History is full of eddies and currents, but certain themes emerge that give a community clues to both its future and its past. For example, Charlotte County was born in the cockpit of rapid social change, propelled from the Jazz Age into the Great Depression. Communities like Englewood or Cleveland with dreams of becoming metropolises lost their city charters when the music stopped and the well ran dry. Boom and bust. The cycle continued as a construction boom transformed the county during the second half of the 20th century before the major developer of Port Charlotte went belly up.Vernon Peeples, the late, great preeminent historian of Punta Gorda, told me how city founder Isaac Trabue brought the railroad to what was then called Trabue. Soon the railroad backed a play by Trabue's enemies to swallow up his town and give it the name we know today. Now, if Allegiant Airlines can open Sunseeker's doors, we'll see a second revolution spawned by the transportation industry.

And that's no coincidence. Punta Gorda was once the southernmost point of the entire North American railroad system, with shipping links south and west to Cuba and New Orleans. Allegiant has capitalized on our proximity to the Midwest and our beckoning breezes. The railroad built the legendary Punta Gorda Hotel, the 19th century version of destination resort travel. Allegiant's Sunseeker may be the 21st century version of that iconic job generator. Geography is our destiny.Now, as we try to make a new society in the face of the deadliest pandemic to strike our community, is not the time to hide our voices. Now is the time to tell our stories.

Here is the place to celebrate the people who made Charlotte County's first century.