Discover

Although it's best known for its fishing industry, Pine Island also serves as the entry point to the region's earliest history.

At the Randell Research Center, archaeologists and volunteers are digging into the lives of the Calusa, American Indians who lived here for centuries, fishing and hunting in the swampy subtropics. The plot of land in a little bend in the road in tiny Pineland is revealing all sorts of details about how early inhabitants lived.

The Calusa left remnants of their time here in massive shell mounds that have yielded tools fashioned from shells, pottery, animal bones and other everyday items used by the thriving community about 1,500 years ago.

Once a week, informative docents lead tours of the site. Visitors can see a canal dug by the Calusa and can climb atop a 30-foot shell mound to see the waters and surrounding area as early inhabitants might have.

The tribe, whose name means "fierce people," resisted efforts by the Spanish to conquer and convert them to Christianity in the 1500s, only to die from diseases such as measles and smallpox brought there by the would-be conquerors.

A visitor center should open later this year and will house a welcome center, teaching area, exhibits and a bookshop.

The Randell Research Center, part of the Florida Museum of Natural History of the University of Florida, is dedicated to preserving and understanding history and ecology. It's at 7450 Pineland Road, Pineland. Recommended donation is $5 for adults, $3 for children 12 and younger. Volunteers are also welcome. Call 283-2062 or visit online at www.flmnh.ufl.edu/sflarch/swflarch.htm. Tours are at 10 a.m. Saturdays and by appointment. Reservations required.