Today we visit Estero, Florida. Another contributor to the "Star Tribune Crossword Corner", XCHEFWALT is, I think, from there.

The photos are: 1) Spoonbills on the shore of the lake at Corkscrew Woodlands, 2) a view of the lake at Corkscrew Woodlands from a nearby clubhouse roof, and 3) the inlet to Spoonbill Circle in Estero. Estero seems to be big with spoonbills.

Estero is a census-designated place (CDP) in Lee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2000 census, the CDP population was 9,503. It is the home of Germain Arena, which hosts the home games for the Florida Everblades ECHL hockey team and the Florida Firecats af2 arena football team. Florida Gulf Coast University is also located just outside of the Estero Planning District.

Historically and culturally, the heart of Estero is the spring-fed Estero River, which flows to Estero Bay. Some of the earliest European settlers of the area (notably the Alvarez, Fernandez, Johnson, and Soto families) were fishing families that lived on Mound Key, a mangrove-ringed island that dominates Estero Bay. During the early 20th century, these families moved upriver to the settlement which came to be known as Estero. Estero is also the location of a utopian community called the Koreshan Unity, which is now preserved as the Koreshan State Historic Site. Until the 1970s, most settlement and development in Estero was near the river.
The borders of the area of Estero include Estero Bay to the west, the city of Bonita Springs to the south and the remainder of the CDP bordering with unincorporated Lee County and the CDP of San Carlos Park.

Estero was established and incorporated by the followers of Dr. Cyrus Reed Teed, who proposed a theory of that we live on the inside of the Earth's outer skin, and that celestial bodies are all contained inside the hollow Earth. This theory, which he called Koreshan Unity, drew followers to purchase and occupy a 320-acre (1.3 km²) tract in 1894. They were business-oriented and lived communally, prospering enough to found its own political party ("The Progressive Liberty Party") and incorporate the town in 1904 as Estero. The 1908 death of Dr. Teed (who claimed to be immortal) was a critical blow to the group's faith, whose membership dwindled into the 1960s. The Foundation remains as "The College of Life Foundation," which contributed (for example) at least $25,000 to the Gulf Shore Playhouse in or around 2007[. The Koreshans' original tract is now owned by Florida as the Koreshan State Park.

Today's Jumble (8/13/08):

BIMOL = LIMBO; HELEW = WHEEL; DIPSUT = STUPID; DELBOH = BEHOLD

CIRCLED LETTERS = LIBELUIDBLD

When their house was completed, the couple was - - -

"BUILD BILLED"

Today is International Left-Handers Day, National Filet Mignon Day, Annie Oakley's Birthday (born in 1860), Alfred Hitchcock' Birthday (Vertigo, The Birds), Fidel Castro's Birthday, and Don Ho's Birthday.

Other things on this day in history:

3114 BC - According to the Lounsbury correlation, the Maya calendar starts.
1315 - Louis X of France marries Clemence d'Anjou.
1326 - Aradia de Toscano, according to legend/folklore, is initiated into a Dianic witchcraft cult, subsequently founds the tradition of Stregheria later known as the Malandanti.
1415 - Hundred Years' War: Henry V of England lands at Chef-en-Caux, France with 8000 men.
1516 - Treaty of Noyon between France and Spain signed. In it, Francis recognises Charles's claim to Naples, and Charles recognises Francis's claim to Milan.
1521 - Tenochtitlán (present day Mexico City) falls to conquistador Hernán Cortés.
1536 - Buddhist monks from Kyōto's Enryaku Temple set fire to 21 Nichiren temples throughout Kyoto in the Tenbun Hokke Disturbance. (Traditional Japanese date: July 27, 1536).
1553 - Michael Servetus arrested by John Calvin in Geneva as a heretic.
1704 - War of the Spanish Succession: Battle of Blenheim - English and Austrians victorious over French and Bavarians.
1814 - The Convention of London, a treaty between the United Kingdom and the United Provinces, is signed in London.
1913 - Otto Witte, an acrobat, is crowned King of Albania.
1913 - Invention of stainless steel by Harry Brearley.
1918 - Women enlist in the United States Marine Corps for the first time. Opha Mae Johnson is the first woman to enlist.
1918 - Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) established as a public company in Germany.
1920 - Polish-Soviet War: Battle of Warsaw begins, lasts till August 25. The Red Army is defeated.
1937 - Battle of Shanghai begins.
1940 - World War II: Battle of Britain begins - The Luftwaffe launches a series of attacks on British fighter bases and radar installations.
1954 - Radio Pakistan broadcasts National Anthem of Pakistan for the first time.
1960 - The Central African Republic declares independence from France.
1961 - The German Democratic Republic closes the border between the eastern and western sectors of Berlin, to thwart its inhabitants' attempts to escape to the West.
1968 - Alexandros Panagoulis attempts to assassinate the Greek dictator Colonel G. Papadopoulos in Varkiza, Athens.
1979 - The roof of the uncompleted Rosemont Horizon near Chicago, Illinois collapses, killing 5 workers and injuring 16.
1996 - Marc Dutroux, his wife Michelle Martin, and Michel Lelièvre are arrested on suspicion of kidnapping. All are found guilty on June 22, 2004, with sentences of life, 30, and 25 years, respectively.
2004 - Hurricane Charley, a Category 4 storm, strikes Punta Gorda, Florida and devastates the surrounding area.
2004 - Black Friday crackdown by NSS on a peaceful protest in the capital city of Maldives, Malé.
2004 - 156 Congolese Tutsi refugees massacred at the Gatumba refugee camp in Burundi.