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The Calusa heartland was located
near present-day Fort Myers, but their influence spread throughout
all of South Florida.
(drawing by Merald Clark) |
People lived and fished on Florida's Gulf coast long before the first pyramids in Egypt. Among the coastal dwellers were the Calusa - a rich, powerful, and artistic society. The Calusa built towns, engineered canals, and developed a complex society. Their artwork stands out as some of the best produced in early North America. They eventually dominated all of South Florida politically, and tribes as far away as Cape Canaveral and the Florida Keys allied themselves with the Calusa leader.
The Bountiful Estuary
The secret of Calusa success was the estuary - a body of water where fresh water flowing off the land meets and mixes with salt water of the sea. Estuaries are one of the richest and most productive environments on earth. They are often called the "cradles of the ocean" because many fish and shellfish spend all or part of their lives there. Calusa prosperity relied on the bounty of the estuary, which provided food in such quantities that farming was never needed.
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A Calusa man shucks
mullet from a net. (drawing by Merald Clark) |
Frigate birds nesting in mangroves in a southwest
Florida estuary
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The Big Picture
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Fisherman Al Woods shows off a snook
caught in a southwest Florida estuary.
(Photo by Scott Mitchell) |
The Calusa legacy lives on, inspiring us to learn about and care for the coastal environment that they called home. These blue-green waters still offer us food, recreation, and beauty. Estuaries are resilient environments. They can recover from natural threats such as hurricanes, and can even withstand a fair amount of human abuse. But estuaries can only stretch so far and may be unable to handle the full force of human activities, such as pollution, dredging and filling, and boating abuses. Learn more about this remarkable environment, and become a steward of Florida's estuaries.