What happened to Patriots Park (or Presidents Park) in Cape Coral? (Fort Myers: condo, college)

[Robert S. Jewett]

I was raised in Ft. Myers in the early 60's and I played a lot of golf at Cape Coral. In 1964, they were building some kind of park in the western part of town. I remember crossing the bridge, going west on Cape Coral Pkwy past the turn for the golf course, then turning left (south) and then turing west again.

In the park, they were building pretty large hills and using huge cranes to bring in lots of mature palm trees - very impressive. When I went to the park after it was finished, there seemed to be lots of exhibits about our presidents and kind of a weird bust of John Kennedy. The last time I was there was in 1970.

When I look on Google maps, it doesn't look like the park is there anymore. Too bad. It was very nice. In fact, all of Fort Myers was pretty nice in those days.

[Compression]

The general vicinity sounds like it may have been the old "Rose Garden" area, but it's the turn west at the end that kind of baffles.....unless it is the curve to the west that Rose Garden Blvd makes down toward Tarpon Point.

What used to be the rose garden(where "waltzing waters" were once located) is all developed into a doggie park at the north end,(corner of ElDorado and Rose Garden) a small eco park to the south, most of the area in between those two parks fits the "hilly" description you give. South of that is Tarpon Point Marina, and the condo towers that were built within the last six years or so.

South (or north for that matter) of Cape Coral Pkwy, I cannot think of another location that even vaguely fits.

Edit: I did a little searching and was able to find an article from the Sept 6, 1970 St Pete Times, that announced the closure of the park by GAC, as it was unprofitable. Among it's attractions was the "garden of patriots" that included sculptures by various well known artists. I'm pretty certain this is the area you are thinking of.

[Robert S. Jewett]

So you think the old 'Garden of Patriots' was where the current Rotary Park Environmental Area is now, just south of the intersection of Rose Garden Road and El Dorado Parkway West. That makes sense to me, especially if there are hills around there, because any hills must certainly be man-made.

My guess is the road I took south from Cape Coral Parkway was taken out, maybe when they dug out the canal that enters Bimini Basin from the southwest.

Bimini Basin was there in the summer of 1964 because I used to sit at Four Freedoms Park and write letters to my girlfriend from college.

I did a web search looking for a 1970 map of Cape Coral, but I couldn't find one.