A State Historical Marker is located at the site of Fort Thompson, which was constructed in the late 1830s on the Caloosahatchee River for use as a military supply post during the Second Seminole War. During the Civil War, the Confederates used this area to raise cattle and, in January 1864, a Union scouting expedition from Fort Myers skirmished with Confederate pickets at this site.

In February 1865, Fort Thompson was used as the staging area for the Confederate Cow Cavalry forces who conducted an unsuccessful attack on Fort Myers.

Captain Francis Asbury Hendry, who had led a company of Confederate troops in the February 1865 attack on Fort Myers, acquired the property after the war, in 1879.

He established a cattle ranch there, and a town soon grew along its western boundary. By the early 1900s, the former fort site had become the cattle and citrus town of LaBelle.

Information provided by the Florida Division of Historical Resources, a division of the Florida Department of State.

Image courtesy of Florida Memory

Capt. F.A. Hendry's home at Fort Thompson c1900

Florida Photographic Collection PRO 3317