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The above-mentioned developments in Naples and
the county, which was named after him, were heavily
influenced by Barron Collier.
Barron Gift Collier (March 23, 1873 – March 13, 1939)
was an American advertising entrepreneur who
became the largest landowner and developer in the
U.S. state of Florida, as well as the owner of a chain
of hotels, bus lines, several banks, and newspapers,
and of a telephone company and a steamship line.
Collier was born in Memphis, Tennessee. He quit
school at age sixteen to work for the Illinois Central
Railroad. Within four years, he started his own busi-
ness, the Consolidated Street Railway Advertising Company of New York City. At age twenty-six, his assets were valued at a million dollars.
In 1907, Barron Collier married, Juliet Gordon Carnes, also a native of Memphis. In 1911, they visited Fort Myers, Florida, on vacation, and fell in love with the area. They bought nearby Useppa Island for the sum of $100,000.
Collier was an avid fisherman and established the Izaak Walton Club at their Useppa Island resort; it became one of the most exclusive sporting clubs in the world. Collier next developed golf courses and improved the Rod and Gun Club, a hunting club in Everglades City, Florida, that also attracted wealthy tourists.
Collier made his first purchase in what was to be Collier County in 1921, when he acquired Deep Lake Hammock and the grove that two of his friends, Roach and Langford, had planted there early in the century. This included the fourteen mile Deep Lake Railroad down to the river at Everglades.
Over the next decade, the Colliers went on to acquire more than a million acres of land in Southwest Florida, making them the largest private land owners in the state. He invested millions of dollars to transform and develop the wilderness, including drainage of the Everglades and construction of the Tamiami Trail.
COLLIER'S RESERVE COUNTRY CLUB
Barron Collier, Collier Family and Associates