The Ancient History of Sarasota County

People have been coming to Florida for a long time. And we’re not just talking about all the tourists who have been traveling to the Sunshine State since the early 20th century, or even the Spanish who first came to Florida in the 1500s.

Think much longer than that. Here in Sarasota County, there’s evidence of people living and traveling among our shores as far back as 12,000 years ago. “We’ve got an amazing continuum of human occupation in one area,” says John McCarthy, vice president of Marie Selby Botanical Gardens’ Historic Spanish Point campus. “That’s not the case in most places in Florida, or the United States.”

While much of the area’s ancient history remains hidden from view, there are ways that visitors to the area can learn more about the many people who came before them. Time travel along with us to some of the county’s notable ancient sites.

Significant Springs & Ancient Sites

Some of Sarasota County’s most remarkable archaeological discoveries are hidden beneath the surface—literally.

Little Salt Spring

The second-oldest dated artifact ever found in the southeast United States – a sharpened wooden stake some 12,000 years old – was uncovered at Little Salt Spring in North Port. In fact, that site contains some of the oldest cultural remains in the United States.

Found within a parcel of land owned by the University of Miami, the 260-foot-wide by 250-foot-deep sinkhole once attracted extinct animals like giant tortoises and ground sloths along with the people who hunted them. The site isn’t open to the public, but it’s significant for the range of archeological remains, including wood, textile fragments and hair, found there that date back to the Late Paleoindian and Early Archaic stages of Florida’s history.

Warm Mineral Springs

Warm Mineral Springs, a water-filled sinkhole in North Port

Warm Mineral Springs Park, another North Port site with archeological significance, is open to the public. But it predominantly attracts folks interested in taking a dip in the only natural warm spring in Florida, which has a consistent year-round average temperature of 85 degrees and is thought to have one of the highest mineral contents of any natural spring in the U.S.

However, beneath the surface sits another of the most important underwater archeological sites in America. Remains have been found at the site dating back more than 10,000 years. Those finds include the remains of a prehistoric hunter and seven other humans and evidence of creatures like saber tooth tigers, giant sloths, tortoises and even camels.

“We have two of the most important ancient sites of North America in Sarasota County. That's something most people don't realize.”

—Uzi Baram, director of Public Archaeology at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, and former professor of anthropology and heritage studies at New College of Florida in Sarasota

The springs and historic buildings at the site are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, making this one of the rare places where visitors can experience a destination that is simultaneously a natural attraction and an important archaeological site.

Shell Middens, Burial Mounds & Ancient Communities

Long before written records, people living along Sarasota County’s waterways left clues about their lives in the landscape itself. Shell middens and mounds – accumulations of shells, tools, food remains and other materials – can reveal where people lived, what they ate and how they interacted with their environment.

Historic Spanish Point

A must-visit spot for travelers interested in learning more about Sarasota County’s early history is Selby Gardens’ Historic Spanish Point campus in Osprey. 

The Sunken Garden & Pergola at Historic Spanish Point in Osprey

Evidence of human inhabitation dating back at least 5,000 years has been found there, and its Hill Cottage Midden may be one of the oldest and largest ceremonial shell ring middens in the southeastern United States.

The 30-acre Historic Spanish Point site is one of the largest intact actively preserved archaeological sites of the ancient period on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Its docent-led tours offer a true inside look at some of that history, actually taking visitors into a shell mound dating back 2,000 years. The unique archeological display helps give us modern folks an idea of how ancient people lived, worked and ate at Historic Spanish Point.

“People don’t realize the archaic shell ring here at Historic Spanish Point is as old as the pyramids in Egypt."

—John McCarthy, vice president of Marie Selby Botanical Gardens’ Historic Spanish Point campus

McCarthy says shell mounds or middens are often thought of as just ancient trash piles. But the ones at Selby Gardens’ Historic Spanish Point campus were more than that, serving as ceremonial sites and even as an attempt to build a causeway out to nearby barrier island Casey Key.

“It was deliberate construction,” he says. “And this architecture was being done here at the same time they were building the pyramids in Egypt. People think there’s not a lot of history in Florida, yet there’s a tremendous amount of history in Florida if we consider the entire spectrum of that history.”

Manasota Key Offshore Archaeological Site

Some of Sarasota County’s oldest history isn't on land at all. Another significant local site from this same general time period is the Manasota Key Offshore Archaeological Site. 

Gulf Coast sunset at Manasota Key Beach

When the site was in use, sea levels were dramatically lower and the area was a freshwater pond on dry land. As sea levels rose, the landscape was submerged beneath the Gulf, where the peat-rich environment helped preserve organic materials and human remains.

“These ancient people buried their dead in a peat bog that’s now under the Gulf,” says Baram. “And the cemetery’s preserved perfectly underwater.”

Discovered by chance by an amateur diver, the Native American burial site is some 7,000 years old. The site is protected under Florida law and cannot be accessed by the public. Its significance, however, is global: It offers archaeologists an unusually well-preserved look at an ancient landscape and the people who lived there more than seven millennia ago.

Parks with Past Lives

Phillippi Estate Park

The 60-acre Phillippi Estate Park in Sarasota is an appealing spot for a picnic or stroll along the shores of Phillippi Creek, and its early 20th-century, Italian Renaissance–style mansion is a popular wedding spot. But the site also factors into Sarasota County’s ancient past.

Phillippi Creek, one of Sarasota's largest coastal streams

Excavations at the park have uncovered pieces of pottery, shell tools and other artifacts from 2,500 to 1,300 years ago, along with flakes from stone or shell tools from 4,000 to 7,000 years ago. Informative signage installed along the park’s nature trail offers details about the peoples who lived and fished along the creek thousands of years ago.

Indian Mound Park

Located along Lemon Bay in Englewood, Indian Mound Park gets its name from the shell midden at the site dating from 1,000 B.C. to 1,350 A.D. Visitors can walk a rustic trail that winds through the trees now covering the midden where ancient peoples deposited their trash.

“All of these sites give us a sense of the long history of people adapting to this coastline," McCarthy says. “It shows that people have been successful and lived rich lives before us. We have a responsibility to the indigenous heritage that’s beneath our feet, and our lives are enriched by knowing that history and passing it down to the next generations.”

Fossils, Shark Teeth & Sarasota’s Even Older Past

If 12,000 years sounds ancient, consider that some of Sarasota County’s most famous prehistoric discoveries are millions of years older.

Fossilized shark teeth findings at Venice Beach

Venice Beach is known as the "Shark Tooth Capital of the World" because of all the fossilized shark teeth that wash up on its beaches. These actually date from millions of years ago, so they’re from an even more ancient time period than the ones discussed here. But hunting for these fossilized finds is a way that visitors can take a little piece of the past back home with them.

Nearby, the Venice Museum & Archives has a permanent exhibit about fossils found in the area. There are more than 365 fossils on view, including specimens from mammoths, mastodons, giant sloths, camels, bison and sharks.

If your interest in the distant past has been piqued, you can head to the Bishop Museum of Science and Nature in nearby Bradenton to learn more about the region’s ancient history. The museum features permanent archaeological and fossil exhibits highlighting Gulf Coast prehistory. Collections span Paleo-Indian, Archaic and pre-contact eras—including the prominent Montague Tallant collection of local prehistoric and early post-contact artifacts.

Please remember that archaeological artifacts and human remains are protected, and some sites (including the Manasota Key Offshore Archaeological Site) are strictly protected from disturbance.

More Landmarks Geared for History Buffs

If you're a history enthusiast eager to step out of the sand and into the archives, Sarasota offers more landmark sites beyond the prehistoric and archeological ones mentioned above.

Fast forward to the late 19th-century through mid-20th century (roughly the 1880s to the 1960s) to uncover early homesteaders, the failed Scottish colony, town incorporation, and the dramatic 1920s land boom through Sarasota History Alive! The online resource shares archival photography, early settler stories and neighborhood history, as well as local markers and historical buildings for you to check out on a self-guided tour.