In the U.S., there’s a tendency to think of history in relatively short bursts — one, two or three hundred years. This can happen in a nation that’s only two hundred and thirty-three years old. But, of course, the history of this land stretches much farther back, and on the western coast of Florida, people settled here fifteen thousand years ago. This is one of the things you can learn if you stop at one of the West Florida hotels and take a tour of the museum run by the Sarasota County History Center.
The museum at 701 N. Tamiami Trail in Sarasota contains both rotating and permanent exhibits about the county’s history. The center itself seeks to broaden awareness of the history of the county, from the present all the way back to pre-historic eras. It also allows the public to conduct research at its center, located at 6062 Porter Way in Sarasota, with research hours running Monday through Thursday from ten a.m. to three p.m..
In the distant past, the people hunted and gathered primarily in areas with springs and basins. These areas were close enough to Sarasota for camping, but too far to enable a permanent settlement. However, as glaciers melted, and sea levels rose, the Florida shoreline changed, and approximately ten thousand years ago, Saratosa become an increasingly ideal spot for permanent habitation.
Prehistoric settlements have left behind mounds of shells and fish bones to attest to their existence in West Florida. Much later, the Spanish arrived, in 1513. By the mid-1700s, the area was known as Zara Zote, which may have been taken from an indigenous name.
Soon fishing camps were established, called ranchos, by both American and Cubans trading turtles and fish. Florida began trading ownership — first the Spanish, then English, then Spanish. In 1819, though, the U.S. acquired Florida as a territory and then, 26 years later, the territory became a state. William Whitaker, in 1921, became one of the areas first pioneer settlers from Europe, settling in what would later become the city of Sarasota.
Today, Sarasota contains a population of over fifty thousand, and was declared a certified local government in 1986, approximately 14,977 years after humans first lived in the area. Officially, the city’s borders include Sarasota Bay and a number of barrier islands between the bay and the Gulf of Mexico, boasting a population, as of two years ago, of 52,488 people.