About Us

Welcome to SW Florida's #1 Family Destination. Come and spend the day with us! With 50,000 square feet of shopping space, you are bound to find that perfect gift. Featuring millions of shells, fine jewelry, Pick A Pearl, Dept. 56 Christmas collectibles, everything for the beach, toys to clothes and anything in between! Enjoy our Scallywags Fun Park & Mini Golf, featuring The Soaring Eagle Zipline, ride high into the North Fort Myers sky. In 2019 we celebrated our 15th year as an animal rescue and Environmental Education Foundation! The Nature Park has over 400 live animals that have keepers loving them and caring for them 365 days a year! We are dog friendly at Tommy's Outdoor Café (expect a better than tastier experience!) The Retail Store is also dog friendly and don't forget our Doggy Park made just for you and your canine family! Our property offers unique venues for your party or special occasion. Stop by, spend an hour, spend the day and enjoy yourself.

For more than 80 years, the Shell Factory (and now Nature Park & Scallywags Fun Park), has been entertaining tourists and locals alike with a dizzying and constantly changing array of diversions and amusements reminiscent of Florida roadside attractions of yesteryear, which, by the way the Shell Factory was one of the first. The changes will never be complete. The addition of displays and activities within the attraction such as;  the Hunt Brothers Pizza shop, The largest in SW Florida's all year around Christmas House, Gemstone Mining Rig, Game Room, Full Scale Dinosaur Exhibit, US Post Office,  Gulf Coast Homemade Fudge and Ice Cream Shop, and 50,000 square feet of shopping including beautiful gifts, nautical décor, jewelry, pearls, toys, coral and of course shells, began to create the one of a kind experience that is still evolving today. A recent addition, the Soaring Eagle Zip Line is thrilling the young and young at heart with every ride high into the North Fort Myers sky.

One of the most significant embellishments to the Shell Factory was the addition of the Nature Park, which in 2019 just celebrated its 15th year as an animal rescue & environmental education foundation. Animals from an armadillo to a zebra call it home. The over 400 critters, birds, reptiles and fish that inhabit the lush environment are staged in aviaries, a gator slough, ecological laboratory, petting farm and all manner of habitats and dwellings.

The Southern Grill and Tommy's Outdoor Café are thriving thanks to enthusiastic community support. Adjacent to the restaurant is The Players Circle (an outlet for community involvement in the arts) a small venue, The Party House is host to weddings, events, and receptions of all kinds. 

Featured political events include visits by a number of influential figures such as Governor Rick Scott, US Senator Marco Rubio and former N.Y. Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Local officials from across the political spectrum have also had receptions and campaign kickoffs hosted at the Shell Factory's Party House and Outdoor Venues

Foreman to the factory

When Pam and Tom Cronin, or Tommy as she calls him, purchased the dilapidated Shell Factory 22 years ago, it was strictly a business venture. Yet it soon became a labor of love. It snowballed into a success story and one that led Pam Cronin to not only save the floundering business, but to help a long list of other businesses and charities along the way.

“It was in bankruptcy and foreclosure,” Pam says of the Shell Factory when they were buying the business. “The restaurant had shooting galleries full of spiders. The Dolphin Room was just a slab. There were things falling out of the ceiling. There was just a 10,000-square-foot building with shells and a dollar store.”

The Cronins saw some potential.

“We are real estate developers,” she says. “We would take buildings and retro fit them. That was the kind of thing we did. We thought we would give it a try, because it was a landmark attraction. The property was so valuable, because it sits between the two 41s. We thought if it does not work, it would make an industrial complex.”

Right after the purchase, a local newspaper ran a story with the headline “Local Developer Saves Landmark Attraction.” 

“So we had to work harder to make it work,” Pam says. “It absolutely became a labor of love.”

The Cronin's added bumper boats, miniature golf, gem mining and, more recently a zip line. Pam loves Christmas, so she added the 6,000-square-foot holiday house full of decorations, a holiday train, Christmas village's and more.

“I wanted to have the hugest Christmas house in Southwest Florida,” she says. “It just makes me happy.”

She also added fun things such as drag queen bingo on Sundays.

“It is a hoot,” she says. “They do all kinds of crazy antics. We are always looking for the next crazy new thing to do.”

Pam’s quest is also to balance the future with the past.

“This is an old roadside attraction,” she says. “The tradition is so important. Everybody has a Shell Factory story. Grandparents will come in to the Pick-a-Pearl, and they will say, ‘I did this when I was little and then I brought your mother and now we’re bringing you.’ That is probably the No. 1 thing that people come back to.”

The Cronin's added a nature park 15 years ago that has also become a refuge for injured wildlife. Pam created the Nature Park Environmental Education Foundation, which aims to give the public experiences with plants and wildlife and to offer nature-based educational experiences. The foundation also gives back to Lee County school children with transportation for field trips and education. It also provides a permanent home for animals that are no longer healthy enough to live in the wild.

Pam often uses her business to help the public. More than 300 charities each year ask for a goodie basket for fundraisers, and she supplies them with a donation package, including tickets to all the attractions, food, a T-shirt and more.

Every year she hosts Nam-Jam at the Shell Factory. Admission is free for everyone, and veterans get a free round of golf for four, food and drinks.

“Nam Jam — that is really nice,” she says. “Vietnam veterans — they weren’t really well received when they came home. It is really for the Vietnam vets — to say thank you for your service.”



Pam scurries between the Nature Park, restaurant and shop as she oversees everything while also balancing a long list of charity work. She becomes shy and very modest when talking about her volunteering.

For 21 years, Pam was on the Lee County Tourist Development Council.

“That is my favorite board,” she says. “Tourism in Lee County is very significant. It really feels like we make a difference in the community.”

In 2007-08, Pam was president of the Greater Fort Myers Chamber of Commerce.

“That was quite an honor,” she says.

She has been chairwoman of Arts for ACT. She has helped with Valerie’s House, the iCAN AIDS Network and with One More Child.

“One More Child is a charity that sends missionaries to Haiti and other places to help,” Pam explains. “It’s just a wonderful thing that is great for the kids.”

Pam says when she can’t volunteer time, she donates money.

“Normally the ones I do, I like the small ones,” she says. “I really focus on local.”

When the Player’s Circle Theatre was looking for help, she stepped in to not only help financially, but to offer the group a home. She is turning her Dolphin Room into a rehearsal space and theater for the group.

“I was very familiar with them, and I wanted to help them,” she says. “It will be their permanent home. It was a special event room. Now it will be a theater.”

Pam is a fixture in Southwest Florida. She has lived here since 1974.

“I was born in New York, near Buffalo,” she says. “I moved at age 18 months. My dad didn’t like the cold.”

They spent 10 years in the Washington, D.C., area before heading farther south. Pam graduated from Fort Myers High School and got her bachelor’s degree in science and education from Florida State University. She secured her master’s degree in tourism administration and event planning from The George Washington University.

After Tommy died about two years ago, Pam continued to devote herself to her work and charities. She said the key to running a business and helping so many charities is good planning.

“And just have good people around you,” she says. “I have a great general manager. It’s just making the good decisions, surrounding yourself with really good people.”

When work gets too stressful, she has just the places to go.

“If it gets a little stressful, I go to the Christmas house and listen to the music or go to the nature park and feed the lemurs some grapes.”

One of her latest projects was restoring a 1927 carousel. 

“It is absolutely beautiful,” she says.

She has really enjoyed sharing it with the public, and to make it family-friendly, she only charges a dollar for rides, free for people with special needs.

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