The pioneer era began with Braxton Bragg Comer in the late 1880s and ran on small-grower citrus and tomato production through the freeze years and into the new century. The Tennessee investor J.H. Ragsdale and his Fort Myers partner Dan Farnsworth platted the town and rebranded the place in 1912 with names — Bonita Springs, Imperial River — that the developers thought would sell to settlers and winter visitors. The infrastructure followed in a fast four-step run: the 1917 road to Fort Myers, the 1920s Fort Myers Southern Branch of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, the 1926 Liles Hotel on the Imperial River — the building that today houses the Bonita Springs Historical Society after the City of Bonita Springs renovated it in 2006 — and the 1928 completion of the Tamiami Trail through town, which gave Bonita its long downtown spine along what is now Old 41.
Today Bonita Springs is, above everything, a coastal Southwest Florida river city: the Imperial River running through Riverside Park and Imperial River Park downtown, the 1926 Liles Hotel and the 1936 Wonder Gardens on Old 41, the Gulf shoreline of Bonita Beach at the western end of Bonita Beach Road, the four-island Lovers Key State Park between Estero Bay and the Gulf, and the Barefoot Beach Preserve dunes south of Wiggins Pass on the Naples side. Our Bonita designs are made for that geography — the city built by surveyors with maps, rebranded by Tennessee investors with new names, and that has carried the Imperial River and Old 41 through every decade since 1912.
Why People Visit Bonita Springs Florida
- Walk Riverside Park and Old 41 — the historic downtown corridor on the Imperial River, with the 1926 Liles Hotel housing the Bonita Springs Historical Society, the bandshell, and the original Cracker-style wooden-frame buildings that line the original Tamiami Trail spine through town.
- Visit the Everglades Wonder Gardens on Old 41 — the 1936 roadside attraction founded by brothers Bill and Lester Piper as the Everglades Reptile Gardens, now a non-profit on city-owned land with banyan trees, rescued reptiles and birds, and the original mid-century roadside-Florida signage. One of the oldest continuously operating roadside attractions in the state.
- Kayak the Imperial River from Imperial River Park — the kayak launch on the river inside the city, with shaded paths under the cypress and oaks and herons in the shallows.
- Walk Bonita Beach Park — the public Gulf shoreline at the western end of Bonita Beach Road, with shelling, sunset views, and dolphin sightings offshore.
- Walk Lovers Key State Park — the four-barrier-island state park between Estero Bay and the Gulf, with 2.5 miles of beach, 5 miles of multi-use trails through maritime hammock on Black Island, kayak and boat launches into Estero Bay, and a Discovery Center. The land was donated to Florida and preserved as a state park in 1983 after being saved from luxury condominium development. Check current park status; some facilities continued post-Hurricane-Ian recovery into 2025.
- Walk Barefoot Beach Preserve just south of the city line in Collier County — 342 acres of Collier County park along two miles of natural Gulf shoreline north of Wiggins Pass, with the Saylor Trail boardwalk, gopher tortoise habitat, and quiet dunes.
- Paddle out to Mound Key Archaeological State Park in Estero Bay — the 30-foot Calusa shell mound that was the believed capital of the Calusa chiefdom, just north of Bonita in Estero Bay. Accessible by kayak from Lovers Key or Koreshan State Park.
- Visit Koreshan State Park up the road in Estero — the historic site of Dr. Cyrus Teed's 1894 commune along the Estero River.
- Drive Old 41 from the Liles Hotel north past the Wonder Gardens and the historic downtown blocks to Estero, then up to Fort Myers.
- Drive south on US-41 to Naples (10 minutes), or north to Estero / Fort Myers Beach / Sanibel and Captiva Islands.
