Charlotte Harbor Estuary, the second largest bay in

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and ...

, is located on the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United ...

coast of west

with two thirds lying in

Charlotte County, Florida Charlotte County is a U.S. county located in the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 186,847. Its county seat is Punta Gorda. Charlotte County comprises the Punta Gorda, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is ...

and one in Lee County. The harbor's mouth is located behind

Gasparilla Island Gasparilla Island is a barrier island in southwest Florida, United States, straddling the border of Charlotte and Lee counties. Its largest town is Boca Grande, and it is the location of the Gasparilla Island State Park. The island has been an i ...

, one of the many coastal barrier islands on the southwest coast of Florida, with access from the Gulf of Mexico through the Boca Grande Pass between Gasparilla Island on the north and Lacosta Island on the south. Charlotte Harbor covers about 270 sq mi (700 km²) Charlotte Harbor Estuary is a natural

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...

spanning the west coast of Florida from

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

Bonita Springs (beautiful), eng, beautiful springs , settlement_type = City , image_skyline = Bonita_Beach.JPG , imagesize = 250x200px , image_caption = Bonita Beach , image_flag ...

on the

and is one of the most productive

wetlands A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The p ...

. The estuary has a large

watershed Watershed is a hydrological term, which has been adopted in other fields in a more or less figurative sense. It may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, called a "watershe ...

, and includes Charlotte Harbor itself as well as the

Peace River The Peace River (french: links=no, rivière de la Paix) is a river in Canada that originates in the Rocky Mountains of northern British Columbia and flows to the northeast through northern Alberta. The Peace River joins the Athabasca River in ...

Caloosahatchee River The Caloosahatchee River is a river on the southwest Gulf Coast of Florida in the United States, approximately long.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 18, 2011 It dr ...

(via Pine Island Sound) and Myakka River basins. It covers , the second largest open water estuary in the state. It is classified as a bar-built estuary, formed when sandbars build up along the coastline. The sand bars block the waters behind them from the sea. Such estuaries tend to be shallow with minimal tidal action. This is a threatened ecosystem because of the rapid increase of growth and development, poor land-use policies, and the overuse of natural resources. The Charlotte Harbor Aquatic Preserves, established by the state of Florida in 1975, are five contiguous aquatic preserves within the greater Charlotte Harbor estuary. It includes

salt marsh A salt marsh or saltmarsh, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is domin ...

es,

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in severa ...

seagrass Seagrasses are the only flowering plants which grow in marine environments. There are about 60 species of fully marine seagrasses which belong to four families ( Posidoniaceae, Zosteraceae, Hydrocharitaceae and Cymodoceaceae), all in the ...

oyster Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not ...

and

tidal flats Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal f ...

. It is the preserve of many species, including the

American alligator The American alligator (''Alligator mississippiensis''), sometimes referred to colloquially as a gator or common alligator, is a large crocodilian reptile native to the Southeastern United States. It is one of the two extant species in the gen ...

West Indian manatee The West Indian manatee (''Trichechus manatus''), also known as the North American manatee, is a large, aquatic mammal native to warm coastal areas of the Caribbean, from the eastern US to northern Brazil. Living alone or in herds, it feeds on un ...

bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...

wood stork The wood stork (''Mycteria americana'') is a large American wading bird in the family Ciconiidae (storks), the only member of the family to breed in North America. It was formerly called the "wood ibis", though it is not an ibis. It is found ...

piping plover The piping plover (''Charadrius melodus'') is a small sand-colored, sparrow-sized wader, shorebird that nests and feeds along coastal sand and gravel beaches in North America. The adult has yellow-orange-red legs, a black band across the forehead ...

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a combin ...

and

loggerhead sea turtle The loggerhead sea turtle (''Caretta caretta'') is a species of oceanic turtle distributed throughout the world. It is a marine reptile, belonging to the family Cheloniidae. The average loggerhead measures around in carapace length when fully ...

s, smalltooth sawfish ''(Pristis pectinata)','' royal false pawpaw ('' Deeringothamnus pulchellus''), Florida perforate cladonia ('' Cladonia perforata''), and many more. The harbor is fed with fresh water from the Myakka River on its northwest corner and the

on its northeastern corner. Charlotte Harbor is bordered by the communities of Boca Grande, Port Charlotte, Charlotte Harbor, Punta Gorda and

Bokeelia Bokeelia is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located on Pine Island in Lee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the CDP had a population of 1,855, up from 1,780 at the 2010 census. It is part of th ...

. Charlotte Harbor connects to

San Carlos Bay San Carlos Bay is a bay located southwest of Fort Myers, Florida, at the mouth of the Caloosahatchee River. It connects to Pine Island Sound to the west and to Matlacha Pass to the north. The bay contains Bunche Beach Preserve, a 718-acre conserva ...

to the south by way of Pine Island Sound and Matlacha Pass.

Etymology

The name of Charlotte Harbor is a corruption of the name

Calusa The Calusa ( ) were a Native American people of Florida's southwest coast. Calusa society developed from that of archaic peoples of the Everglades region. Previous indigenous cultures had lived in the area for thousands of years. At the time of ...

into the Spanish name Carlos. At the time of Spanish contact in the 1560s, the leader of the Calusa was known as

Carlos Carlos may refer to: Places ;Canada * Carlos, Alberta, a locality ;United States * Carlos, Indiana, an unincorporated community * Carlos, Maryland, a place in Allegany County * Carlos, Minnesota, a small city * Carlos, West Virginia ;Elsewhere ...

. The bay was first known as Bahia Carlos, or Carlos Bay, by the Spaniards. The British changed it from Carlos to Charlotte in honor of King George III's wife.

History

Prior to the first Europeans, Charlotte Harbor was home to settlements of Native Americans who were part of the

paramount chiefdom that occupied southwest Florida, extending from Tampa Bay in the north to the Ten Thousand Islands. The Calusa capital of Calos was located on Mound Key, just south of Charlotte Harbor.

Early European visits

Ponce de Leon Ponce may refer to: *Ponce (surname) * *Ponce, Puerto Rico, a city in Puerto Rico ** Ponce High School ** Ponce massacre, 1937 * USS ''Ponce'', several ships of the US Navy *Manuel Ponce, a Mexican composer active in the 20th century * British sl ...

was likely the first European who visited Charlotte Harbor in 1513 and again in 1521. He and his soldiers encountered hostile Calusa, and de Leon is believed to have died from a poisoned arrow wound received there. The site of the conflict is now Ponce de Leon Historical Park in eastern Punta Gorda. Charlotte Harbor might have been next visited by Juan de Anasco, Comptroller to the King of Spain, in 1538, one year before

Hernando de Soto Hernando de Soto (; ; 1500 – 21 May, 1542) was a Spanish explorer and ''conquistador'' who was involved in expeditions in Nicaragua and the Yucatan Peninsula. He played an important role in Francisco Pizarro's conquest of the Inca Empire ...

's exploration. In 1539, Hernando de Soto began his journey across the Southeast by landing on the west coast of the Florida peninsula, near the chiefdom of Uzita, where he encountered Juan Ortiz, a survivor of the Narváez expedition who had been captured by the Tocobaga at Tampa Bay. Traditional reconstructions locate Uzita at the mouth of the Manatee River in Tampa Bay, now the site of the

De Soto National Memorial De Soto National Memorial, in Manatee County west of Bradenton, Florida, commemorates the 1539 landing of Hernando de Soto and the first extensive organized exploration by Europeans of what is now the southern United States. The memorial include ...

. However, other historians believe de Soto may have entered via Charlotte Harbor as he began his exploration of North America. Another suggested landing site for de Soto was directly below Charlotte Harbor up within the

. This is unlikely because Mound Key in Estero Bay south of the Caloosahatchee is generally agreed to have been the location of the Calusa capital, not the Uzita chiefdom. As the Florida continued to be explored, some fisherman from Cuba and other Spanish settlements began to set up fishing camps, or "ranchos" along the Gulf Coast, including around Charlotte Harbor.

The pirates and shipwrecks of Charlotte Harbor

The mythical pirate

José Gaspar José Gaspar, also known by his nickname Gasparilla (supposedly lived c. 1756 – 1821), is an apocryphal Spanish pirate, the "Last of the Buccaneers " who legend says terrorized the Gulf of Mexico for many years from his base in southwest Florid ...

(also known as "Gasparilla") was said to have roamed from the Gulf of Mexico to the

Spanish Main During the Spanish colonization of America, the Spanish Main was the collective term for the parts of the Spanish Empire that were on the mainland of the Americas and had coastlines on the Caribbean Sea or Gulf of Mexico. The term was used to ...

from his secret base (sometimes referred to as his "pirate kingdom") in Charlotte Harbor from the late 1700s until his death in battle with the US Navy in 1821. Though no archival or physical evidence of Gaspar's existence has ever been found, he is a popular figure in Florida folklore, and the tale of the dashing pirate and his lost treasure has been used to promote tourism in Charlotte Harbor and along Florida's Gulf coast for many years, most notably in

Tampa Tampa () is a city on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The city's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and the seat of Hillsborough C ...

Gasparilla Pirate Festival The Gasparilla Pirate Festival is a large parade and a host of related community events held in Tampa, Florida almost every year since 1904. The theme of the festivities is a friendly invasion by the mythical pirate José Gaspar (also known as Gasp ...

. The practice began in 1900, when the Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railway published the first written account of Jose Gaspar in a promotional brochure for its Boca Grande Hotel on Gasparilla Island. Charlotte Harbor is also said to have been the refuge of the pirate Brewster Baker and the site of several shipwrecks of vessels containing untold millions of Spanish gold. However, despite many professional and amateur searches over the years, no treasure or evidence of a historical pirate stronghold has ever been found in the area.

Modern day

The Charlotte Harbor of the present day is a harbor mainly for privately owned pleasure craft and fishing boats. The area thrives partly due to tourism for those seeking beautiful beaches and an escape from winter's bite. There are also numerous retirement communities in the Charlotte Harbor area.

Tropical cyclones

Charlotte Harbor has been hit by several tropical cyclones since records began to be kept in 1851. Listed below are the tropical cyclones whose paths have crossed Charlotte Harbor. * 1894 Hurricane No. 4 * 1910 Hurricane No. 5 * 1925 Tropical Storm No. 4 * 1944 Hurricane No. 13 * 2004 Hurricane Charley * 2022 Hurricane Ian

Hurricane Charley Hurricane Charley was the first of four separate hurricanes to impact or strike Florida during 2004, along with Frances, Ivan and Jeanne, as well as one of the strongest hurricanes ever to strike the United States. It was the third named s ...

made landfall just south of Charlotte Harbor on Friday, August 13, 2004 at 3:54 PM EDT. Charley had reached a maximum sustained wind speed of By the time Charley reached Orlando, its winds had dropped to , with gusts as high as . Due to the rapid forward movement of Charley the amount of measured rainfall was between . On September 28, 2022,

Hurricane Ian Hurricane Ian was a large and destructive List of Category 4 Atlantic hurricanes, Category 4 Atlantic hurricane that was the deadliest Tropical cyclone, hurricane to strike the U.S. state, state of Florida since the 1935 Labor Day hurricane. Ia ...

made landfall just south of Punta Gorda at Pirate Harbor. Image:Floridian seagrass bed.jpg, Florida seagrass File:Caretta caretta01.jpg, Loggerhead turtle (closeup) Image:Mangroves.jpg, Coastal mangroves File:Johnsons seagrass bed.jpg, Florida seagrass bed

References

External links

Estuaries Classified by Geologic FeaturesCharlotte Harbor Environmental Center

Charlotte Harbor Watershed – Florida DEP Charlotte Harbor State Park Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program
* ttp://www.chnep.wateratlas.usf.edu/ Charlotte Harbor Water Atlas {{Authority control Bodies of water of Charlotte County, Florida Estuaries of Florida Gulf of Mexico Bodies of water of Lee County, Florida