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The history of Marco Island and specifically our Olde Marco Inn site is vast. Visit our newly opened museum, which among other things, houses artifacts actually found during construction on our property.
We are on Calusa Indian grounds. The ground is actually a mound of shells representing hundreds of years of sustenance from the sea. The Calusa lived here centuries before the Spanish sailing peers of Columbus and Ponce de Leon made the "Isle of Saint Mark" a port of embarkation for their return to the Old World.
Cool artesian springs discovered on our island filled the sailors' casks; and with stunning gulf sunsets at its back, the Spanish Armada rode the warm breezes of the Gulf Stream homeward. |
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Our treasure is Captain Bill Collier's Inn, a registered historic landmark that grew from its 1883 origins in various expansions. Collier continued the heritage of sustaining travelers when he started to accommodate guests with a "dollar-a-day, bring your own meat" offer.
The Inn originally opened with 20 sleeping rooms, and a two-story outhouse, as reported by Ripley in his "Believe it or Not" column...the only one of its kind. The Inn stands as one of southwest Florida's oldest buildings...if not the oldest!
The Calusa are extinct now, but in 1896 a Smithsonian Institution Expedition discovered the now famous MARCO CAT and numerous ceremonial masks and artifacts just a few yards from where the Inn stands.
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These Calusa artifacts are now in the Smithsonian and are considered to be one of the most significant archaeological finds in North America.
After Captain Collier, the next owners were the Ruppert family of beer, basketball and baseball fame. They made the Inn a sporting haven for select clientele. In 1970, after several other owners, German Chef Wilhelm Blomeier and his wife Marion began the Inn's tradition of fine European dining.
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