Ancient history is lurking in Florida’s waterways and coastal areas. The Peace River, for one, flowing from Central Florida to the Charlotte Harbor estuary in Southwest Florida, is a rich repository of fossils, yielding shark teeth, fossilized seashells and the remains of mammoths, mastodons and other prehistoric creatures.
“There are very few places in the U.S. with the past right at your fingertips,” says Mark Renz, owner of Fort Myers-based Fossil Expeditions (www.fossilexpeditions.com), which conducts four- to five-hour Peace River fossil-hunting tours, though group schedules can be customized. “The river has cut through 15 million years of time. You’re literally scooping up pieces of the past.”
Renz offers easy “walk-in” trips and “outback” excursions via kayak. Once there, sifting screens and shovels are provided.
“Over the years, we’ve taken corporate groups out,” Renz says. “Usually it’s those who are a little more outdoorsy, the type who still have a little kid left in them.”
Also sifting through the rich fossil beds of the Peace River is Vero Beach-based Paleo Discoveries (www.paleodiscoveries.com), offering excursions to the river in the towns of Zolfo Springs, Wauchula and Arcadia, one hour east of Sarasota.
“We always find something—whale and dolphin fossils and more recent Ice Age mammals, including saber-tooth cats,” says Fred Mazza, owner of the company. “Shark teeth are the most common. Teeth are really hard, no matter the animal, and they fossilize very well.”
Paleo Discoveries can accommodate up to 50 on a walking tour or up to 20 via canoe trip.
Searching the coastline of Northeast Florida for prehistoric treasures is Coastal Fossil Adventures (www.coastalfossiladventures.com), whose excursions have yielded megalodon (an extinct shark) and mako shark teeth, as well as a great deal of mammal material, according to John Owen, owner of the company.
“We’ve had some very unusual finds,” he says.
Owen will take groups of up to 25 on beach collecting trips year-round, while smaller kayak trips are offered from April to October.
But you don’t have to get out there with a shovel and screen to find prehistoric artifacts in Florida. At Historic Spanish Point (www.historicspanishpoint.org) near Sarasota, an enormous, ancient shell mound is behind glass, allowing visitors to view its layers of archaeological material, including animal bone, botanical remnants and pottery fragments.
