People have been in Florida a long time.
Florida’s past is often obscured under modern development in our hyperconnected world.
In prehistoric Florida, a canoe provided connectivity to people all across the peninsula. Villages with elaborate mound earthworks and middens were common near water throughout interior and coastal Florida.
To connect populations and bring new technologies like pottery as well as trade items, foods, and cultural practices, canoes shuttled across the wetlands, lakes, and rivers to the extensive villages.
An exquisite 4000 year old canoe from the Archaic Period (7500-500 Before Common Era) was found resting along the Kissimmee River near some Belle Glade period pottery (1000 BCE-1700). The story of its last voyage is as mysterious as the tannin-stained water of the Kissimmee.
For 15,000 years, Florida has been the home of fascinating people who arrived here when Dire wolves, Mastodons and Saber-toothed cats roamed the grasslands, scrublands, and woodlands.