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Long before tourists roamed the island, the Calusa Indians, a society of fishermen and woodworkers, established a highly developed culture. The Calusas, assumed to be descendants of the Maya Indians, may have come to the island as early as 500 or 1000 AD, but by 1750 Spanish explorers bringing disease had wiped them out.
The famous expedition of 1896 by Smithsonian archeologist Frank Hamilton Cushing uncovered hundreds of Calusa artifacts, including the Key Marco Cat, which is currently housed in the Smithsonian, but the Marco Island Historical Society is fighting to bring it back to the Key Marco Museum.
In 1896, the same year of the big Smithsonian expedition, the first attempts to "vacationize" the island were made by William D. "Captain Bill" Collier, who opened a twenty-room hotel, now the Olde Marco Inn & Suites. Then, in 1922, another Collier, self-built millionaire Barron G. (of no relation to Captain Bill), stepped into the Island's history with big plans to turn it into a tourist destination. Captivated by its natural beauty, Collier had spent the last decade accumulating land in Southern Florida. Unfortunately for him, the Great Depression came along a few years later, keeping the island a small fishing village.
By 1964, the Mackle brothers started turning Marco Island into what it is today. They began the development of beachfront hotels and condos such as the Marco Beach Hotel, now the The Marriott Marco Island Beach Resort and Spa, and a more traffic-friendly bridge replaced the old wooden hand-operated bridge that had been the only way to reach the Island. In 1965 Marco Island was ready for its close up, and over 25,000 people came in January of that year to test the warm waters. It was a hit, and visitors have kept coming ever since. Currently the permanent population is around 15,000, reaching 35,000 in the high season of the summer months.
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