We recently made a trip to Weedon Island Preserve in St. Pete with our homeschool co-op. We enjoyed the morning exploring a few trails and checking out the observation points, before having a picnic lunch and doing our nature journaling together. It is a beautiful and peaceful place in the Tampa Bay that is well worth a visit.
Originally Weedon Island Preserve was home to a group of Eastern Woodland Indians, there are a number of Native American Shell Mounds left behind, and the Weedon Island Cultural and Natural History Center has many native American artifacts including the largest dugout canoe ever recovered by archeologist. (Unfortunately the Center isn't open on Mondays when our co-op meets.) The area was controlled for a time by the Spanish with Narvaez first setting out to map and settle the area including current day Weedon Island. Eventually, Florida came into the possession of the United States, and after the Civil War, Confederate Cavalry Captain W.B. Henderson purchased the island. When his daughter, Blanche, married Doctor Leslie Weedon of Tampa, he made the island a wedding gift. She didn't think much of the island but he thought it would make a nice weekend getaway, and so it became known as Weedon's Island, which was later shortened to Weedon Island.
In 1923, Dr. Weedon sold the bulk of the island to a land developer in hopes that one day it might be made it to a preserve, but it wouldn't until 37 years after his death. The land developer, Eugene Elliot, was able to interest the Smithsonian in the Indian Mounds and over the next year 400 skeletons were removed and extensive archeological work was done. Later on Elliot helped to fund the Gandy Bridge connecting the island to the mainland. He envisioned a lively island as the "Riviera of Florida." During these days of Prohibition he would take prospective buyers to the speakeasy on the island and made numerous deals with investors that way. Unfortunately the housing market collapsed in 1926 and Elliot lost the island. By 1929 the bank which held the loans collapsed as the Great Depression began.
Investors had begun building a small airport and even a movie making studio. The studio actually produced three movies before going out of business. The airport lasted longer competing with the airport in St. Pete before also being foreclosed on by the city for back taxes not paid. During WWII the US Government leased the property to train pilots. But even that was temporary. As St. Pete grew the island because the local dumping ground. However, in the early 1970s the state began the process to acquire the island and by the late 1970s began to clean it up. By 1992, the state had cleaned up the trash, removed the invasive species, begun to reestablish the native plants, and finally acquired the last of the island. However do to fiscal strains on the state budget, they made the move in 1993 to lease control of the island to St. Pete. Since then the educational center has been built, trails established, and the island has become the preserve that Dr. Weedon always hoped it would.
Weedon Island Preserve covers 3,190 acres, and is home to fourteen different ecosystems. It is a well known area for birding and fishing in the Tampa Bay area. We sat out to explore two trails: the Tower Boardwalk, and the Bay Boardwalk. The Tower Boardwalk is a .7 mile round trip with the pinnacle point being the Observation Tower that looms 3 stories high, providing a stunning view of the mangroves and the bay beyond. We walked the Bay Boardwalk second. It was a 1.6 mile round trip with it's pinnacle point being the large Observation Platform stretching out into the water, giving you a good view of wading birds. The shallow water also let us get a good look at a number of small crabs. There are a number of interactive wooden signs along both boardwalks. The twins especially loved flipping the wooden pieces and asking me "wha's 'at" (what's that). As to whether they learned anything from my explanations, you would have to ask them.
Following the day's hike we all had a picnic lunch together. Then Sister Lydia gave us some background information on the preserve and we talked about the different ecosystems represented on the island. At that point everyone got out their nature journaling supplies to record something from the day. My favorite was definitely Audrey's depiction of a fiddler crab. Before heading out we and the kids logged our geocache from the Bay Observation Platform. It was an Earthcache today. For those you answer a couple of questions and include a photo from the area.
If you'd like to make a trip the address to the Weedon Island Cultural and Natural History Center on the island is 1800 Weedon Drive NE, St. Petersburg, FL . The center is open from 9 to 4, Thursday through Saturday and 11 to 4 Sunday, you can always call for more information 727-453-6500. Entrance to the Park is free.
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