVERNMENT CENTER

3331 Tamiami Trail E., Naples colliermuseums.com

NAPLES DEPOT MUSEUM

1051 5th Avenue, S. Naples colliermuseums.com

IMMOKALEE PIONEER MUSEUM

1215 Roberts Avenue West Immokalee 239.252.2611 colliermuseums.com

MARCO ISLAND HISTORICAL MUSEUM

180 S. Heathwood Drive Marco Island 239.252.1440 colliermuseums.com

MUSEUM OF THE EVERGLADES

105 W. Broadway Avenue Everglades City 239.252.5026 colliermuseums.com

EDISON FORD WINTER ESTATES

2350 McGregor Boulevard Fort Myers 239.334.7419 edisonfordwinterestates.org

GOLISANO CHILDREN’S MUSEUM (C’MON)

15080 Livingston Road Naples 239.514.0084 cmon.org

IMAG HISTORY & SCIENCE CENTER

2000 Cranford Avenue Fort Myers 239.243.0043 theimag.org