The Ted Smallwood Store (also known as the Smallwood's Trading Post or the Ole Indian Trading Post and Museum) is a historic store in Chokoloskee,

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

History

C.S. "Ted" Smallwood came to Chokoloskee Island as a permanent settler in 1897 and became postmaster in 1906, operating the post office from his home. In 1917, Smallwood built the general store that also served as post office for the residents of Chokoloskee Island. It is located at SR 29 in

Everglades National Park Everglades National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States that protects the southern twenty percent of the original Everglades in Florida. The park is the largest tropical wilderness in the Un ...

. On July 24, 1974, it was added to the

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National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. Today, the store has been preserved as a museum with many original goods and fixtures. However, it is at risk from property developers. Ted Smallwood Store at Sunset

Ted Smallwood Store on Chokoloskee Island

In the media

The Smallwood Store was featured as one of the haunted locations on the

paranormal TV Paranormal television is a genre of reality television that purports to document factual television, factual investigations of the paranormal rather than fictional representations seen in traditional narrative films and TV. Over the years, the ge ...

series ''

Most Terrifying Places in America ''Most Terrifying Places in America'' is an American paranormal documentary television series that premiered on October 9, 2009, on the Travel Channel as a stand-alone special. The special was subsequently broken down into an episodic series. Eac ...

'' in an episode titled "Restless Dead", which aired on the

Travel Channel Travel Channel (stylized as Trvl Channel since 2018) is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, who previously owned the channel from 1997 to 2007. The channel is headquartered in Manhattan, with ...

in 2018. The episode told the story of "Bloody" Ed Watson, an outlaw who allegedly fled Oklahoma after killing a member of Butch and Sundance's Hole-in-the-Wall Gang and wound up in the

Everglades The Everglades is a natural region of flooded grasslands in the southern portion of the U.S. state of Florida, comprising the southern half of a large drainage basin within the Neotropical realm. The system begins near Orlando with the K ...

. When hired laborers to help with his sugarcane plantation in the area. But when they wanted to move on, Watson would take them to the Smallwood Store so they could catch a boat to

Fort Myers A fortification (also called a fort, fortress, fastness, or stronghold) is a military construction designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Lati ...

Key West Key West is an island in the Straits of Florida, at the southern end of the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Island, it con ...

. However, they never made it. Watson killed them and buried the bodies in the swamp. He did this horrible deed for 15 years, until he was caught in 1910 when someone found the body of a woman named Hannah Smith. The townsfolk rounded up a posse of men and they came after Watson who they knew visited the store for supplies every Tuesday. After the men told Watson they were going to arrest him for their Hannah's death, he came out of the store and aimed his double-barrel shotgun at the men. Since the shotgun shells were wet, the gun misfired. The men then unloaded on Watson; the first shot was right between his eyes, while 30 rounds went into his body. When the town did an autopsy, they pulled a "coffee can" filled with lead out of his body.

References

External links

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Collier County listings
a
National Register of Historic Places
a
Everglades Florida
Buildings and structures in Collier County, Florida National Register of Historic Places in Collier County, Florida National Register of Historic Places in Everglades National Park Museums in Collier County, Florida History museums in Florida {{Florida-museum-stub

History

In the media

References

Further reading

External links