Managed in cooperation with
Lee County Department
of Parks and Recreation
Jerry Cutlip, Lee County Parks and
Recreation |
Hickey’s Creek is a meandering tributary of
the Caloosahatchee River, and forms the centerpiece of Lee County’s
largest regional park, east of Fort Myers. Hickey's Creek was established in
1994 as a gopher tortoise mitigation preserve through the Florida Fish
and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s
Mitigation Park Program.
Resource management activities primarily
focus on the restoration and maintenance of critical habitats for listed
species. Oaks,
palms and ferns line the banks of the narrow creek, named for Dennis
Hickey, an Irish immigrant who homesteaded the area in the 1800s and
made a living from cattle ranching and timbering. From 1932 – 1943,
commercial logging interests established a sawmill camp and logging
railroad on the property. Other past uses of the property include citrus
production and cattle grazing. Today, the remains of the elevated
railroad bed transect a mile of the area and form a portion of the
Palmetto Pines Trail, one of three scenic hiking routes that wind
through 1,117 acres of pine flatwoods, marshes, cypress swamps and
oak-palm hammocks. Hickey’s Creek is a shady oasis for paddlers and a
picturesque spot for fishing and picnicking. Its dark waters are home to
otters, alligators, largemouth bass and the occasional manatee. The
gopher tortoise shares its upland habitats with Florida scrub-jays and
Eastern indigo snakes.
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