Twelve thousand years of one small island at the mouth of Tampa Bay, from the first peoples to the number one beach in America. Every entry links to its full history.
Paleo-Indians reach the Tampa Bay shore as the last Ice Age wanes and the Gulf is still miles to the west.
The mound-building Safety Harbor culture takes shape around the bay; the Tocobaga rise as its dominant chiefdom.
Read the full entry →The first European to touch the peninsula names it La Florida and charts the Gulf Stream; he never reaches Tampa Bay.
Read the full entry →His colonizing expedition is driven off by the Calusa; he dies of an arrow wound at Havana.
Read the full entry →The disastrous Narvaez expedition makes the first documented European landing on Tampa Bay; only four men will survive it.
Read the full entry →De Soto's army of some 600 men lands on the lower bay in May; the captive Juan Ortiz becomes its interpreter.
Read the full entry →The Dominican who came unarmed to convert by kindness is clubbed to death on the shore, proof the bay had learned to fear all Spaniards.
Read the full entry →Menendez plants a garrison among the Tocobaga at the bay's head; within months it is wiped out.
Read the full entry →A Spanish naval pilot draws the first true map of Tampa Bay and names its features, including the future Mullet Key.
Read the full entry →The British Admiralty surveyor maps the bay and urges a fort upon the key, a recommendation acted on 133 years later.
Read the full entry →The most powerful hurricane known on this coast destroys Fort Brooke and carves John's Pass through the barrier islands.
Read the full entry →An Army board including Robert E. Lee recommends fortifying the islands at the bay's mouth.
Read the full entry →At the close of the Third Seminole War, captured Seminoles are held on Egmont Key for forced removal west.
Read the full entry →A federal quarantine opens on Mullet Key to screen ships and immigrants bound for the port of Tampa.
Read the full entry →A war scare over Cuba finally brings a fort to Mullet Key; Spain sues for peace before a gun is mounted.
Read the full entry →The Mullet Key Military Reservation is renamed for the conquistador on April 4.
Read the full entry →Battery Laidley's eight 12-inch mortars enter service, the heart of the Harbor Defenses of Tampa Bay.
Read the full entry →Four of the eight mortars are shipped west for the First World War; the defenses are stripped.
Read the full entry →A major storm batters the bay and splits Hog Island into Honeymoon and Caladesi keys.
Read the full entry →With the fort abandoned, Pinellas County buys Mullet Key and tries a short-lived fishing lodge.
Read the full entry →The Army reclaims the island as a sub-post of MacDill Field for bombing and gunnery practice.
Read the full entry →The Gulf submarine war reaches the bay; the tanker Joseph M. Cudahy is sunk while steering for Tampa.
Read the full entry →After the war Pinellas County repurchases the island for $26,495.54 and opens it to the public.
Read the full entry →The Pinellas Bayway finally connects the island by car; Fort De Soto Park opens that December.
Read the full entry →The Fort De Soto batteries are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Read the full entry →In January, the Coast Guard's worst peacetime disaster unfolds in the channel off Mullet Key.
Read the full entry →In May, a freighter strikes the Sunshine Skyway in a squall; thirty-five die.
Read the full entry →A pre-dawn collision in the channel fouls the beaches with heavy oil; the response saves most of the wildlife.
Read the full entry →The park's North Beach is ranked the number one beach in the United States by Dr. Beach.
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