An Outdoor Museum to behold! Streakers, strollers and studiers enjoy the outdoor museum on Pine Island.
The Pineland Archaeological Site encompasses more than 50 acres at the heart of the Pineland archaeological site, a massive shell mound complex extending across more than 200-plus acres from the mangrove coastline.
It is the place to go if you want to walk in the footsteps of the ancient Calusa.
The Pineland site complex is located in coastal Lee County northwest of Fort Myers. The site was a Calusa Indian village for more than 1,500 years. Enormous shell mounds still overlook the waters of Pine Island Sound.
The remains of 15 centuries of Indian life are evident everywhere. Remnants of an ancient canal that reached across Pine Island sweep through the complex. Sand burial mounds stand in the woods. Historic structures representing Florida's early pioneer history also still exist at Pineland. Native plants and animals characteristic of coastal hammocks, pinelands, wetlands, and shell mounds are in abundance. The site is listed in the National Register of Historic Places and archaeologists have conducted research there since 1988.
The Calusa Heritage Trail has a teaching pavilion, gift shop and trails leading to a short loop and a longer loop.
Signs along the improved trail provide visitors with detailed information regarding the Calusa Indians, their culture and environment, and the history of Southwest Florida after the Calusa left. The short trail takes you to see Indian mounds rising 30-40 feet into the air and a segment of the awesome Calusa Canal.
From the top of the tallest mound, you can look across the green waters of the estuary to the barrier islands of Boca Grande, North Captiva and Captiva Island. The longer trail leads you to hallowed ground, an impressive burial rising higher than you think possible for people without modern technology and earth moving equipment.
I visited with my husband Eugene this past weekend. We were awed by the power and majesty of the village site, mounds and canal.
The Pineland site is the legacy of the Randell family, the first owners to understand the significance of the site and desire to preserve it for all to take pleasure in.
John Worth, the director of Randell Research Center, recently spoke to a Southwest Florida Archaeology Society audience gathered at the old Lyles Hotel in Bonita Springs.
Worth's original research has taken him to the Spanish Archives in Spain and most recently to Cuba to read the documents left by priests and notable personages.
The Spanish visited "La Florida" three times in the early 1500s, leaving accounts of Spanish sailors being attacked by Indians "who came straight at the Spaniards, shooting arrows at them, and with the surprise they wounded six, but they responded so quickly with the guns, crossbows, and swords that (the Indians) left them and went to help those who were in canoes who were attacking the rowboat and fighting with the soldiers."
In 1521, Ponce de Leon attempted to establish a colony along the coast of Southwest Florida, ultimately resulting in his own mortal wound by a Calusa arrow, which led to his death in Havana.
The order to attack might have been issued by Carlos, the Cacique from this Pineland village.
The above picture is a view of Pine Island sound from atop Randell Research Center's Calusa Indian Shell Mound
