[6] Lee County is the home for spring training of the Boston Red Sox and the Minnesota Twins Major League Baseball teams.

The area that is now Lee County has several archaeological sites that show evidence of habitation by peoples belonging to the Caloosahatchee culture (500 to 1750 AD).

In 1858, after years of elusive battle, Chief Billy Bowlegs and his warriors were persuaded to surrender and move west,[11] and the fort was abandoned.

The Union's garrison, led by Captain James Doyle, successfully held the fort and the Confederate forces retreated.

During the Civil War, Fort Myers was occupied by federal troops with the intention of disrupting the Confederate cattle supply from Florida.

In the 1870s, Tervio Padilla, a wealthy merchant from the Canary Islands, came by way of Key West to Cayo Costa and established trade with natives and "ranchos" that extended northward to Charlotte Harbor.

When the government claimed his land, he was disinclined to set up another ranch, so moved with his wife further down the island and as before, simply homesteaded.

[17] Fort Myers first became a nationally known winter resort with the opening of the Royal Palm Hotel in 1898, built by New York City department store magnate Hugh O'Neill.

[18] In 1927, a property purchased by the City of Fort Myers was turned into an airport, eventually called Page Field.

During World War II, Page Field served as an advanced fighter training base and home to the several bomber groups.

[18] Lee County has been the host to several Major League Baseball teams for spring training over the past several decades.

On September 28, 2022, Hurricane Ian made landfall on Lee County as a category 4 storm, causing major damage to Sanibel, Pine Island, and surrounding areas.

[27] Lee County has short, warm winters, and long, hot, humid summers, with most of the year's rainfall occurring from June to September.

[28] At 89, Lee County leads the nation in the number of days annually in which a thunderstorm is close enough for thunder to be heard.

[40] Hertz moved its headquarters from New Jersey to Estero in 2016, the first major corporation to relocate to Lee County.

There are multiple specialized units within the agency including Aviation, K9, SOU, Fugitive Warrants, Marine, Electronic Surveillance, and Tactical Narcotics Teams.

[52] The towns of Fort Myers Beach and Sanibel Island, though located in Lee County, maintain their own independent public library entities.

[53] The Lee County Library System currently provides more than 294,000 county residents with over 1.5 million items and materials available for use or patron circulation, as well as an online library materials catalog, free wi-fi, public computer access, and scanning and printing capabilities.

Since then, Adlai Stevenson II, Lyndon Johnson, Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama have been the only Democrats to manage 40 percent of the vote.

In addition, a private enterprise operates a high-speed, passenger-only ferry service between Fort Myers Beach from San Carlos Island and Key West.

The Downtown Intermodal Transfer Center in Fort Myers also serves as an intermediate stop on Greyhound Lines bus service.

[59] The Boston Red Sox hold their annual spring training at JetBlue Park at Fenway South in the Fort Myers area.

A cross-town rivalry has developed with the Minnesota Twins, which conduct their spring training at Hammond Stadium in south Lee County, which has a capacity of 7,500 and opened in 1991.

That stadium, named JetBlue Park at Fenway South, is located off Daniels Parkway near Southwest Florida International Airport.

Former Red Sox left fielder Mike Greenwell is from Fort Myers, and was instrumental in bringing his team to the city for spring training.