Everglades City proclaims itself as the Gateway to the 10,000 Islands, and for paddlers that is most certainly true. It is one end of the Wilderness Waterway, the famous Everglades backcountry route linking Everglades City to Flamingo. It is the best place in the 10,000 Islands to rent canoes or kayaks, hook up with a guided paddling excursion, or find a comfortable room from which to base your explorations of Big Cypress National Preserve, Everglades National Park, and Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve. It even has a tiny airport, so you can fly in or book a float plane tour to get a bird's-eye view of the islands before putting your paddle to the water.

Prior to 1923, Everglades City was called Everglade, a name given the settlement along the crooked little Allen's River in 1893 by Bembery Storter after the U.S. Post Office refused the request for the name Chokoloskee. Farming was the primary occupation of people living in the area and included sugarcane, bananas, and vegetables. Allen gave Everglades City its start, but George T. Storter is considered the true founder of the town. He and his family were prominent in Everglade's growth and activities and owned much of the land around the town until the arrival of Baron Collier in 1923. It was under the Storter stewardship the Everglade began to draw visitors and sportsmen. The Rod and Gun Club was built around the home.

Barron Collier is primarily responsible for the foundation of Everglades City as you see it today. In 1923 he and his company purchased most of the land in and surrounding the town. Within five years the sleepy trading post and farming community was converted into a bustling industrial-based company town complete with roads, a railroad, a bank, a telephone, sawmills, a boatyard, a school, and even its own streetcar at one time. The Ivey House, home of NACT-Everglades Rentals and Eco Adventures, was once one of the Collier Company workers' barracks.

With the establishment of Everglades National Park and subsequent purchase of most of Big Cypress Swamp and the 10,000 Islands for conservation, Everglades City once again looks to the natural environment for economic viability through nature tourism, sport fishing, and commercial crabbing.