Journal 3

During my semester in University Colloquium I was able to go on numerous field trips. These trips included a trip to Fort Myers Beach, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, as well as Downtown Fort Myers. The trip that I would really like to voice my opinion on would have to be our trip to Downtown Fort Myers. 

Going into the trip I didn’t know what to expect as because we were pretty much going into a normal city, but I was wrong because Downtown Fort Myers has a lot of history to it as I found out. When we pulled into the bus parking lot and got off the bus we were in for a surprise, because tied up to the dock were exactly replicas of the Nina and Pinta ships that Christopher Columbus used on his voyage of traveling the seas. That was a great surprise and lucky for us to get to see. 

We also learned some cool stories on the trip as well, for instance there was a flag pole that was there and we learned that at the ceremony to raise the flag for the first time there were heavy winds and the four maintenance workers who were elected to raise the flag had a hard time raising it due to the wind and were knocked down to the ground during the ceremony. This was very surprising to me to think that a flag could knock four people to the ground. 

Another cool thing that we save was a fountain that had alligators and stuff in the water and camped around a bon fire were three men and those men turned out to be Harvey Firestone, Henry Ford, and Thomas Edison. That was pretty amazing to think that these three people helped to make the car better. Thomas Edison provided the lights for the Ford eventually, and Harvey Firestone provided the tired to make the car be able to roll down the street. 

All in all we saw many other cool things like the first bank in the Downtown area, the Lee county courthouse, and a place that is well known in that area which is Hotel Indigo. Also along a side wall we were able to see a tile mural that had Buffalo Soldiers, Seminole Indians, farmers, as well as cattle portrayed in it which was amazing, because has been said that mural has been there for a while. If you have any spare time and have nothing planned one day then I would defiantly recommend taking a trip to Downtown Fort Myers and just take in all the history.

Word Count: 433