Welcome to our website! We are the Friends of Collier County Museum and are a support group for the Museum. As such, the Friends attend certain Museum functions and assist in a variety of ways, some financial, usually with personnel, and do what the staff can't find time and money to do. Our officers and Board of Directors are shown nearby, and the majority of these Board Members have joined within the past twelve months. Now we can do many things we couldn't do before, and do them better.

The mission of the Museum is to preserve and teach the history of Collier Co., not just from the days of the earliest Collier families but from way, way back during the lives of the Calusa Indians. If you didn't learn about the Calusa in your American History classes up North, you're not alone, but stick with us and you'll learn this and more.

What do the Friends do? In the main Museum, just as you enter, there is a small store on the right, our store. Walk right in, it is run by volunteers, most of whom are Friends. What do we have there? First, a number of books about various phases of Florida history, including much about the Everglades, the River of Grass. Look in the showcases, we have replicas of Spanish coins as used when the first Europeans landed in Florida. See the various necklaces and other personal jewelry made right on down the Tamiami Trail by the Miccosukee Indians. Learn what a Dream Catcher is, and take one home with you. You won't find these items in the Mall or Fifth Avenue South.

What have the Friends been up to lately? For the past 22 years we have operated a three-day Old Florida Festival, held on the Museum's grounds. This is Florida history spread over five acres. We invite skilled re-enactors from near and far, people who are very knowledgeable about specific phases of our history. They arrive on Thursday, set up camp in their tents and prepare for several thousands of school kids who will descend upon them first thing Friday morning. The children and their teachers will see the re-enactors, in period costumes and uniforms, and with equipment/weapons typical of the historic period they represent. They not only put on a show, but they really know what they are doing and talking about. The kids, 10 and 11 year olds, are free to ask all sort of questions, and they do.

We last did this 3-day weekend in November, 2008, with Saturday and Sunday open to all. We have carnival food you can eat walking around, or sit at a table --hamburgers, hot dogs, French fries, kettle corn, ice cream along with cold bottled water, soft drinks and ice cold beer. The Friends, and their friends, do almost all the labor, which allows us to keep prices modest. Come see us this Fall, November 6-8, 2009.

As most Neapolitans know, every Veterans' Day (Nov. 11) the Veterans Council holds a military ceremony in Cambier Park. And just after this ceremony ends, many of the people walk up to the Train Depot at Fifth Ave. & 10th St. for an old time USO SHOW!! Last year we had the Andrews Sisters, Marlene Dietrich and Judy Garland, along with music, of course,and an MC. Ice cream, water and soda pop are available. Arrive early to get a chair in the shade, and if you're late, bring a chair. Each year we set up more chairs, and each year they are not enough.

What else with the Friends? A couple of month's ago we held a cocktail party and book signing, honoring LTC "Dutch Van Kirk". Dutch is the last surviving crew member of the historic Enola Gay, named after the pilot's mother, which dropped the first atom bomb on Hiroshima, greatly hastening the end of WW II. Later in the Spring we hosted a cocktail party to celebrate the massive restoration to the boat Kokomis, which old timers will recall ferried us from the foot of Port Royal over to Keewaydin Island. Remember that trip? In the middle of May we hosted another book signing for retired Maj. William G. Schneider, another WW II bomber pilot.

June 6, 2009 was the 65th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy, the day the Allies returned to France, four years after French and English forces were expelled at Dunkirk by advancing Germans. On June 5 the Friends held a cocktail party commemorating this event, and honoring five Naples veterans of that amphibious landing, each of whom spoke a few words about the experience vividly etched in their memory. The following day, June 6, the Museum held a special D-Day exhibit, with WW II jeeps, a half-track and a Sherman tank, along with weapons and equipment displayed outside, and many other artifacts and posters inside, along with a continuous TV showing D-Day footage. The Friends were helping.

Now we're planning this November's Old Florida Festival. Last year's was good, this year's will be better. Hope for no rain. Image what 3,000 kids would do to the Museum, all inside at once.

The Museum actually has several sites besides the main site at the County Government complex at Airport Rd. & U.S. 41 East.

In Immokalee there's Robert's Ranch where one can see how county pioneers lived. Historic Everglades City has its own Museum. The Old Train Depot has been completely restored to its World War Two glory when there were regular trains from Ft. Myers and north. It includes lots of pictures of how things were when the newly constructed Naples Airport was used by the U.S. Army Air Corps to train pilots.

There's a lot to see in Collier County, and a lot of historic sites and information available, all free. We're open every week day and Saturday as well. Call 239-252-8476 for information.

Nick Hale, President
Friends of Collier County Museum