Terry's Journey in Retirement
Chapter 612
2/5/2022
Terra Ceia
exploring the mangroves
Terra Ceia is location just southeast of Tampa Bay located in Manatee County. They are very environmentally aware in that county. Although my connection to the area is limited, it is an interesting and foreign place and such a different environment than where I live. This is just a frame of reference for me. Also a learning exercise to avoid any potential dangers. eg, don't want to be eaten by a gator, etc.
Florida Department of Environmental Protection- Terra Ceia Aquatic Preserve
Manatee County Property Appraiser These land owners had wanted a major development there with a cruise ship port, shopping and amusement park but it seems conservation and preservation will rule. But it remains to be determined with economic and political forces in play.
Paddle Manatee already an established kayak network
Saunders Realestate Skyway Resort Development 2015, they say it's off the table but they have invested a lot already???
Rattlesnake Key slated to become a new state park in Manatee Co 12/22/2021
When I kayaked through the Black Mangroves into Miguel Bay for 1.2 miles of the Terra Ceia Aquatic Preserve last fall I had no idea it would become a Florida State Park. It is still pending and it could take years in the making, but I'm guessing access will be minimially invasive by paddle craft or with raised wooden walkways. The bay was named after Miguel Guerro, a pioneer who had a fish house ranchero on Terra Ceia at Boots Point.
On satellite view little white dots show up all over Rattlesnake Key and the vicinity that I was intrigued by. Looked like a park tent site layout, but think it's all uninhabited and undeveloped. Indian shell mounds are all over the place going back 10,000 years, but because they are so regularly spaced, more modern 1500-1870s remnants of old Cuban Ranchero fishing huts was a possibility.
Rethinking Shell Middens 2018. There are indian shell mounds all over the place and we visited one in the Neal Preserve in October.
Cuban fisherman operated from the 1500's through 1840s towards the end of the Seminole Wars when they and the Rancheros were banished by the government. Manatee County Cuban Rancheros
Manatee County Cuban Rancheros Perico Preserve
There's a Tabby House ruins nearby. Tabby is a white concrete like substance made of burned oyster shells, sand and water conglomerate. A cheap abundand material used for structures years ago and still today. This was a fish house on the shore line. Over time the same shell mound locations may have transistioned through fish houses and on to other uses today.
I spoke with Charlie Hunsiker Dir of Parks & Rec who knew right away the white dots were remnants of 1950s dredging operations. The idea was to allow water channels into the mangroves so that mosquito larvae eating fish could diminish the mosquito population. .Manatee County Department of Parks and Recreation - Robinson Preserve
This web site has it nicely depicted that the white dots are mosquito ditch drag line white sand deposits.
Messerschmitt 105 is a helicopter to bomb bugs, not the Messerschmitt 109 fighters that harassed Dad & Uncle Nelson in WW2. We visited Regensburg, site of Allied attempt to knock out the Messerschmitt fighter plant. I must connect and remember.