In Portrait: Naples & Collier County

Called the jewel of Southwest Florida, Collier Country was one of America's last frontiers. Too remote and isolated to attract the early attention received by areas of eastern Florida, it was not until the 1970s that growth began in earnest. By the early 1990s, Naples, the county's largest city, had become one of the fastest growing and best-planned cities in the country.

As the third largest county in the state, Collier has more land area than the state of Delaware with a total population of less than 200,000 people. The fact that much of the land was considered unihabitable has helped to promote conservation. Today, over fifty percent of the county is protected as nature preserves.