On This Land - Part 1 - Prehistory

Early inhabitants arrived in Florida over 14,000 years ago, hunting now-extinct giant game animals like the saber-tooth tiger and mastodon. Since sea levels were significantly lower, the ancient Florida peninsula was about twice the size it is today.

As the large game animals died out, early settlers, primarily hunters and gatherers, subsisted on a diet of small game, plants, nuts, and shellfish, eventually settling near water sources and abundant resources for tool-making and firewood. Over time, they developed sophisticated cultures, engaging in agriculture, trade, and social organization, evident in the construction of large temple mounds and village complexes before European contact. By the time early 16th century Europeans arrived, Florida was already home to hundreds of thousands of Indigenous peoples, but warfare, the slave trade, and European diseases wiped out the native population.

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Just South and East of Fruitland Heights are burial mounds you can still visit. Before our area was given the Sunshine City moniker, they thought of calling it the City of Mounds, because there were so many temple or burial mounds all around the Tampa Bay area. I guess the realtors won that argument...

The burial mound is the in the "pink streets" area of Pinellas Point

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mound at Mound Park Hospital AKA Bayfront Health St. Petersburg

Tourists on the shell Mound

St. Petersburg's shell middens, primarily consisting of discarded oyster shells and remnants of daily life, once held significant cultural and ceremonial importance for Native American communities. Sadly, many of these sites were destroyed over time, repurposed for mundane tasks like filling wagon wheel ruts and later as fill material for city streets. For more information and to explore a really awesome virtual tour, visit www.stpeteparksrec.org/historicsites.