Cultural and Environmental Learning Center Overlooking the Estero Bay Aquatic Preserve, the Fort Myers Beach Cultural and Environmental Learning Center occupies a 3 acre Calusa Indian shell mound complex of national archaeological significance. The property is located at 239 Connecticut Street on Fort Myers Beach. The historic building housing the museum and cultural center is the oldest residential structure on Estero Island. Known locally as "The Mound House," the building served as the post office for Estero Island residents and fisherfolk from the surrounding bay, and was once occupied by members of the Koreshan Unity. Trees visible in 1911 photographs of the site are still standing today. According to Florida Museum of Natural History scholars, the shell mounds that make up the archaeological site (known on the Florida Master Site File as 8LL4, the Estero Island Site) are remarkably well preserved. Its large size combined with its uncommon location on a barrier island make it one of only a handful of Calusa Indian village sites known to occur on barrier islands in southwest Florida. In addition, the site's proximity to Mound Key (8LL2, the major Calusa Indian ceremonial center) suggests a political association between residents of the two villages. The Estero Island Site, because of its excellent preservation of animal and plant remains, has the potential to produce important paleoenvironmental data associated with the last two centuries- a period critical to understanding present-day climatic and sea-level change. Both the archaeological site and the standing structure that houses the museum are eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. The Mound Property The Mound Property is a three-acre waterfront parcel within the Town of Fort Myers Beach. This property faces Estero Bay and is the site of one of the first homes(1906) built by a homesteader on Estero Island. The site also contains a significant Calusa shell mound and possible burial site. The site is currently eligible for National Register designation.   The site may also have some extraordinary United States historical significance. A map created from Ponce deLeon's first voyage to the New World shows only a part of Southwest Florida and Cuba. This map was ignored by scholars because it was not easy to identify. By showing only a portion of Southwest Florida, the traditional boot shape was not shown and was therefore not identified as Florida. On this map, there are two sites represented. One is probably Mound Key and the other may well be this site on Estero Island. If this can be documented, then the landing on Estero Island predates St. Augustine and provides Southwest Florida with a new significance in the chronological discovery of the New World. Very exciting possibilities may flow from this investigation, particularly in the developing niche of eco-tourism. The Town of Fort Myers Beach plans to create a unique eco-trail linking the Matanzas Preserve with this property and Mound Key. Residents and tourists would be able to experience the "real Florida" in an ecological, historical and archaeological sense.