Port Charlotte

Port Charlotte

Port Charlotte is an unincorporated community located in Charlotte County, Florida. The first people who lived in the Port Charlotte area were the nomadic Paleo-Indians, who chased big game such as the Woolly Mammoth south during the last ice age, around 10 000 BC. In those days, Port Charlotte was not a coastal area because the Florida peninsula was far wider than it is today and more arid. Sea levels rose as the ice melted, and Florida took on its present shape and climate, and the Paleo-Indians were replaced by the Calusa, the "shell people". The Calusa people prospered on the southwest coast of Florida, numbering more than 50 000 when the first Spaniards arrived on the peninsula in the 16th century. The European arrival had a disastrous impact on the Calusa population, as diseases like smallpox and measles decimated the inhabitants. Finally, the Seminoles arrived from northern points and settled on the peninsula. The Spanish ceded Florida to the United States in 1819, and Florida became the 27th state in 1845. During the first 100 years of statehood, the Port Charlotte area was largely undeveloped. That changed when the post-World War II boom opened up people's eyes to the potential of Florida land development. During the 1950s, the Mackle brothers' General Development Corporation, now defunct, developed land on both coasts of Florida. One of the areas they designed and developed was the Port Charlotte area. Eventually Port Charlotte became the most populated community in Charlotte County.