Punta Rassa is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Lee County, Florida, United States.

The Spanish Cubans would stay in Florida from September until March drying and salting fish caught along the coast to supply Havana.

As a result, Fort Dulany (also spelled "Dulaney", "Delany" and "Delaney") was built there in 1837 as an army supply depot, with a hospital.

In January 1864, Union troops landed at Punta Rassa and marched overland to Fort Myers, which they were able to seize before Confederate sympathizers could burn it.

The underwater cable was laid from Havana to Key West, and then on to Punta Rassa, and the line opened to public use on September 11, 1867.

The U.S. Congress had, in 1866, authorized telegraph companies to run their lines across, take supplies from, and place stations on federal public domain lands without charge.

Prior purchased ten cattle and some calves from Seminoles living near the Peace River in what is now Hardee County, and drove them to Punta Rassa, possibly for transport to Sanibel Island.

Cattle shipments to Cuba were curtailed, but not completely stopped, by the Union blockade of Florida during the Civil War.

After the war ended, shipments of cattle from the Peace River ports resumed to Cuba, to Savannah, Georgia, and to Charleston, South Carolina.

Three or four hundred steers would be driven by three to five cowboys for 100 miles (160 km) or so from the open range of central Florida to Punta Rassa.

It was one of the home bases for the "King of the Cracker Cowboys" Jake Summerlin, who by the time he was 40, was one of the wealthiest of the Florida cattle barons.

The town of Punta Rassa was lined with wooden buildings, including a hotel and several bars, which were frequented by the many merchants and cattle sellers.

Soon, however, visitors relocated to Boca Grande, 70 miles (110 km) north of Punta Rassa by land after the Charlotte Harbor and Northern Railway was completed to that destination.

It ran through where Lakes Park currently sits, and then roughly paralleled what is now Summerlin Road, terminating just east of Punta Rassa at Truckland.

Due to their financial state, the Seaboard Air Line Railroad discontinued all operations in the Fort Myers area in 1952.

[21] An FPL transmission line currently sits on a portion of the Punta Rassa Branch's former right of way just south of Summerlin Road.