OF EDISON AND FORD IN FT MYERS

December 17, 2011 Dateline: Ft Myers, FL USA

Yesterday morning I left Burnt Store Marina early in the morning and headed for Ft Myers.  The trip was nice out on the open Gulf then I got to the Caloosahatchee River.  The river is like the Gulf Intercoastal Waterway- there is a lot of horizontal water but not much vertical water.  It took two hours to go up the river to Ft Myers.  Because Rich rented the slip for a month I was put over in the live-aboard corner.  Rich and Carol have to walk nearly a half mile to get to the shore from where I’m docked.  The marina is really nice because even though it extends out into the river there is very little affect from the wakes of passing boats.

Today, Rich and Carol went to visit, Seminole Lodge, the winter home of Thomas Edison and The Mangoes, a home of Henry Ford.  In 1885 Thomas Edison purchased 13 acres located between a cattle drive path and the Caloosahatchee River.  He paid far more for the property than it was “worth” in most people’s eyes.  To Edison the property was a raw material source.  The property had a large stand of bamboo trees; his experiments showed him that bamboo made long lasting filaments for his electric light bulbs.  Edison would go on to build two houses on the property one for himself and the mirror image of it for his very good friend and business partner, Ezra Gilliland.  After a number of years, Edison learned that the relationship had been taken advantage of by Gilliland and Edison wanted him out.  First Edison cut off Gilliland’s electricity from Edison’s generator, then his water from Edison’s water system.  When neither of those worked, Edison cut off access to the dock that went out a quarter into the river.  Gilliland could no longer get supplies so he sold the house.  In 1906 Edison bought the house and turned it into a guest house. 

The houses were fabricated in Maine.  Edison had the materials shipped from Maine to Ft Myers via water and then had the houses built. 

Edison had a generating plant for his experiments, the story has it that he would turn the lights on and off in his house to have fun with the residents of Ft Myers.  His house, of course, had electricity long before there were electric lights in Ft Myers.

Edison began to experiment with plants in his search for latex.  Harvey Firestone, one of Edison’s good friends, had more than a passing interest in Edison botanical efforts.  In 1925, Firestone gave Edison a banyan tree that was about 2 inches in diameter and 4 feet high.  Today that tree occupies approximately an acre and has more than 350 roots.  As the tree grows and its branches get heavy it sends down roots which upon coming in contact with the ground form another trunk providing support.

Henry Ford purchased the house next to Edison’s in 1916.  Ford would visit Edison for two weeks in February each year to celebrate Edison’s birthday.  Ford did not like Florida and had an 1,800 acre property in Georgia to escape the harsh Detroit winters.

One of the walkways to Edison’s home is a “Friendship Walk”.  The walk is made up of stones that were given to the Edisons with the name of the donor carved into them.  The walk began in 1928 and contained stones from Ford and Firestone as well as 48 other friends.

Old Ft Myers is a very interesting place lined with buildings that were constructed in the 1920s.  There are covered walkways attached to the colorful buildings.

This statute in Ft Myers shows the three friends, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone on one of their camping trips which they seemed to very much enjoy.

This is likely my last post for 2011 as Rich and Carol are going home for the holidays.  I would like to close this year by wishing all of my readers

Merry Christmas

And

Happy New Year