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Commodore Reed and Captain Sam Ellis relax in front of Reed's palmetto shack house on Sanibel's Tarpon Bay prior to 1900. Reed and Ellis both homesteaded on the bay, Reed along its western shore, and Ellis on the southern shore. Reed was unrelated to the William Reed family to the east on San Carlos Bay.

A group of people stand on a footplank leading from the south shore of Tarpon Bay as a boat pulls up.

The San Carlos Hotel at St. James City on Pine Island was constructed to draw winter tourists and fishermen to the area in the late 1800s.

The front porch of the San Carlos Hotel at St. James City on Pine Island, constructed to draw winter tourists and fishermen to the area in the late 1800s. The ironwork railings were forged by Sam Woodring, who became Sanibel's first homesteader in 1888.

A view of the Sisters Hotel complex between 1895 and 1900 shows the church at far right with the newly built Thistle Lodge next to it. Thistle Lodge was built as a wedding present when Edward Duncan married Georgia Barnes.

The Woodring homestead on Woodring Point shortly after homesteading on Sanibel. (L-R) Mr. Gooddell, George Underhill, Allie Collins, Carl Woodring, Flora Woodring, Mrs. Sam (Anna) Woodring, Annie Woodring, Sam Woodring Jr., Sam Woodring Sr, and Harrison Woodring.