The Haunted Inn?

When Ponce Deleon made landfall on the rising hills he saw from offshore in 1513 and met the Calusa Native Americans living on what is now Marco Island, he felt certain that the youthful and healthy natives were drinking from the fountain of youth.

The Spaniards in the early 1500s were only about five feet tall, but the strapping and hearty natives of Southwest Florida were towering over the alien-like visitors with not only height but also with a robust quality of life the jealous Europeans could not ignore.

After befriending the natives and making the discovery of the natural springs, which was the freshwater drinking supply for the early islanders, the Conquistadors who prayed to St Mark for success promptly gave Isla de San Marcos as the name of the island with the enchanted springs and towering shell mounds.

Meanwhile, 500 years later, modern Marco has evolved from Isla de San Marcos, or Island of St Mark, to Collier City in the 1920s, to Marco Island, a name now recognized as a crown jewel in the latest realm of paradise in Florida.

There is, however, a deep and mysterious history which cannot be denied. Rumors and tall tales still surface over the ancient land, which is Old Marco, Caxambas, Key Marco, and Goodland.

During the late 1800s, the Collier family was digging a vegetable garden in what is now Old Marco Village and tilling up pottery and artifacts so obviously ancient they knew a higher authority must come to investigate. Luckily, Dr. Henry Cushing was a doctor of archaeology and overseeing a dig of ancient artifacts in another coastal region near modern day Ft Myers.

When Dr. Cushing came to examine the relics, he was overwhelmed by the discovery in Old Marco Village. Beneath the shelly soil of the original inhabitants, the Key Marco Cat was unearthed and later carbon dated to be over 2,000 years old. The cypress wood sculpture with the head of a panther is among the most famous of the ancient findings, but hundreds of other artifacts are contained in the catalog of Dr. Cushing’s discoveries. Key Marco has relics dating back 3,000 years and perhaps under the shell mounds of Caxambas, even older residuals are buried and waiting for discovery.

Albert Einstein has made the claim: Energy cannot be destroyed, but only changes from one form into another.

Paranormal investigators believe ghosts can be that energy and that the older the location, the more likely the indestructible energy remains in one form or another.

When Ponce Deleon made his arrival, he not only brought overwhelming curiosity but also contagious diseases. Measles, smallpox, and typhus arrived with the conquistadors and after only one year, most of the original islanders perished because of the infectious illness.

The Collier family also had troubles with infection, accidents, and hurricanes. More than a few graves in the Marco cemetery mark a tragedy for the early pioneers of Marco Island.

Paranormal authorities agree on three types of hauntings. Residual hauntings are from when a traumatic event takes a life and the negative energy, which remains, is destined to reenact the tragic event repeatedly. Other residual hauntings are from the opposite end of the paranormal spectrum. These are hauntings from a positive or joyful experience. On some occasions, investigators hear music and laughter amidst spectral lights as these ghosts repeatedly recreate an outstanding or joyous event. Apparently, residual hauntings are from ghosts that are too busy haunting to realize they are ghosts.

Intelligent hauntings are self-aware. These ghosts can become vindictive, jealous, and perhaps seeking revenge. These apparitions tend to haunt individuals, families, or places where wrongdoings or even murder have gone unpunished—sometimes for centuries. Apparently, castles everywhere are haunted because these structures were the gathering places and focal points for many generations, for joy and tragedy.

Intelligent ghosts can also be helpful. Ghost stories abound in St Petersburg, Florida, where the original builder of a vintage hotel still haunts the halls but instead of being scary, he and his true love mistress open doors for hotel guests and staff who need help.

Poltergeist is a German word that means noisy ghost. A poltergeist is a ghost that is very self-aware and wants to be scary. Many believe these ghosts actually feed on the fear they create from the victims they scare. Apparently, poltergeists can violently move objects and reign terror within their realm of haunting but tend to be limited in their ability to travel. Intelligent hauntings and poltergeists are the ghosts of haunted houses and old structures that might be resting on centuries-old graves or burial grounds.

The old Marco Inn was erected and thriving in the late 1800s. The WT Collier family built the Inn as a grandiose showcase for what would become Collier City and then Marco, but the land the Inn rests upon is undeniably ancient ground.

Rumors tell of bones and graves that were mistakenly unearthed during kitchen renovation and remodeling. Whispers of the staff no longer living supposedly haunt the halls and especially the attic, which has survived more hurricanes than any other building on Marco Island.

Ghost stories of flickering lighted windows, music, and laughter are commonplace even though the old Inn is closed and virtually abandoned. Can the energy of ancient inhabitants or even the early settlers remain as an active entity in a unique icon of Marco Island history?

Hundred-year-old tarpon scales are trophies in the frames that adorn the walls at the entrance to the Inn. Who is to say that the primitive energy from those sea creatures is not a cumulative power that guards the graves that are perhaps waiting beneath the wooden bones of the Florida Historical landmark that is perhaps: The Haunted Inn?