Ochopee is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

Collier County Collier County is a county in the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, its population was 375,752; an increase of 16.9% since the 2010 United States Census. Its county seat is East Naples, where the county offices were moved from E ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, United States. It is located to the east of the intersection of

US 41 U.S. Route 41, also U.S. Highway 41 (US 41), is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway System, United States Numbered Highway that runs from Miami, Florida, to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Until 1949, the part i ...

and State Road 29, near Carnestown. The community is part of the

Naples Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...

–

Marco Island Marco may refer to: People Given name * Marco (actor) (born 1977), South Korean model and actor Surname * Georg Marco (1863–1923), Romanian chess player of German origin * Jindřich Marco (1921–2000), Czechoslovak photographer and numismat ...

Metropolitan Statistical Area. The community got its name when a visitor to the general store asked the owner what the place was called. A native man was trading in the store that day so the owner asked him the Seminole word for farm. The farmer replied, "O-Chopp-ee". Ochopee began as a one-family tomato-farming community in the early 1920s. James Gaunt bought of land along U.S. Highway 41 for $100 per acre, and started with only army tents. A community called Ochopee grew up around Gaunt's tomato farm. After the original post office burned down, residents used an old storage shed to house mail. Now the Ochopee Post Office, it is the smallest in the nation. It continues as an active post office and sometime tourist attraction. The original farm and settlement were gradually absorbed by the federal government as part of a movement to conserve the

Everglades The Everglades is a natural region of flooded grasslands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large drainage basin within the Neotropical realm. The system begins near Orlando with the K ...

. A few small businesses remain, along with the headquarters of the

Big Cypress National Preserve Big Cypress National Preserve is a United States National Preserve located in South Florida, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of Miami on the Atlantic coastal plain. The Big Cypress, along with Big Thicket National Preserve in Texas, beca ...

. Jeff Whichello, a native of the area, has written a book about his childhood called ''What Happened to Ochopee?''

Detention center

In 2025, it was announced that a detention, processing, and deportation facility for undocumented migrants (dubbed " Alligator Alcatraz") will be built on a little-used airstrip in Ochopee. At least some of the security guards will be supplied by

GardaWorld GardaWorld Corporation is a Canadian private security firm, headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, with 120,000 employees as of January 2022. Its U.S. business name is United American Security LLC, dba GardaWorld. GardaWorld International Protecti ...

Points of interest

* Ochopee Post Office * Skunk Ape Research Center * Joanie's Crab Shack * National Park Service Big Cypress Headquarters, formerly The Golden Lion Motor Inn owned by Whichello's family * Wootens World Famous Airboats

References

*Stone, Maria (1989). ''Ochopee: The Story of the Smallest Post Office.'' *Pettengill, Frank (1975). ''Naples Daily News,'' "Ochopee Acquisition Appeal Made." * Whichello, Jeff (2014). ''What Happened to Ochopee?'' A first-hand account of the land grab by the federal government that took place in the 1970s to create the Big Cypress Preserve.

External links

RoadsideAmerica.com: Smallest Post Office in the United States: Ochopee, Florida.
{{authority control Unincorporated communities in Collier County, Florida Unincorporated communities in Florida Everglades