Fort Myers River District Walking Tour

American Bald Eagle on Main

In front of the old Lee County Courthouse on Main Street is a chainsaw sculpture of an American bald eagle just beginning to take flight. It was carved in 2011 from a majestic 225-year-old oak tree that became unsafe after becoming infested with termites. Fort Walton Beach woodworking artist Marlin Miller was invited by Lee County to convert the tree's base and part of its stump into an artistic landmark. The fourth generation artist had gained fame following Hurricane Katrina for a series of 40 "Katrina sculptures" he carved free of charge along a stretch of Mississippi coastline from the trunks of immense oaks killed by saltwater storm surge. Miller readily agreed and on June 9, 2011, he donned a lightweight shirt, heavy chaps, gloves, ear protection and a breathing apparatus, then climbed into a hydraulic lift to go to work on Fort Myers' historic old oak. Five days later, "the very symbol of Liberty, an American eagle in flight," was done. 

Miller not only left the anchors and braces that had been drilled into the trunk years ago to stabilize the tree and keep heavy branches from dropping to the ground in high winds and heavy rainfall, he added even more support so that the sculpture can "withstand a hundred years of anything mother nature throws its way.” Miller joins the Lee County Commission in the hope that his eagle will provide inspiration to Fort Myers residents and visitors for generations to come.

Caloosahatchee Manuscripts

At night, the tapered Ionic columns and limestone steps of the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center glow with the images of thousands of letters like a phosphorous alphabet soup. The source of this bedazzling light show are two large bronze cylinders that sit on the sidewalk at the foot of SBDAC’s stairs. They are a dual point light sculpture called Caloosahatchee Manuscripts, a gift to the City of Fort Myers made in 2001 by Florida Power & Light Co. The author of the Manuscripts is Maryland sculptor Jim Sanborn, who has light sculptures outside more than 125 prestigious institutions including the CIA, IRS, NOAA and the Hirshhorn, Corcoran and National Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C.

Caloosahatchee Manuscripts consists of two bronze cylinders roughly ten feet tall with a pinpoint light source in their center. Using a water jet cutter, Sanborn incised letters into the bronze which are transferred to the façade, steps and sidewalks surrounding the art center at night. The eastern drum contains the text of a story told by Maskoki Indian leader Tchikilli to James Oglethorpe about the migration of Native Americans into the lower southeast, including Florida. The west drum contains the Latin names of 500 botanicals that Thomas Edison tested in an effort to develop a local source of latex from which to make rubber in order to help out his friends Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone. The work provides an excellent example of how public art can successfully enhance a public space and provide viewers with a unique way in which to learn about a city's rich historic heritage.

Buckingham and Page Army Airfields Memorial

Just steps to the northeast of Uncommon Friends in Centennial Park East is the Buckingham & Page Army Airfields Memorial. Consisting of three granite markers placed in front of an airplane propeller, it honors the aviators, gunners and others who served during World War II at Fort Myers’ air bases, Buckingham Field, a 65,723-acre flexible bomber gunnery school, and Page Field, which served as a training base for P39, P40, P47 and P51 fighter pilots. The memorial was erected by the City of Fort Myers in 1991, but the name of the artist who actually crafted the memorial is not known. The bases helped shape the community long after the war ended as a number of the airmen who trained at them made Fort Myers their home, including store owner and Fort Myers mayor Oscar M. Corbin, Jr., appliance giant and community leader Wilbur C. "Bill" Smith, Jr. and Tommy Doyle of Flint & Doyle Structural Movers.

Clayton - D.J. Wilkins 2000

Clayton is a larger-than-life bronze of a sergeant in the United States Colored Troops. Some 250 members of the 2nd Regiment of the USCT repelled an attack on February 20, 1865 by twice as many Confederate cavalry sent to destroy Fort Myers and capture a herd of 4,500 cattle desperately needed by the South to feed its troops during the waning days of the Civil War. Created by local sculptor D.J. Wilkins, Clayton is dedicated not only to the gallantry of the men of the USCT who fought here, but to the more than 179,000 black soldiers and 19,000 sailors who fought on the side of the Union during the Civil War. Clayton stands in front of a gate within a wall that symbolizes freedom from slavery, and he derives his name from the ton of clay it took to sculpt the statue. Dedicated in 2000 some 135 years after the Battle of Fort Myers, Clayton is a reminder of the rich and sometimes surprising historical heritage that we enjoy here in Lee County and the City of Fort Myers.

[For more information, please visit www.cultureNOW.org or Art Southwest Florida.]

Darryl Pottorf Prints - Darryl Pottorf 1991

In 1990, artist Darryl Pottorf was commissioned to create a dozen artworks for Tootie McGregor's Seafood Grille, a restaurant located at the Fort Myers Country Club. Using an innovative solvent transfer process he was just beginning to develop at the time, Pottorf made single edition prints out of historic old photographs he located in the city's archives. The prints were almost destroyed after the restaurant closed, but the Public Art Committee had nine of them restored and reframed in 2008. Possessing the attributes of oil on canvas and the delicacy of watercolor, the prints are historically significant in the overall body of Pottorf's work. An assistant to, collaborator with and friend of pop art icon Robert Rauschenberg, Pottorf is known worldwide today for his solvent transfer works, which can be found in galleries and museums across the globe including  the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Dallas Museum of Art in Texas, the Tinguely Museum in Basel, Switzerland, and the Patty & Jay Baker Naples Museum of Art in Naples. However, the nine prints on display in the lobby of the Oscar M. Corbin, Jr. City Hall are the only Pottorf works you'll find in a public art collection anywhere on the planet. City Hall is located at 2200 Second Street, and the prints hang outside City Council chambers.

[For more information, please visit www.cultureNOW.org or Art Southwest Florida.