Join the Estero Island Historic Society

Support, share and help preserve local history in our 30^th anniversary year - 2025

The Estero Island Historic Society (EIHS) is dedicated to preserving and sharing the colorful history of our island. Although we lost many archives and artifacts from our historic 1921-built cottage during Hurricane Ian in September 2022, the EIHS has reopened with exhibits that portray the evolution of Fort Myers Beach from a Calusa settlement to a fishing village to a tourist destination.

Join the EIHS to support our rebuilding and outreach

Public meetings from January through April each year bring in speakers on local and regional history and ecology.

EIHS docents offer free tours of the EIHS museum to visitors, on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 12 noon. The tours lead the visitors through the 100+ years of our island's modern history and thousands of years of pre-settler history.

The EIHS works with Beach Elementary School and Florida Gulf Coast University by offering presentations on our local history to interested students and teachers.

We feature changing exhibits on many historical and environmental themes, including:

-   A century of hurricane impacts on Estero Island

-   Notable residents and visitors

-   Landmarks and historic sites

-   Matanzas Pass Nature Preserve and Estero Bay Aquatic Preserve

-   The Calusa people who inhabited this area for thousands of years

-   The changing face and purpose of local institutions

Membership opportunities

All memberships are annual, from January 1 through December 31. This link lets you sign up as a member, pay your annual fee, and renew the following year (we will email a reminder).

Individual

$30

-   Two adults in the same household

-   Quarterly email newsletter

-   Email invitation to public meetings and special events

-   Recognition in annual membership list

-   EIHS souvenir gift upon joining / renewing

Supporter

$50

-   Two adults in the same household plus up to 4 children / grandchildren

-   Quarterly email newsletter

-   Email invitation to public meetings and special events

-   Recognition in annual membership list

-   EIHS souvenir gift upon joining / renewing

Business

$100

-   Corporate name and logo on EIHS website home page

-   Quarterly email newsletter

-   Email invitation to public meetings and special events

-   Logo and name on emailed quarterly newsletter

-   Option to bring a portable sign to EIHS events

-   EIHS souvenir gift upon joining / renewing

-   Recognition at EIHS events