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Travel

A trail's tale

A stroll on the Calusa Heritage Trail provides mounds of information about the tribe.

By COLETTE BANCROFT
Published February 25, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo: Scott Keeler] Visitors to the Calusa Heritage Trail examine one of the canals dug by the tribe.

PINELAND

Not much is left of Tampa these days.

Once-monumental shell mounds, their shoulders rounded by the centuries, offer a sweeping view over the jade-green bay. A canal cuts through a field spangled with purple morning glories and watched by nesting ospreys.

The quiet air hums with bees.

This is not some post-apocalyptic vision of the city we call Tampa, but the site of the much older city that first owned the name.

The Calusa Heritage Trail, operated by the Florida Museum of Natural History's Randell Research Center, is a walk back in time along a 3,700-foot trail studded with interpretive signs that explain the history and culture of the people who lived here more than a millennium ago.

Today, the place is called Pineland, a quiet, old-Florida town on Pine Island, which is tucked between burgeoning Cape Coral and tourist-friendly Sanibel and Captiva. Pine Island has more neighborhoods than hotels, a few art galleries and restaurants, and acre upon acre of tree farms. The historic Tarpon Lodge on its western shore has been welcoming anglers for eight decades.

But 500 years ago, when the Spanish first explored Southwest Florida, this territory belonged to the Calusa.

They inhabited the site of what is now Pineland for more than 1,000 years. Called Tampa or Tanpa in Spanish records, it was one of the largest towns of the Calusa tribe, which numbered in the tens of thousands. The name probably became associated with present-day Tampa Bay because of a mapmaker's error.

Expert fishers and sailors and noted warriors, the Calusa ranged over southwest Florida and beyond, traveling as far as Cuba in dugout canoes. They built large towns with ceremonial terraces, huge burial mounds and systems of carefully engineered canals.

When the Spanish arrived in the early 1500s, the Calusa were unimpressed. They resisted attempts to convert and conquer them. But, like so many other native peoples, they were ravaged by European diseases. Raiders from other tribes captured them and sold them into slavery. By the time the Spanish turned Florida over to the British in 1763, the few remaining Calusa had fled to Cuba.

The Calusa Heritage Trail offers glimpses of their lost civilization. The 50-acre preserve is at the heart of the archaeological site of the town, which extends over more than 200 acres.

Research has gone on at the site for decades. The trail opened to the public in December 2004, just four months after Hurricane Charley tore directly over Pineland. Within a few weeks of opening, visitors included former President Jimmy Carter and his family.

Beyond the small parking lot and the Cracker-style tin-roofed visitors center, the interpretive trail winds across open fields, between remnants of the Calusa canal system and ponds where alligators doze on the banks.

Stairs climb one of the large shell mounds, constructed of tons of the remnants of the rich harvest the Calusa took from the surrounding waters. Gumbo limbo trees twist alongside a platform 30 feet above Pine Island Sound. (The mounds may have originally been twice as tall.)

Excavations on the site have yielded clues about how the Calusa lived, including shell tools, pottery and carved, painted wooden effigies of birds and other animals.

The Calusa Heritage Trail and its education programs aim to preserve and share those relics of some of Florida's earliest residents.

The Tarpon Lodge across the street bears traces of more recent history. Built in 1926, the lodge has hosted well-known guests, including powerful labor leader John L. Lewis, entertainer Jackie Gleason and former Florida governor Jeb Bush.

The original building houses a cozy bar and restaurant and several guest rooms. A newer stilt building called the Island House, a cottage and a boathouse offer more accommodations.

The only sign of damage from Charley on the well-tended grounds is two small boathouses stored on a back lawn. They used to be on the lodge's dock, but the storm tossed them into the sound.

The restaurant has indoor dining as well as outdoor tables on a pleasant screened porch with a view of the water. The menu emphasizes fresh fish, like the bronzed snapper wrap special I enjoyed. The decor features fish, too, including a mounted tarpon that eyes diners from the porch wall. If you're in the mood for a wallop of dessert, the triple chocolate cake is yummy.

In the evening, the friendly bar features live music, and the locals, including mystery writer Randy Wayne White, often drop in.

My comfortable room in the Island House had a gorgeous view across a rolling lawn with a pretty gazebo, beyond it the sound and Captiva Island.

Far from any highway, the lodge is a quiet spot for a serene night's sleep. In the cool of dawn, the water murmurs outside the windows, and between dreams and waking you can almost hear the Calusa casting their nets.

Colette Bancroft can be reached at (727) 893-8435 or bancroft@sptimes.com.

IF YOU GO

Calusa Heritage Trail

The Calusa Heritage Trail, 13810 Waterfront Drive, Pineland, is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day except Thanksgiving and Christmas. Recommended donation is $7 for adults, $4 for children. Guided tours are offered at 10 a.m. on Wednesdays from January through April; groups may schedule guided tours at other times. For information, call (239) 283-2062 or go to www.flmnh.ufl.edu/RRC.

Tarpon Lodge Sportsmen Inn

The Tarpon Lodge Sportsmen Inn, Restaurant and Bar, 13771 Waterfront Drive, Pineland. Rates range from $95 to $300 a night, which includes a breakfast bar. Restaurant and bar open for lunch and dinner daily. Dockage and fishing guide referrals available. The lodge, bar and restaurant are nonsmoking. Call (239) 283-3999 or go to www.tarponlodge.com.

[Last modified February 22, 2007, 12:20:55]