Koreshan

While visitors to Koreshan State Park in Estero have often asked whether there was any connection between Cyrus Teed Koresh — the man who founded The Koreshan Unity which called the land home beginning in the early 1800s, and David Koresh — the man who led the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas from the mid 1980s until the group’s fiery demise during an FBI siege gone wrong on their Mount Carmel compound on April 19th, 1993 — the answer was always no, there is no connection between the two and the similarity between their names is purely coincidental. Well, new evidence has come to light that seems to prove there was most certainly a connection of some kind.

While visitors to Koreshan State Park in Estero have often asked whether there was any connection between Cyrus Teed Koresh — the man who founded The Koreshan Unity which called the land home beginning in the early 1800s, and David Koresh — the man who led the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas from the mid 1980s until the group’s fiery demise during an FBI siege gone wrong on their Mount Carmel compound on April 19th, 1993 — the answer was always no, there is no connection between the two and the similarity between their names is purely coincidental. Well, new evidence has come to light that seems to prove there was most certainly a connection of some kind.

This year is the 25th annual Koreshan Ghost Walk. In the late 19th century, a utopian community known as the Koreshan Unity was established in Estero. The…