© St. Petersburg Times, published November 26, 2001
Wonders of Florida: Weedon Island
Whispers and shadows surround visitors to Weedon Island Preserve in southern Pinellas County. Wind your way along the 1.27 miles of boardwalk, and suddenly you may hear the gentle swoosh of paddles softly plying the murky waters. A canoe tip appears. A Timucuan Indian returning home with the day's shellfish harvest? No. Today it is a father and son exploring the 1,046 mangrove-filled acres in fiberglass kayaks. Still, you think, "One day many, many years ago. . . ."
Weedon Island is a living story of Florida's past, present and future. Like the mangroves whose gnarled roots weave their way across the preserve, our state's rich and colorful history intertwines with native plants and animals to create an intricate tapestry portraying the wonders of Florida.
Dr. Leslie Weedon, a Tampa physician, was given what was known as the Bayou as a wedding gift from his father-in-law in 1898. Weedon used the island as a weekend retreat. Fascinated with its rich American Indian history, Weedon hoped one day he would see its preservation. Many years would pass before this dream became reality.
The first page of Weedon Island's history was written during prehistoric times, some time around 10,000 B.C., with the arrival of the first primitive people, early American Indians.
Living off the abundant marine resources, these early island dwellers thrived and their numbers grew. According to local archaeologist and naturalist Steve Gaber, the constant food supply allowed these American Indians to develop a fairly civilized way of life.
"They had stratified societies with chieftains, etc. This is not always found in primitive societies," says Gaber.
According to Gaber, archaeologists from prestigious museums such as the Smithsonian and the Peabody began excavating the island in 1925. Looking for whole pieces of the elaborately designed clay pottery created by these early people, the archaeologists found no use for the broken artifacts today's scientists carefully gather and study.
In the 1920s and '30s, many of the shell mounds were bulldozed to make roads for the new Grand Central Airport.
"Originally there were 65 Indian mounds in Pinellas County," says Gaber. "Now there are four."
Are there still artifacts on Weedon Island? "People were living there for thousands of years, so anywhere you walk on that island is probably an archaeological site," says Gaber.
Weedon Island also played a brief role in the Tampa Bay area's early years of aviation. In one year a runway, control tower and hanger rose from the acres of mangroves. By 1931 Grand Central Airport was the center of airmail delivery, air shows and passenger travel to Tampa and Daytona Beach. Residents could even make their way to New York in just 24 hours -- amazing!
The airport, renamed Sky Harbor in 1941, provided Army and Navy pilots valuable training for carrier landings and quick takeoffs during World War II. Its short runways, however, made the airport less attractive to commercial pilots, and Sky Harbor closed in the early 1950s.
Hard to imagine that this quiet island was also part of St. Petersburg's Roaring '20s nightlife, but it was. Weedon's home became a dance pavilion and observation tower known as the San Remo Club.
Ten years later, the club was remodeled and became a movie studio. Don't look for any of these films as hot rentals at the video store, though. Actors such as Molly O'Day and James Kirkwood made mostly forgettable films before the Kennedy Studio Center finally shut down.
Weedon Island Preserve once again plays the role envisioned by Dr. Leslie Weedon. Today, Florida's native plants and animals find a safe and nurturing haven within Weedon Island's ecosystems. In 1974, the island became Florida's first purchase authorized by the Environmentally Endangered Lands Act and so is an environmental preserve. Naturalists have documented more than 300 species of animals: 104 of them fish, 26 butterflies, 34 reptiles, 130 birds and 12 mammals.
Move slowly and quietly along the boardwalk and you just might glimpse a spy otter, gray fox, peregrine falcon or alligator snapping turtle. Climb up three flights of stairs in the 45-foot observation tower for a bird's-eye view of osprey swooping over a sea of deep green mangroves ringed by the blue waters of Tampa Bay.
Preservation and education are themes common to many of the places we've visited these past few weeks, and the Weedon Island Preserve is no exception. "After 13 years of hopes, dreams and downright hard work, the people of Pinellas County are going to get an education center at the Weedon Island Preserve," reports Sheila Stewart, education center manager.
"We are currently in the design development phase for the building. The exhibits and programs of the new center will highlight the rich cultural history of the indigenous people who lived in the Tampa estuary and the natural system that supported their cultural development. The programs, still in the development stage, will interface the exhibits and the surrounding preserve and turn the center from a building into a touchstone for the learning process."
As an anthropologist, archaeologist and former schoolteacher, Stewart has a clear personal commitment to her work. "I grew up in Pinellas County and have visited Weedon Island many times, canoeing its waters and walking the trails. I have listened to the developing plans of our community leaders to build an education center there. The spirit for preserving the historic, archaeological and ecological resources shown by the early supporters of Weedon Island has spread in widening circles and captured the imagination of the greater community."
The education center, scheduled to open in late fall 2002, will focus on the Weedon Island culture: American Indians who lived on the island from approximately 500 A.D. to 1200 A.D.
According to Stewart, the Weedon Island culture extends all the way to Georgia and Alabama. Although they were in locations far from Tampa Bay, all members of this culture lived along shorelines and rivers on top of middens (shell mounds) and had distinctive designs on their pottery, and so share the common name.
- Holly Atkins teaches seventh-grade language arts at Bay Point Middle School in St. Petersburg, where she is the language arts department head. Atkins, who has been a resident of St. Pete Beach nearly all her life, has been an instructor at the Poynter Institute's Writers' Camp and is the proud teacher of local and national award-winning student writers.
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