Visitors to the Liles Hotel History Center in Riverside Park in Bonita Springs have a new display to see. The Indigenous Peoples of Florida are highlighted, coinciding with Archaeology Month in Florida. The Bonita Springs Historical Society is displaying educational panels on loan from the Collier County Museum that give an overview of the Calusa and other prehistoric cultures in Florida. The exhibit also includes artifacts and archaeology specific to Bonita Springs.
Long, long before the town of Bonita Springs, or even the pioneer settlement of Survey, people lived along the river and bays of our area. At the time of the arrival of Ponce de Leon along our coast in 1513, we were in the heartland of the Calusa. This culture held control over much of South Florida and its capital village was located on Mound Key in Estero Bay, just a short canoe distance away. The prehistory of Bonita Springs is even much older than the Calusa (100 AD). We had archaic period burial sites dating back to 6000 to 4000 BC. A rare shell ring archaeological site still exists that predates the arrival of ceramics in our area around 2000 BC. People living along the Imperial River were building village mounds thousands of years ago. Although some important archaeological sites in Bonita Springs have been destroyed, a few still remain and contain a wealth of environmental and human history.
The Liles Hotel in Riverside Park is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Mondays through Fridays, and is located at 27300 Old 41 Road, Bonita Springs. Info: 239-992-6997.
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