Pine Island: Old Florida in the New Millennium | Untold Stories 

I lived on Pine Island in the early 80s.. it was a wonderful time to be there... having traveled the world I can truly say that the island is a very special place. I can remember the manatees that lumbered in water outside the house and the colorful birds that landed on our dock...

The possession of knowledge does not kill the sense of wonder and mystery. There is always more mystery.

Being born in Florida and missing it so much as I have lived and served overseas for 26 years, I adore the spirit and determination of these islanders for their desire to maintain such a humble and lovely community! I pray one day to be able to see this place for myself!

The library on Pine Island has an archive room in the back. There is a large aerial picture there that show a canal north of the Calusahatchee river that goes for miles to end between 41 & 75. It jags back to join the Calusahatchee at a severe angle. At the time I saw it they said the canal was dug by the Calusa Indians in case the were attacked, they would paddle East on the canal, make that steep angle, get onto the Calusahatchee Rive and come up behind their attackers. Check it out.

This has made me really miss my Home, left the island and moved to upstate NY 13 yeara ago. Love NY, but miss my island.

A touching and inspirational video about the wonderful, Pine Island. The first time I visited Pine Island was in 1989. I should have bought a piece of property, then...especially near the water or canals. I have been back several times since then, and each time...I fall in love with it, again! There is just something very different, very unique, very old-fashioned, about it. Yet, you can drive to several towns nearby, quickly! I do have a friend at the gym, who has a mobile home on a canal there and he travels from Fort Lauderdale to Pine Island to fish. He says he may build a regular house there, one day. I want to learn more about the island now. My spouse loves mangos so it would be easy to live there now!

Great documentary! I moved to St. James City in 1983 with my grandparents and will always cherish those years!

Love the history... as a native Floridian it’s a true source of pride so the more knowledge the better! Shalom from Plant 🌱 City...

When I was a kid I remember going here and my parents said we where going to locals only beaches and you couldn't find another foot print as far as you could see

Wow nearly a mirror image of my island Cedar Key, Fla. up the gulf a piece.

Somehow the Natives have paid again.I hope they were compensated and provided an opportunity to use their talent and abilities of their beautiful environment I would love to go see the Art. Peace

Loving these videos...thankypu

pine island also was a huge mango plantation

Enjoyed the history.

Grew up in Florida never knew Pine Island is the biggest island in Florida

Miss Sweeney's bangs are pretty rebellious

Awesome. I live in Cape, so I always wondered Pine islands story. Love learning new stuff

Great video thanks!! Such a beautiful natural wonder! My great grandfather Frank English moved there with a lot of our family in the early sixties after retiring from the family TV/Radio business our family had just south of the Detroit border several generations.. Still have some great photos of their fish and stories..

Thanks for laugh! I am here, close the door, raise the bridge, don’t let anyone else in!!!

Very cool, sounds like the right place to be.

No discussion of Pine Island being one of the premier tropical fruit growing communities in the country?

I really enjoyed this. I had family in St. James City and spent many vacations there as a kid. No it's not a resort town and I hope it never becomes one. Yeah you'd probably hate it so check out Marco or something.

@2:05 you can see a big fish busting bait in the background.

Awesome place

What a production very good.i grew up in sarasota

Sad that so many actually died there in Hurricane Ian. Interesting video but I wish it'd covered more of the "current" post-Charley - pre-Ian Pine Island too.

"Soon as the Colusa Indians left Pine Island"...that's a way to gloss over the total decimation of a people after thousands of years...

When I saw the title I thought of Pine Island NY which is close to Florida NY. I grew up in Orange county not far from these towns.

Verry nice ilived there around 2000

Great. Now people are going to rush to pine island and turn it into another wasteland of condos and McMansions.

I love Pine Island

I was born and raised on Pine Island, Bokeelia.

Fish bustin over her shoulder at 2:00 !

dog on ice, that's hot! thank you, for all these new videos being released!

So fascinating. So sad to see the destruction from Hurricane Ian there and Matlacha.

The Calusa were a brutal tribe that beheaded enemies but they didn’t eat animals 😂

I was born on my family's grove at 1655 Pine Island Rd. 1963 was a good year for Florida boys to be born. Pligger knees!

Started watching because I thought it was about the Pine Island in Hernando County west of Weeki Watchee

I was out there in Pine Island 3 years ago after the hurricane flattened it . God did it had a horrible smell

my home, Bokeelia

13:05 By my reckoning that's about forty miles, now I could understand how it might take even longer through the Everglades or Big Cypress but I don't understand how it could take three days from Pine Island to Fort Myers, what am I missing?

hello i would like to give you all a heads up on a mind blow dynamic of migration-al transition and adaptive fact the Calusa as you call them are the survivors of the Mayan /Aztec Inca populations of south America as of the post chietz sunnitize impact that is the I dotted and the T Crossed if you think about it the Native American Indian is actually the ancestor of the survivors of that event that migrated north to occupy and become the Hopei Pueblo Anasazi Apache Seminole and all the other tribes history has recorded in error

Enjoyed video but so sad the Publix was allowed to be built. Such a monstrosity! Will destroy so many small and medium sized stores we frequent. Also worry about the future of Capt. Conns!

The airman Lived to fish and enjoy the sun and the cheap rum and the Beaut Ladies

I never want to leave Pine Island? yikes can you imagine how lovely these people must be

Pine Island. Here for the history of these small places that have recently been destroyed by Hurricane Ian.

A Winn-Dixie? I thought for certain a Publix would’ve been there instead.

Note: As much as the current residents of Pine Island want to retain its "unique" culture... remember the Colusa Native american residents wanted to preserve their way of life and culture too....

2:01 blowup in the water as big fish chases smaller fish.

I never heard of Pine Island.

Calusa Land Trust ❤ HEROES

If sh says UMMMMM one more time😂

I live on pine island

People in Sanford Florida call theirselves Boke that's sounds similar to Bokeelia maybe those are the people who was driven off their Island

At 2:05, what is that jumping in the water off that lady's right ear?

at 2:01 a tarpon jumps in the background

Show us on the map ..where ..pine lsland..is located

Do the residents still refer to themselves as “mullets”?

6000 years ago the sea levels were 4 meters lower. It looked totally different. I would think people were there much earlier than 6K, we just can't find evidence.

Our way of life is being strangled to death by “progress”.

There was a lot of. Ladies that met and. Their husbands at Pine island

Plant some pine trees.

I miss Phil ❤️

Was considering moving to the island. It was the junkie, and trailer park atmosphere that turned me off...

um...um...um..

The jackasses at RU-vid f’d up the aspect ratio.

I've been there since 1945, moved out 12 years ago, no talk about how the islanders hung people of color from matlacha bridge if the entered the island. Yes this was wrong but tell the good with the bad history. Trust me it happened. No family of color inhabited the island till a jamaican family moved to St James city in 1989.

I lived in Fl in the 90’s, that place must have been amazing before all the yankees and foreigners.

We love SJC

Wouldn't it have been good to actually shell in the beginning where the hell Pine Island is

We are not Indian we are Native Americans

Hutchison island used to be beautiful, and now it's a piece of c*** mode over used to be so beautiful. Many pine trees, it was a beautiful forest and developers screwed it over.

Married their husbands after meeting them at Pine island

Bull. The Windover bog people were southern florida , and were here 7,000-8,000 years ago. Theyve been here

There are Indians in California that call themselves colusa Indians wonder if they came by way of the trail of tears?

I wonder how islanders determine a newcomer who is welcomed as opposed to those they wish to prohibit, and how long it takes for them to make that decision. When I lived in Florida in the mid-1990s, on the Gulf Coast, I witnessed the further destruction of natural habits - and in that I include "civilizing" natural paths and beaches - but, in particular, I witnessed a large, wild area destroyed in a matter of a few weeks, including the destruction of the nature-planted palm trees, and the rise of condos, and "imported" palm trees. The emotional and psychological toll was severe and translated into physical illness as well. At my stage of life, I am convinced that the only place to move and not be an "other" would be a borough of New York City, but I'd bet that no longer holds true either. Besides, I am, by most standards, poor. But I am no threat, either. I don't want places I have lived to change beyond their soul identities. I'm glad I saw the video. That they haven't been able to keep the palm tree growers out isn't surprising. But who would choose to live there... or here where I am. (By the way - you were filming long enough to tell the older woman historian to stick her bra strap under her blouse). But this video was thoroughly informative and well-produced, save for the need for better audio levels in the voice-over.

Better to leave them alone to sacrifice people to their gods. Rip those eyes out!

M

vince tapager is slow

I love how the colonizers say " colusa people left" instead of the Colusa were genocided and their lands stolen!

She says oh we dont know where they came from but the estuaries weren't even formed until 6000 yrs ago. That's when God made the Earth. The ENTIRE Bible is true. Jesus Christ is the way, truth, and life.

I'm sure they met a Spanish war dog or two

This has made me really miss my Home, left the island and moved to upstate NY 13 yeara ago. Love NY, but miss my island.