Bokeelia, on the northern tip of Pine Island, has a romantic past with pirates dashing in and out of Charlotte Harbor carrying their booty who knows where. As early as 1765, Spanish fishing camps were known to exist in this area, supplying Spanish settlements in the Florida Keys and Cuba.

In the early 1900's settlers began arriving and made a living raising tropical fruit. Drawn to the tranquility at the end of the island with Charlotte Harbor spread out before it, Harry Poe Johnson took advantage of this lovely view by building a southern style mansion about 1914. In 1916, Captain Peter Haines built a house patterned after houses the government built for its troops in the tropics. A native of Maryland and an Annapolis graduate, Captain Haines was forced by tragic circumstances to leave his successful navy career and look for a place to start a new life.

Today, as they have in the past, palm plantations and groves of various tropical fruits thrive here. These fruits are shipped all over the United States. Bokeelia still offers an atmosphere of peace and tranquility in a hectic world.