Cyrus Teed's followers watched his body waiting for him to rise, until the county health officer ordered him buried; a hurricane later took the tomb

Cyrus Teed, who called himself Koresh, moved his followers from Chicago to Estero, Florida, in 1894. They bought 300 acres from a German homesteader for $200, and by the early 1900s the Unity owned about 7,000 acres around Estero, Bonita and Fort Myers Beach. In his book The Immortal Manhood Teed predicted he would be resurrected. In October 1906 he was beaten in a street fight in Fort Myers during a feud with local officials and never fully recovered. He died on 22 December 1908. His followers believed he was in suspended animation and kept watch over the body. It began to decay. After Christmas the county health officer ordered him buried. He was placed in a concrete tomb with an eternal flame on Estero Island. The hurricane of 1921 washed away the south end of the island, tomb included. The Unity declined. In 1940 Hedwig Michel, a Jewish woman who had fled Nazi Germany, arrived when about 35 believers remained, and revived the store. In 1961 she and the last followers gave more than 300 acres to the State of Florida for a park. She died in 1982, and the site became the Koreshan State Historic Site. In 1991 the original corporation was dissolved and the College of Life Foundation took the remaining 75 acres.