A cult thrived along a Florida river. Did their settlement survive Hurricane Ian?
A building at Koreshan State Park in Estero, just south of Fort Myers, Fla.. - Jeff Kleinman/Miami Herald/TNS

It looks like any other state park. There are picnic tables, hiking trails, campgrounds. But this is not any other state park. A cult once called this place home. Koreshan State Park, 135 acres along the Estero River near Fort Myers, preserves several of the cult’s buildings, and all of the history of a group of people who thought of the world in a different way. The Koreshans, a late-1800s religious cult, believed immortality could be achieved through celibacy, community and equality. They also believed the earth was hollow and that they lived on the inner surface. The group — not related to ...