A Homebuyers Service From CLHLLC

SW FLORIDA

Cape Coral & Pine Island

OVER VIEW

Let Chris explain where Cape Coral and Pine Island are in the South West Florida metropolitan area. As you start at the Interstate just North of the Caloosahatchee (pronounced "ka-LOOSE-a-HAT-chee" River bridge (Pineland Road exit), Moving West is Cape Coral, then Matlacha (pronounced "MAT-la-shay") Pass water, then Pine Island, then Pine Island Sound water, then the sandy soil Barrier Islands, then the Gulf water.

Cape Coral (the Cape) is nearing 50 years old. It is known for an extensive system of freshwater and saltwater canals. The city has numerous waterfront properties on canals, and lakes, and many have access to the Pine Island Sound and the Charlotte Harbor and the Caloosahatchee River and on to the Gulf. The city has many parks, recreation areas, and golf courses, and features hundreds of shoppong and dining venues.

The city is actually a peninsula bordered by the Caloosahatchee River on the east and Matlacha Pass and Charlotte Harbor on the west. The city is divided into four quadrants--northwest, northeast, southwest, and southeast--with most of the streets being numbered. Santa Barbara Boulevard divides the city into east and west, while Hancock Bridge Parkway (east of Santa Barbara) and Embers Parkway (west of Santa Barbara) divide the city into north and south.

Matlacha is the water between Cape Coral and Pine Island. Matlacha is pronounced "MAT-la-shay" and is a Caloosa Indian word meaning "water to the chin."

Pine Island is home to five little towns: Bokeelia (at the north end of the island at the mouth of Charlotte Harbor), Pine Island Center, Pineland, St. James City and Matlacha (actually on its own small island).

Unlike the sandy barrier islands of Sanibel to the south, Captiva to the southwest, and North Captiva to the west, Pine Island is made from the same coral rock as Cape Coral and the mainland.

Pine Island Sound is located between Pine Island and the islands of Sanibel Island, Captiva Island, North Captiva Island and Cayo Costa, which separate the Sound from the Gulf of Mexico. The Sound connects to Gasparilla Sound and Charlotte Harbor to the north, and to San Carlos Bay and the Caloosahatchee River to the south.

The Sound encompasses the Pine Island Sound Aquatic Preserve, 54,000 acres of submerged land, containing mangroves, seagrasses, salt marshes, oyster communities and tidal flats.

For thousands of years, the sound was home to the Calusa Indians and their ancestors. In the 18th and 19th centuries it was an important winter fishery for the Cuban mullet fleet. In the early 1960s, the CIA trained the Bay of Pigs invaders on Useppa Island, located in the center of the sound.

Cape Coral