Next date: Thursday, August 20, 2026 | 02:00 PM to 03:00 PM
In this fun and feel-good presentation, Museum Manager Thomas Lockyear will celebrate the life and work of one the earliest pioneer settlers in the region of Southwest Florida known as the Chokoloskee Bay Country: Charles Greenleigh McKinney. A Civil War Veteran who spent time making moonshine (which he called “Low Bush Lightning”) before making the 10,000 Islands his home, McKinney opened a trading post and established the area’s first post office he would later hand over to Ted Smallwood. The postal address bore the ironic name “Comfort” – a reference to the profound lack of it caused by the abundant “Swamp Angels”: mosquitos.
McKinney, a registered midwife who delivered dozens of babies and acted as the area’s de facto dentist, also wrote a regular column for the American Eagle newspaper published in nearby Estero. Reporting local happenings with what would be today known as a Will Rogers-style wit, his wry observations about pioneer life and freely shared folk wisdom earned him the honorific moniker of “Sage of Chokoloskee”.
Museum of the Everglades, 105 Broadway Ave W, Everglades City, FL, 34139, View Map
Free