Copeland emerged in the late nineteenth century as a settlement linked to the railroad and timber extraction, playing a key role in opening up the interior of the region. From there, the route skirts the Fakahatchee Strand, one of the most distinctive wetland ecosystems in the state, which for decades represented a natural barrier to human expansion.
The route continues through the Picayune area, the site of ambitious real estate projects in the mid-twentieth century that never came to fruition and that today form part of an extensive natural preserve. This stretch allows observation of the traces of failed development and the subsequent environmental recovery of the territory.
The final stretch leads to Marco Island, a coastal area that experienced an intense process of urbanization in the second half of the twentieth century. The contrast between the interior natural spaces and the island’s urban and tourist environment summarizes the recent transformations of southwest Florida.
The complete route and its historical context are part of Discovering Florida – Volume 2.
