Captiva Island is an island in Lee County in southwest Florida, located just offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. Originally part of neighboring Sanibel Island to the southeast, it was severed when a hurricane's storm surge washed away a new channel, called Blind Pass, which has now been filled in with sand. A project opening the pass again will be completed in 2009. Like Sanibel, Captiva is a barrier island to Pine Island (to the east of Captiva and north of Sanibel), however it is much narrower. The only automobile access to Captiva is via the Sanibel Causeway and Sanibel-Captiva Road. Captiva was homesteaded in 1888 and a tiny cemetery next to The Chapel by the Sea has the grave of the original resident, William Herbert Binder (1850-1932), an Austrian. Half the island is in private ownership, with "Millionare's Row", luxury homes on gulf and bay side of "San-Cap" road. The South Seas Island Resort entry gate is at the end of this road. Roosevelt Channel on the east side of the island, is named for Theodore Roosevelt who fished there.