Little Sarasota Bay |
In 1907 Siesta Key, originally known as Sarasota Key, was
renamed by Harry Higel and his partners in the Siesta Land Company, Captain Louis
Roberts and E. M. Arbogast. Since there was only access by ferry to the island,
the first bridge was built in 1917.
According to archeological discoveries, five thousand years
ago people lived in the area now known as the Historic Spanish Point. These
early Floridians were avid fishermen who harvested “huge quantities of seafood,”
hunted deer and raccoons, lived in thatched huts, and used tools made from
shell, bone, and wood. The 30-acre preserve dating from 3000 B.C. to 1000 A.D. contains
a burial mound and two middens or shell mounds, excavated by the Smithsonian and archeologist
Ripley Bullen looking for clues of the long-ago inhabitants and their daily
lives.Shell midden |
According to museum archeologists, the middens were built by
pre-Columbian people during a period called the Late Weeden Island period.
Shells and refuse were layered in the sand until the land rose 18 feet above
sea level, jutting into the Little Sarasota Bay. One of the shell midden
sections is preserved inside a specially constructed building as evidence of
Florida’s early inhabitants.
When the Europeans arrived in the 1500s, the Pensacola, the
Apalachee, the Timucua, the Ais, the Tecobaga, the Calusa, the Mayaimi, the
Jeaga, and the Tequeata made their home in Florida. According to historians,
when native people “fell prey to disease and warfare,” Indians from Georgia and
Alabama, Seminoles and Miccosukees, moved into the Florida peninsula. (Historic
Spanish Point Museum Archives)
As the climate warmed, “most large Ice Age animals became
extinct, people became less nomadic and the population grew. These archaic
people occupied Historic Spanish Point about 4,000 years ago.” (Museum
Archives)
Boat house with Spanish Moss |
Citrus fruit was brought originally to Florida by Spanish explorers from Southeast Asia in the 16th century. Spanish missionaries gave seeds to the local Indians who planted orange trees around their communities. Groves of wild oranges were found 200 years later on hammock lands in north central Florida. D.D. Dummitt grafted sweet orange branches onto the wild trees, obtaining the now famous Indian River variety.
During its interesting history, hard freezes, pests, and
disease, the citrus industry thrived and by 1980 there were more than 690,000
acres in production, making it the leading agricultural crop in Florida with “146
million boxes of oranges and fifty-five million boxes of grapefruit.” (Historic
Spanish Point Museum Archives)
The proximity to so much sea water allowed growers to wash
oranges covered with mold or fungus. Some fruit was perfect straight from the
grove but most needed washing. The original Webb Citrus Packing House was built
around 1870.Mary's Chapel |
A tiny white chapel, adjacent to the pioneer cemetery where
the Webb family is buried, was built in the middle of the lush tropical jungle
walk. Mary’s Chapel was named after Mary Sherrill, a young woman from Kentucky
suffering from tuberculosis, who had come to the Webb’s Winter Resort in 1892
in hopes that the warm Florida sun would cure her. She died five weeks later.
The New England Conservatory of Music, class of 1891, donated in 1895 the
church bell in memory of their former classmate and graduate.
The flora and fauna found both in temperate and tropical
climates offer a unique look to the area. Hardwood forests and hammocks cover
about 20 percent of Florida. On the hammock trail one can find oaks, pignut
hickory, red cedar, hickory, wax myrtle with its aroma of the crushed leaf and
fruit and its candle-making wax, and magnolia trees but also tropical cabbage
palms and soapberry trees. On the forest floor there are shade-loving plants
such as wild coffee, sea-oxeye (along the border of mangroves), saltwort, and
white stopper.
Bridge and mangrove |
Garden |
Branching trees hide insects, songbirds, owls, toads, and
epiphytes, plants that grow on other plants such as the butterfly orchid, wild
pine, and resurrection fern. Spanish moss, a member of the bromeliad or
pineapple family, is an epiphyte that uses trees for support but draws
nourishment from the air, the sun, and the rain. Spanish moss literally
blankets the area, hanging like nature’s Christmas ornaments.
Mangrove |
The Gumbo Limbo is a fascinating tree nicknamed the tourist
tree because its red bark peels like sunburn.
A large shade tree, the Gumbo Limbo sap is used as a liniment and made
into varnish, while the leaves can be brewed as tea.
The bay on the east side of Siesta Key is an estuary, a
place where saltwater and freshwater meet. Surrounded by mangroves that prevent
shoreline erosion, the rainfall waters mixed with saltwater become a perfect nursery
for marine life and wildlife. Aqueduct surrounded by huge fern |
The entire 30-acre Spanish Point preserve with its fern
flooded aqueduct, the mangroves, the plantation house, the packing house, the
boat shed, Mary’s Church, and the cemetery are a fascinating walk into the wilderness
that used to be Florida, and its rich history. The outdoor museum with the
sunken gardens and the pergola are a restful escape from the noisy world into
the natural world. The pathways built of seashells crunched underfoot. I got a
sense of stepping on history millions of years old.
© Ileana Johnson Paugh 2014
© Ileana Johnson Paugh 2014
Mary's Chapel original bell |
Beautiful writing, breath taking pictures. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Harriet. It was absolutely enchanting!
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