By Drew Sterwald. dsterwald@news-press.com
The Shell Factory & Nature Park, one of Southwest Florida’s best-known tourist attractions, blends the natural - and unnatural - wonders of our world in a way that keeps visitors coming back.

Its got carved coconut monkeys, thousand-dollar Cowrie shells, pickled sharks, and live critters ranging from Anacondas to zebras.What exactly, is this eighteen-acre attraction? A museum of mollusks? An ersatz zoo? A cathedral of kitsch? We think its better if you make up your own mind, so go see for yourself….And check off the first of Tropicalia’s top 12 things to do before you die. Passport stamp number one.

Cotton-candy colored toilet seats embedded with sea horses and shells are calling my name.
“Fancy Toilet Seat” brags the label on the $75.99 souvenir sold at The Shell Factory but manufactured in China.
Fancy indeed. Look at how the clear lucite magnifies the details in the thumb-sized seahorse.

As I weigh the possibility of painting my guest bathroom in teal or plum or Barbie pink to match one of these Fancy Toilet Seats, my brain teeter-totters between anthropological fascination and morbid fear.

Kitsch runs both ways, intersecting at this North Fort Myers landmark.
Bigger and better than ever now that Waltzing Waters has returned under the sexier moniker Liquid Fireworks, The Shell Factory & Nature Park is a rangy 26-acre complex that lures visitors with a campy yet compelling come-on: a rotating conch out on U.S. 41 almost as big as a Mini Cooper. Read the rest of this entry »

By Eric Raddatz.eraddatz@news-press.com

This past Monday, I was motivated to go where I’ve never gone before - The Shell Factory.Can you imagine that?

Five years living here and I have never visited this North Fort Myers extravaganza. The shame.

Thrilled to be art directing the Top 12 Things to Do in Southwest Florida Before You Die, I wondered how I’ve managed to drive past the place so many times and not stop in.

I guess I always imagined it to be simply a warehouse of mollusk. Yawn.
I mean, it is called The Shell Factory. And the sign advertising it on U.S. 41 is just a big upside down V with a shell in it. Not exactly calling to me, you know?

Boy, was I wrong. Never would I have expected it to have have lions, tigers and bears. Throw in Liquid Fireworks, a karaoke restaurant, Ms. PacMan, Subway with the toasted buns, a homemade fudge factory, miniature golf, a petting zoo and a very helpful staff. Read the rest of this entry »