TRAARVTEL
NEW THINGS TO EXPERIENCE
Punta Gorda, Florida
By Margaret Word Burnside and Aaron R. Fodiman
Photography by Gram and Noraa
The interesting little city of Punta Gorda is a great getaway for us,
being only about an hour-and-a-half drive south of the Tampa Bay
area down Interstate 75. Located on Charlotte Harbor, an estuary of
the Gulf of Mexico, Punta Gorda first appeared on maps of the area
during the early 1850s. Additional residents settled there after the Civil War
in 1876, but it really didn’t get much attention until 1886, when the Florida
Southern Railway made it to the area. Its earliest inhabitants called the area
“Trabue.” In 1887, the city was incorporated and officially named Punta Gorda.
156 TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE | SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2018
The grounds of the Peace River
Botanical and Sculpture Gardens
will eventually cover 27 acres,
including 10 acres of waterways,
marshland and heritage
mangroves.