Gang of Butterflies attacking the Mound!

If you've walked around the property recently you may have noticed a gathering of blazingly beautiful butterflies on the pathway nearest to the fruit crop orchard behind the house. The gang of butterflies seem to be increasing in numbers these last few weeks on the path underneath the Gumbo Limbo tree at the U-turn pathway.

The butterflies wait for a visitor to walk right up to them, at first they look like fallen leaves on the ground. Then you get a little closer and one or two start to flutter and fly away. Take another step and all of a sudden you are surrounded by butterflies! It is truly a sight to behold!

Parke Lewis, our resident Biologist and Environmental Educator, accurately identified the butterflies as the "Mangrove Buckeye" Butterfly, it feels good knowing they have a name.

Additionally on site today, the Public Works Director of The Town of Fort Myers Beach was walking the site with Parke - we they found the butterfly gang a mystery and stopped to check it out. As they stood at the U-turn path and looked up, they noticed there was something mysterious with the Gumbo Limbo tree leaves overhead. Directly over the butterflies, the leaves had a white almost fuzzy and shiney substance on them and there were little chunks eaten out of the sides of said leaves. It turns out the Mangrove Buckeye Butterfly has found a home on the Mound House site.

FloridaStateParks.org states, the "Gumbo Limbo Tree provides a larval food source for a number of species. A large shade tree with red peeling bark, it can reach heights of 40 feet and is easily propagated by placing cuttings directly in the soil."

Image: Antshrike's Bird and Bug Blog

The Mural's Wall Progress

So, Lucas Construction worked hard and did a great job, finishing faster than even imagined. The stucco on the wall in the exhibit is curing now, and should take about 2 weeks to fully dry, which is why we are still not holding any tours until January 3rd. The wall looks amazing, and once you see it, you will realize we are one step closer to finishing the room completely. (Pictures will soon be posted). The next step is getting our custom mural completed, printed and applied to our new wall. This is a great day.

New Mural Wall in Underground Exhibit

Mound House Holiday Schedule

Mound House Grounds and Office will have regular hours on December 24^th and December 31^st; but will be completely closed to the public on December 25^th and January 1^st.  

The underground exhibit, "Stories Beneath Our Feet" is temporarily closed until January 3rd. Construction on a new wall for our future 44' long custom mural has begun.

Due to this construction, no tours will be offered of the underground room.

Date

12.24                        10am-2pm                   

12.25               GROUNDS CLOSED

12.26                          CLOSED

12.31                         10am-2pm                   

1.1                   GROUNDS CLOSED

1.2                             CLOSED

Mound House Underground Exhibit Progress

Good news! Well, good and bad news. Good news - the Underground Exhibit at the Mound House site, "Stories Beneath Our Feet" is moving forward in the right direction. As of today, December 20th, work is beginning on constuction of the mural wall. This is one step closer to completion! Once the wall is up, it will provide the foundation for the custom 44' long Calusa Indian mural. The mural is, as we speak, being worked on and anticipated to go up sometime in February.

Now for the bad news - the Underground Exhibit will need to be closed during construction of this wall. So that means we will not be offering any tours of the exhibit until the New Year. During this time, however, the Mound House grounds will still be open as usual - sun up to sun down, seven days a week.

This is a great step in the right direction, and anyone who has been in the underground exhibit knows how great of a leap this really is! We are very excited for the future!

No tours will be offered of the Underground Exhibit until January.

Stories Beneath Our Feet Entrance

Welcome to the new blog for Mound House! We are very excited to be able to have this opportunity to speak to you and let you know what is going on around the site. We'll be updating the blog regularly with pictures, news stories, personal tid-bits and other fun tips, advice and interesting facts. So check back often as there will always be something new to see!