Smallwood Store Celebrates 100 Years on Stilts

The Smallwood Store has been around for a long time, no matter how you look at it. And on Friday, January 23, and Saturday, January 24, the iconic store in Chokoloskee will host a centennial celebration.

The Smallwoods trace the roots of the store to 1906, when Ted Smallwood operated it as a trading post serving primarily the Miccosukee and Seminole Tribes and pioneer settlers. 

This weekend's event marks the centennial anniversary of the store being raised on stilts, a feat accomplished with railroad jacks and help from an Indigenous man known as Abraham Lincoln, according to Smallwood’s granddaughter, Lynn McMillin. Today, the store operates as a museum and gift shop under the direction of McMillin, who never met her grandfather, who died in 1951.

"I never knew him,” McMillin said. "We missed each other by about five, six years. My mother is the youngest daughter. She was 16 years younger than the next youngest Smallwood. There were five other brothers and sisters. My mother was the only one born in a hospital."

McMillin wants to make sure the attention is focused on the store’s history with the area’s Native Americans: the Independent, Miccosukee, and Seminole Tribes.

"I think the significance of the celebration is that they had a close relationship with my grandfather,” McMillin said. “They came to events there at the turn of the last century. Now I go to their Christmas party. Plus, I grew up with them and went to school with them. James Billie, his son and my granddaughter have helped put this celebration together. James and I would have never known each other if it hadn't been for this relationship.”

Chief Jim Billie chaired the Seminole Tribe of Florida from 1979-2001 and 2011-2016.

McMillin said almost all of the vendors will be Native Americans.

 “The majority of the booths are Native American,” McMillin said. “I think there’s only one booth that isn’t, and that's the one from over in Marco.”

For a $15 admission fee, attendees will enjoy live music from The Osceola Brother Band and The Dead Bronco Band on Friday and The Jake Hair Band on Saturday. There will also be Native American food and the Caloosa Catering Food Truck. Boat tours will be available at the Smallwood Store. 

There will also be a viewing of the new documentary, Everglades Outlaw, by Kent Daniels. The documentary will be shown under the store on a donated 90-inch TV. Viewers will listen with wireless headphones. There will be limited seating for the documentary.