The area around Chokoloskee Bay, including the site of Everglades City, was occupied for thousands of years by Native Americans of the Glades culture, who were absorbed by the Calusa shortly before the arrival of Europeans in the New World, but by the time Florida was transferred from Spain to the United States in 1821, the area was uninhabited.

After Allen retired to Key West in 1889, George W. Storter, Jr. became the principal landowner in the area.

Storter also began entertaining northern tourists who came to Everglade by yacht in the winter to hunt and fish.

His house eventually grew into the Rod and Gun Club, visited by United States Presidents and other notables.

[11] The Episcopal Church established a mission at Immokalee which eventually moved to Everglade when revitalized in the 1930s by Harriet Bedell.

In 1922, Barron Collier began buying large areas of land in what was then southern Lee County.

During that same year, it only consisted of a dozen families, but some northern sportsmen had established winter homes there.

[4] The Tamiami Trail, which crossed Collier's domain, passed five miles north of Everglades City.

Service was provided by an extension of the Coast Line's Haines City Branch from Immokalee to Deep Lake, where it connected to Collier's Deep Lake Railroad, an earlier railroad that transported agricultural freight.

It is separated from the Gulf of Mexico by the northern end of the Ten Thousand Islands.

[17] As of the 2020 United States census, there were 352 people, 103 households, and 59 families residing in the city.

[23] As of the 2010 United States census, there were 400 people, 106 households, and 80 families residing in the city.