Marco Island City Map Poster

About Marco Island

The dry season is punctuated by occasional strong winds and storms. The wet season sees heavy rainfall, warm temperatures and frequent tropical storms. The first inhabitants of the island were Native Americans who arrived about 500 BC, called the Calusa people by later Europeans. They built a thriving community complete with housing, canals for irrigation and transportation across the waterway to Key West (see map). Marco Island was named after Marcos de Aramburu Todesca (1768–1811), an officer in Spanish Florida in 1792 when it was briefly occupied by Spain during its war against Great Britain; he died at Pensacola while returning to Havana as governor of Cuba on board his flagship "San Carlos".