Koreshan State Park Offers Unique Experience

There was a time not so long ago when women could not vote and did not have equal rights with men. As part of a volunteer event for Florida State Parks, I recently visited the Koreshan State Park, where I was stunned to learn about a community in the late 1800s where this was not the case. I became really fascinated by the history of the place that started as a type of cult and now offers campgrounds and hiking along the Estero River. Just an hour north of Marco Island, you can visit a preserved community of the late 1800s. This settlement was a place that fomented women’s struggle for equality and voting rights.

The central tenets of the “Unity” were gender equality, celibacy, and immortality.   They all shared a theory that the earth was hollow. The group’s founder, Dr. Cyrus R. Teed, had a vision that God was both male and female. He also thought the wind told him the path to immortality was celibacy.

“We live inside the world” was the motto of the Koreshans, a religious group started by Dr. Teed in 1894 who believed the Earth is the Universe. Interestingly, the astronomer Edmond Halley who discovered the famous comet named for him, also held this belief. Dr. Teed, a self-proclaimed messiah, left Chicago to start a communal utopia in Southwest Florida with an initial two hundred followers that came to establish their New Jerusalem.

The group attracted women with promised gender equality. In fact, seventy percent of the population were women. Many were Civil War widows, spinsters, and those that wanted to be free of the encumbrances of being a woman at the time with few rights. Ladies came from all over the country. Dr. Teed had preached about “marital slavery” and claimed women were slaves to their husbands. Many of the members left their husbands to join the community.  A married woman in the late 1800s could not legally leave a marriage. Only men could get divorced, so women typically had to stay in an unhappy relationship. There were several substantial lawsuits against Mr. Teed for Alienation of Affection for over $100,000 each from husbands whose wives had left them to join him. Midwest newspapers wrote negative articles about him.

In order to escape scrutiny, Cyrus set up a community in the wilds of Estero, Florida, which at the time was only reachable by boat. It took nine years to clear land and build an infrastructure to support two hundred followers. By 1907 the Koreshan Unity owned over 6,000 acres in Lee County. 

Women shared the same duties as men and were treated as equals in the community. Skills and interests versus sex determined labor duties. The governing body, the Planetary Court, was made up of seven women who were highly educated and wealthy. They lived in a large multi-story house on the property. As they had to turn over their wealth to join the sect, one could say that they used to be wealthy prior to being part of the community. All Unity members had to turn over all worldly possessions including furniture, jewelry, land and money. When Cyrus was out traveling, which he did a lot to recruit followers, the Planetary Court ran the “Unity.” Teed gave lectures in New York, California and Illinois to attract people.

The community had many businesses, including a concrete plant, seafood industry, livestock, farming, sawmill, boatyard, hostel, bakery, newspaper, printing press, general store, post office restaurant, and machine shop. Forty years before FPL came to Florida, they powered their own community and sent electricity to outlying farms with a massive diesel engine. The generator ran until 1946, when they were made to shut it down by the power company. The “big boy” generator ran on compressed air and diesel, although it was designed to run on fish and vegetable oil. At one point, Unity’s general store was the only store between Naples and Fort Myers. The bakery could make 600 loaves of bread per day for residents and the many locals who came to the store. Members did not receive wages but community ownership.

Although women were seen as equals on the inside, it still took a man to run their business interests on the outside. One male member, Henry Silverfriend, acted on behalf of the members to conduct business matters outside the settlement. Women during this period of time were given the cold shoulder in most places outside of the Unity if they were trying to conduct commerce.

The community was not based on all work and no play. Its members had leisure and entertainment offerings. The community center, called the Art Hall, held performances and community events. Famous people, including Henry Ford and Thomas Edison, came to hear a fifteen-piece orchestra. Many others came from Fort Myers and Estero for entertainment. It also served as the center for religious, cultural, and educational activities. An 1885 Steinway Piano is still played on the updated stage today. A model of the hollow earth is still on display here. Many sub-tropical plant species planted in an 1880s botanical garden can still be seen near the hall.

Many residents were lured to the religious sect by promises of immortality and being able to live forever. It was thought that when you died, you would come back but neither as a man nor a woman. This was proven untrue by the death of the group’s own messiah, Dr. Teed, when he died at the age of 69. Membership declined after members saw Cyrus’s body start decaying. He was placed in a zinc tub. Followers waited for signs. His body turning black was taken as a sign that he was like the pharaohs, about to return. After five days, the health inspector demanded that he be placed in a mausoleum. His remains washed out to sea after a hurricane in 1921.

The community had a type of renewal in 1942 when a refugee from Nazi Germany, Hedwig Michel, arrived. She was responsible for updating the general store, running performances at the Art Hall and managing the group’s trailer park. She was granted restitution from Germany that she used to help fund all buildings that were in disrepair and to protect the elders living there. Her money funded lawyers who arranged for the state to take over the community to make it into a park under the stipulation that they preserved the Koreshans heritage as a type of memorial. Another stipulation was that members could live till their dying days in residence. The four living members deeded their property of 305 acres to the state for a park in 1962. It took the state twenty years to convert it. Hedwig lived on the property till her death in 1982.

In addition to enjoying distinct natural communities including mesic flatwoods, a blackwater stream and an estuarine tidal swamp, gopher tortoises’ communities are also a common draw. There are over 196 acres to explore with two hiking trails by the Estero River. The park offers opportunities to kayak and a sixty-site campground.

Tours are given so visitors can get a glimpse of the frontier lifestyle of the early settlers and see the eleven nationally registered historic buildings built by the group in the 19th and 20th centuries. In 1976, The Koreshan Unity Settlement Historic District was listed on the national register of historic places. The park has the largest collection of artifacts in the Florida park system.

Although not perfect, there is more gender equality in the world today than in the late 1800s and more in line with that aspect of the Koreshans view of the world. Some other aspects of the Koreshan legacy utopia continue now with music programs still running in the Art Hall. In addition, there are cooking programs, blacksmithing, a machine shop and electric generator demonstrations held onsite. An Annual Ghost Walk fundraiser happens in the fall and a Farmers Market is held on Sundays.  For more information, you can go to the Friendsofkoreshan.org website.