Located on the picturesque river next to the Bayshore Live Oak Park, the Charlotte County Historical Center is geared towards children with programs, signage, showcases, and interative exhibits that illuminate facets of local history. Exhibits are devoted to the Gasparilla pirate legend, Calusa natives, fishing heritage, fossils, Seminoles and more.

Opened in December 2001 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Pearl Harbor, the Florida Military Heritage Museum features changing exhibits that focus on that infamous day as well as World Wars I and II, Korea, and Vietnam. Showcases are filled with uniforms, weapons, and miscellaneous memorabilia that veterans will enjoy.

To the citizens of Boca Grande, the Gasparilla Island Maritime Museum represents Americans and a way of life that has survived in contrast to the mansions and yachts that surround it. Part of Whidden's Marina, the museums photo albums remember a day when the nations top industrialists sailed here to fish and winter. Parts of boats and fishing gear lie strewn around the old, peeling fish shack, listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Still in operation, the marina and it's store make it difficult to tell where the museum ends and the present begin.

Housed in quaint village structures, the Collier County Museumtakes you back 10,000 years. with exhibits of prehistoric fossils and Native American Artifacts. Some unique exhibits include typical Seminole chikee huts, a vintage swamp buggy that kids can climb into, the skeleton of an Ice Age  giant ground sloth, a working archaeological lab, a replicated Seminole war fort, and a 1910 steam locomotive from the county's cypress-logging era. 

Through photographs, artifacts, replicas, and memoribilia, this fledgling museum (for the time being in two commercial locations) depicts the past of Key Marco, as it was once known. It concentrates on the island's rich Calusa Indian culture, displaying a life size diaorama, shell tools, masks, wood carvings, and other artifacts unearthed in the 1895 archaeological expedition that established Marco as an important center of the Calusa kingdom. The dig's most important find, the Calusa Cat, has become an island icon and is replicated at the Old Marco Branch. The original resides at the Smithsonian Instititution. Also represented are pineapple farming, clam canning, and residential development.

The Museum of the Everglades takes over a historic laundry started by developer Barron Collier to serve the community of road builders during the construction of the Tamiami Trail in the 1920's. The museum concentrated on the feat of blazing a trail through Everglades, plus the region's Calusa Indian and fishing heritage.

The Naples Depot once greeted the likes of Hedy Lamarr, Gary Cooper, and other illuminati of yore. Inside, the museum has an elaborate display of eight  operating model trains. Outside is a small railroad for kiddie rides.

Home to more than 5,000 teddies, this cuddly museum showcases collector, antique, and limited edition bears and includes a signed first edition of A. A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh. The collection began as one woman's penchant for for the stuffed animals and is whimsically displayed. A train filled with bears runs overhead. Little ones will have fun in the Three Bears House. The museum hosts a story hour for kids on Saturday mornings.

The only one of its kind in the U.S., this museum reinforces Sanibel’s reputation as a top shell-collecting destination. It uses nature vignettes and artistically arranged displays to demonstrate the roll of shells in ecology, history, art, economics, medicine, religion, and other fields. The centerpiece of the museum is a two-story globe surrounded by shells from around the world. The Children’s Science Lab provides games and hands-on learning experiences in colorful reef motif surroundings. The museum holds more than two million specimens in the showroom and cataloged room upstairs, representing a third of the world’s 150,000 species of living mollusks.