1st Canal in Fort Myers dug by Tom Phillips

Developer Tom Phillips and the San Carlos on the Gulf Corperation dug the 1st Canal on Fort Myers Beach behind Canal Steet. They sold small lots for cottages to mostly fishermen. The cost was between $400 - $1000.

Frank Green and his family had a grocery store and fish house on the bay on the north corner of the 1st canal Tom Phillip's dug behind Crescent St (where https://matanzas.com/restaurant/ Mantanza on the Bay and Inn Rests today). The storm took their house and Store from there and it floated across Mantanzas Bay and landed on the sandbar where the shrimp boats dock today... Their cat and a canary cage with two tweeties in it rode across Mantanzas Bay in the house. After that, every resident who saw the cat called him "Captain Tom".

Everything was washed away... the store and house... all that was left was a metal water tank. Bad storm for sure. Captain Tom remains the first and only cat to sail across Mantanzas Pass in a hurricane. Only in FMB.