HISTORIC SPANISH POINT

As this region’s premier historic site museum, Historic Spanish Point actively preserves and interprets its valuable archaeological record. Prehistoric people occupied the site as early as 3,000 BC and lived along the shoreline for nearly 4,000 years. They hunted, fished, built villages, and made pottery as part of their daily lives. Evidence of this can be found in the prehistoric middens that comprise much of the landscape of Historic Spanish Point. Their refuse of shellfish, fish and animal bones, pottery sherds, firepit ash and other daily discarded materials built up over time and formed the large shell middens which are still present today. For several generations, they buried their dead in a burial mound and at one point ceremonially interred an alligator. Other grave goods like sharks teeth, sawfish vertebrae made into a necklace, chert and shell tools, and decorated pottery were also placed in the burial mound. These middens and burial mound constitute one of the largest intact prehistoric sites along.

In 1992 A Window to the Past was opened. This major exhibition is uniquely located inside one of the prehistoric shell middens. Glass walls and a multimedia presentation educate visitors about the features of a midden, the objects found within its layers and its importance to the prehistoric people who built them.

Phone: 941-966-5214
Historic Spanish Point
PO Box 846
Osprey, FL 34229
Website: http://www.historicspanishpoint.org