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80-580: The shores of Tampa Bay were home to the Weeden Island Culture and then the Safety Harbor culture for thousands of years. These cultures relied heavily on Tampa Bay for food, and the waters were rich enough that they were one of the few Native American cultures that did not have to farm. The Tocobaga was likely the dominant chiefdom in the area when Spanish explorers arrived in the early 1500s, but there were likely smaller chiefdoms on

160-594: A New England clam bake . On the West Coast, they are an ingredient in making cioppino and local variants of ceviche . Clams are eaten more in the coastal regions of India, especially in the Konkan, Kerala , Bengal and coastal regions of Karnataka , Tamil Nadu regions. In Kerala , clams are used to make curries and fried with coconut. In the Malabar region it is known as "elambakka" and in middle kerala it

240-656: A siphon . Clams are shellfish that make up an important part of the web of life that keeps the seas functioning, both as filter feeders and as a food source for many different animals. Extant mammals that eat clams include both the Pacific and Atlantic species of walrus , all known subspecies of harbour seals in both the Atlantic and Pacific, most species of sea lions , including the California sea lion , bearded seals and even species of river otters that will consume

320-446: A charnel house where bundled bones, typically a skull and limb bones, were stored. After some period of time, the bundles were buried around the periphery of the mound. In about 475, approximately 36 bone bundles were removed from the charnel house and buried. The charnel house was burned, then a fire was built of top of it for a feast. A large bowl with animal heads on its rim, which may have been used for serving ceremonial drinks such as

400-408: A connection between the lake and the gulf. Tampa Bay is Florida's largest open-water estuary, extending over 400 square miles (1,000 km) and forming coastlines of Hillsborough , Manatee and Pinellas counties. The freshwater sources of the bay are distributed among over a hundred small tributaries, rather than a single river. The Hillsborough River is the largest such freshwater source, with

480-590: A few other common edible species, such as the soft-shell clam , Mya arenaria , and the ocean quahog, Arctica islandica . Another species commercially exploited on the Atlantic Coast of the United States is the surf clam, Spisula solidissima . Scallops are also used for food nationwide, but not cockles : they are more difficult to get than in Europe because of their habit of being further out in

560-920: A group of related archaeological cultures that existed during the Late Woodland period (500 - 1000 CE) of the North American Southeast . The name for this group of cultures was derived from the Weedon Island site (despite the dissimilar spellings) in Old Tampa Bay in Pinellas County . Weeden Island cultures are defined by ceramics, which fall into two categories, sometimes called secular and sacred. Sacred ceramics are found primarily in mounds , while secular ceramics are found primarily in middens and house sites. The two types of ceramics have separate histories, and

640-421: A hinge with a flexible ligament and all are filter feeders . A clam's shell consists of two (usually equal) valves, which are connected by a hinge joint and a ligament that can be internal or external. The ligament provides tension to bring the valves apart, whilst one or two adductor muscles can contract to close the valves. Clams also have kidneys, a heart, a mouth, a stomach, and a nervous system. Many have

720-516: A leak of 65 million gallons of acidic water from a Cargill phosphate plant on the bay's southern shore severely impacted wetlands in the vicinity of the spill. And in April 2021, a breach of a wastewater reservoir at the long-closed Piney Point phosphate plant sent over 200 millions gallons of nutrient-rich mine tailings streaming into lower Tampa Bay. The resulting growth of red tide algae led to an ecocide and killed over 1000 tons of fish in

800-435: A number of burial pits from the village. Posts up to two feet in diameter apparently were used to mark graves. The decomposed bodies were later removed, and bones were bundled and moved to mound 'C'. Numerous potsherds and many small fire pits are interpreted as evidence of ceremonies connected with processing the bodies. In 354 the wall of posts and other posts were piled up over the empty grave pits and burned. Mound 'C' held

880-687: A slightly smaller cousin of the bamboo clam of eastern North America. These can be found for sale in open-air markets like Billingsgate Market in London; they have a similar taste to their North American cousin. Cockles, specifically the common cockle , are a staple find on beaches in western Wales and further north in the Dee Estuary . The accidentally introduced hard-shell quahog is also found in British waters, mainly those near England, and does see some use in British cuisine. The Palourde clam by far

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960-435: Is a common name for several kinds of bivalve mollusc . The word is often applied only to those that are edible and live as infauna , spending most of their lives halfway buried in the sand of the sea floor or riverbeds. Clams have two shells of equal size connected by two adductor muscles and have a powerful burrowing foot. They live in both freshwater and marine environments; in salt water they prefer to burrow down into

1040-600: Is called marvai in the local Tulu language . It is used to prepare many dishes like marvai sukka , marvai gassi , and marvai pundi . In Japan, clams are often an ingredient of mixed seafood dishes. They can also be made into hot pot , miso soup or tsukudani . The more commonly used varieties of clams in Japanese cooking are the Shijimi ( Corbicula japonica ), the Asari ( Venerupis philippinarum ) and

1120-454: Is extremely vulnerable to sea level rise caused by climate change. The sea level has risen 8 inches (200 mm) since 1946. Tampa Bay is also one of the areas in the US most at risk when hurricanes arrive because of its location, growing population, and the geography of the bay. The Tampa Bay Regional Resiliency Coalition coordinates the region's response to climate change. Communities throughout

1200-612: Is known as "kakka". Clam curry made with coconut is a dish from Malabar especially in the Thalassery region. On the southwestern coast of India , also known as the Konkan region of Maharashtra , clams are used in curries and side dishes, like Tisaryachi Ekshipi, which is clams with one shell on. Beary Muslim households in the Mangalore region prepare a main dish with clams called Kowldo Pinde. In Udupi and Mangalore regions, it

1280-602: Is the most common native clam and it is both commercially harvested as well as locally collected, and Spisula solida , a relative of the Atlantic surf clam on the other side of the Atlantic, is seeing increased interest as a food source and aquaculture candidate; it is mainly found in the British Isles in Europe. In Italy, clams are often an ingredient of mixed seafood dishes or are eaten together with pasta. The more commonly used varieties of clams in Italian cooking are

1360-894: The vongola ( Venerupis decussata ) , the cozza (Mytilus galloprovincialis) and the tellina ( Donax trunculus ) . Though dattero di mare (Lithophaga lithophaga) was once eaten, overfishing drove it to the verge of extinction (it takes 15 to 35 years to reach adult size and could only be harvested by smashing the calcarean rocks that form its habitat) and the Italian government has declared it an endangered species since 1998 and its harvest and sale are forbidden. In Islam, clams are halal to eat as per three Sunni sects , but not in Hanafi, as only fish are considered halal in Hanafi jurisprudence , not other aquatic animals. In Judaism, clams are treif , i.e. non-kosher. Some species of clam, particularly Mercenaria mercenaria , were in

1440-690: The Alachua culture , which developed out of the Cades Pond variant of the Weeden Island culture. Later sites in the southern part of the region show influence from the Safety Harbor culture . Primary habitation sites were concentrated along the coast, with smaller sites adjacent to inland waterways. The inhabitants left numerous shell middens, composed primarily of oyster shells, but also including clam , scallop , whelk and conch shells. Fish of various kinds were another important component of

1520-499: The Alafia , Manatee , and Little Manatee rivers the next largest sources. Because of these many flows into the bay, its large watershed covers portions of five Florida counties and approximately 2,200 square miles (5,700 km). The bottom of Tampa Bay is silty and sandy, with an average water depth of only about 12 feet (3.7 m). The relatively shallow water and tidal mud flats allow for large sea grass beds, and along with

1600-762: The Chumash of California, the Nisqually of Washington state and the Tsawwassen of British Columbia . The butter clam, Saxidomus gigantea , the Pacific razor clam, Siliqua patula , gaper clams Tresus capax , the geoduck clam, Panopea generosa and the Pismo clam, Tivela stultorum are all eaten as delicacies. Clams can be eaten raw, steamed, boiled, baked or fried . They can also be made into clam chowder , clams casino , clam cakes , or stuffies , or they can be cooked using hot rocks and seaweed in

1680-764: The Cove of the Withlacoochee (in Citrus County ) and Gulf Hammock (in southern Levy County ), as well as coastal sites such as the Crystal River site . This region has not received as much attention from archeologists as have other variants of the Weeden Island culture. While a number of sites have been surveyed, most of the mounds and shell middens in the area have been disturbed or destroyed by artifact hunters and "borrowing" for road-building material, and there have been no major excavations of sites in

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1760-515: The Gulf of Mexico . Prior to that time, it was a large fresh water lake, possibly fed by the Floridan Aquifer through natural springs . Though the exact process of the lake-to-bay transformation is not completely understood, the leading theory is that rising sea levels following the last ice age coupled with the formation of a massive sink hole near the current mouth of the bay created

1840-466: The Hamaguri ( Meretrix lusoria ). The rocky terrain and pebbly shores of the seacoast that surrounds the entire island provide ample habitat for shellfish, and clams are most definitely included in that description. The oddity here is that for a nation whose fortunes have been tied to the sea for hundreds of years, 70% of the seafood cultivated for aquaculture or commercial harvesting is exported to

1920-761: The Okefenokee Swamp , and from south of Tampa Bay to the fall line on the Chattahoochee River at Columbus, Georgia . Although the multiple geographic variants of Weeden Island groups used slightly different subsistence strategies dictated by local environment (including small-scale agriculture in some areas), a trend toward the semi- sedentary hunter-gatherer exploitation of hardwood hammock areas and coastal/ riverine marine resources accurately characterizes Weeden Island subsistence activities in general. The site on Weedon Island where Weeden Island sacred ceramics were first described

2000-543: The black drink , was left on the remains of the fire after its bottom was knocked out. At least 17 ceramic vessels, including hollow figurines of animals, were broken and left atop the graves of the bone bundles. The whole mound was then covered with a six-foot layer of earth. Pottery at the McKeithen site has been classified as secular, prestige, and sacred. Secular pots were undecorated, or had minimal decoration, and were all made with clay from local sources. Prestige ware

2080-399: The 1950s. However, industrial and agricultural runoff along with runoff from developed areas pose a continuing threat to marine ecosystems in the bay, particularly by clouding the water with sediments and algae blooms, and seagrass coverage declined slightly in the late 2010s. Wastewater pollution from old phosphate plants near the shoreline has been a particular problem. For example, in 2004,

2160-472: The 20th century. Today, the area is home to about 4 million residents, making Tampa Bay a heavily used commercial and recreational waterway and subjecting it to increasing amounts of pollutants from industry, agriculture, sewage, and surface runoff . The bay's water quality was seriously degraded by the early 1980s, resulting in a sharp decline in sea life and decreased availability for recreational use. Greater care has been taken in recent decades to mitigate

2240-600: The Bay, including St. Petersburg and Tampa are adapting infrastructure and buildings to face changes in sea level. Humans have lived in Florida for millennia, at least 14,000 years. Due to worldwide glaciation, sea levels were much lower at the time, and Florida's peninsula extended almost 60 miles west of today's coastline. Paleo-Indian sites have been found near rivers and lakes in northern Florida, leading to speculation that these first Floridians also lived on Tampa Bay when it

2320-608: The Corps of Engineers dredged another channel from the mouth of Tampa Bay to the Port of Tampa, instantly making the city an important shipping center. The Corps of Engineers currently maintains more than 80 miles of deep-water channels in Tampa Bay up to a depth of 47 feet. These must be continuously re-dredged and deepened due to the sandy nature of the bay bottom. While dredging has enabled seaborne commerce to become an important part of

2400-520: The Floridian leg of the Trail of Tears . For the next 100 years, many new communities were founded around the bay. Fort Brooke begat Tampa on the northeast shore, Fort Harrison (a minor military outpost on Florida's west coast) begat Clearwater , the trading post of "Braden's Town" developed into Bradenton on the south, and St. Petersburg grew quickly after its founding in the late 19th century, on

2480-487: The Interbay peninsula and Hillsboro Bay on the east with an overall name of Bay of Spiritu Santo . At other times, the entire bay was identified as The Bay of Tocobaga. The United States acquired Florida from Spain in 1821. The name Spirito Santo seems to have disappeared from maps of the region in favor of "Tampa Bay" (sometimes divided into Tampa and Hillsboro Bays) soon after the US established Fort Brooke at

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2560-489: The Manasota culture had no connection with the secular components of heartland Weeden Island cultures. Recent efforts have refined the Weeden Island culture concept so that the term "Weeden Island" includes several distinct regional manifestations which exhibited the same basic ceremonial complex (most likely associated with shared sociopolitical patterns), but that exhibited significant geographic variations. These include:

2640-752: The McKeithen Weeden Island culture was north of the Santa Fe River , extending east from the Aucilla River to the western edge of the St. Johns River drainage basin. It lasted about 500 years, from 200 to 700. It was succeeded by the Suwannee Valley culture . The McKeithen culture is named after a landowner who invited archaeologists to excavate some mounds on his property before vandals destroyed them. The McKeithen site

2720-729: The North peninsular Gulf Coast variant, found along the Gulf coast from Pasco County to the Aucilla River ; the Cades Pond culture in north-central Florida; the McKeithen Weeden Island culture in northernmost inland Florida; the Manasota culture located within the central Peninsular Gulf Coast; the Northwest culture, extending from the Aucilla River through the Florida Panhandle to Mobile, Alabama ;

2800-492: The Tampa Bay area's economy, it has also damaged the bay's water quality and ecology. More care has been taken in recent decades to lessen the environmental impact of dredging. Dredged material has also been used to create several spoil islands on the eastern side of Hillsboro Bay. These islands have become important nesting sites for many seabirds, including threatened species such as oystercatchers , and have been designated as "sanctuary islands" that are off-limits to boaters. In

2880-458: The Tampa Bay region would be virtually uninhabited for almost 200 years. Tampa Bay was given different names by early mapmakers. Spanish maps dated from 1584 identifies Tampa Bay as Baya de Spirito Santo ("Bay of the Holy Spirit "). A map dated 1695 identifies the area as Bahia Tampa . Later maps dated 1794 and 1800 show the bay divided with three different names, Tampa Bay west of

2960-526: The bay and along the nearby gulf coast and may lead to further damage to seagrass beds. The effects of Hurricane Milton in October 2024 caused polluted waste from the fertilizer industry including products from Mosaic , which were retained after the production of phosphate, to enter into Tampa Bay. Both Hurricane Milton and Hurricane Helene caused disruption in the production of phosphate fertilizers from Tampa Bay. Tampa Bay, like other parts of Florida ,

3040-504: The bay was connected to the Gulf of Mexico. This culture, which relied almost exclusively on the bay for food and other resources, was in turn replaced by the similar Safety Harbor culture by approximately 800 AD. The pre-contact Indigenous nation most associated with the Tampa Bay are the historic Tocobaga nation, who are known to be among the ancestors of the contemporary Seminole and Miccosukee Tribes of Florida. The Safety Harbor culture

3120-486: The bay. Not finding gold or silver in the vicinity and unable to convert the native inhabitants to Christianity, the Spanish did not remain in the Tampa Bay area for long. However, diseases they introduced decimated the native population over the ensuing decades, leading to the near-total collapse of every established culture across peninsular Florida. Between this depopulation and the indifference of its colonial owners,

3200-470: The body was exposed for a while after death before burial. A tomb of wood and earth was erected over the grave. The tomb and building were then burned, and the ashes scattered. After a ceramic bird head was pushed into the ground at the foot of the grave, a layer of dirt was spread over all of the mound. Three radiocarbon dates for this event average to 354. Mound 'A' was a charnel area where bodies were cleaned and buried temporarily. A wall of posts screened

3280-402: The catch than a generation ago, and there is a prevalence of YouTube videos of locavore scavenging. Shellfish have provided a staple of the British diet since the earliest occupations of the British Isles, as evidenced by the large numbers of remains found in midden mounds near occupied sites. Staple favourites of the British public and local scavengers include the razorfish, Ensis siliqua ,

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3360-476: The city of Tampa's downtown wharves on Hillsboro Bay. Most ships would anchor well out from shore and transfer cargo and passengers to and from the city in smaller boats. Henry B. Plant 's railroad line reached the area in 1884 and ran across the Interbay Peninsula to Old Tampa Bay, where he built the town and shipping facility of Port Tampa at its terminus. In 1898, Plant used his connections in

3440-432: The clearing of mangroves for shoreline development were important factors. Most damaging was the discharge of waste water and other pollutants into the bay, which drastically degraded water quality. The bay's health reached a low point in the 1970s. The water was so murky that sunlight could not reach the shallow bottom, reducing sea grass coverage by more than 80% compared to earlier in the century and severely impacting

3520-528: The continent. Historically, Britain has been an island most famous for its passion for beef and dairy products, although there is evidence going back to before most recorded history of coastal shell middens near Weymouth and present day York. (There is also evidence of more thriving local trade in sea products in general by noting the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers was founded in 1272 in London.) Present-day younger populations are eating more of

3600-405: The diet. Sea turtles , tortoises , alligators and deer were also consumed. Horticulture was absent or a late introduction, although the inhabitants of the southern end of the region (Pasco and Hernando counties) were growing maize at the time of first European contact. The McKeithen Weeden Island culture was a regional variant of early Weeden Island culture in north Florida. The area of

3680-763: The early Kolomoki culture, located in the lower Chattahoochee Valley; the later Wakulla Weeden Island culture, in the lower Chattahoochee Valley, the lower Flint River valley, in southwestern Georgia, and the upper Choctawhatchee River valley in southeastern Alabama. Undefined Weeden Island culture variants are found in southeastern Alabama and southwestern Georgia outside the Kolomoki/Wakulla Weeden Island areas. Several attempts have been made to segregate Weeden Island components into chronological phases based on temporal changes in settlement patterns, artifact assemblage, and ceremonial activities, all of which recognize an inherent distinction between

3760-406: The early 20th century, traveling overland between the growing communities around Tampa Bay was an arduous process. The trip between Tampa and St. Petersburg was almost 50 miles (80 km) around the north end of Old Tampa Bay and took up to 12 hours by train and over a full day over uncertain roads by car. The trip between St. Petersburg and Bradenton was even longer – over 70 miles (110 km) all

3840-662: The east of this Weeden Island heartland, Weeden Island secular components developed out of the Deptford culture , from which the Swift Creek culture had also developed. The sacred or ceremonial component of Weeden Island developed out of the Hopewell tradition -based Yent and Green Point traditions. It persisted in some areas until the end of the Woodland period ca. 1200. Weeden Island sites have been found from Mobile Bay to

3920-489: The eastern side of the bay which were not well documented. The indigenous population had been decimated by disease and warfare by the late 1600s, and there were no permanent human settlements in the area for over a century. The United States took possession of Florida in 1821 and established Fort Brooke at the mouth of the Hillsborough River in 1824. The communities surrounding Tampa Bay grew tremendously during

4000-533: The effects of human habitation on Tampa Bay, most notably upgraded sewage treatment facilities and several sea grass restoration projects, resulting in improved water quality over time. However, occasional red tide and other algae blooms have caused concern about the ongoing health of the estuary. The term "Tampa Bay" is often used as shorthand to refer to all or parts of the Tampa Bay area , which comprises many towns and cities in several counties surrounding

4080-562: The federal government to make Port Tampa a major embarkation point for the U.S. Army during the Spanish–American War , leading to the U.S. Congress appropriating funds for the United States Army Corps of Engineers to begin the first large dredging operation in Tampa Bay. A deep shipping channel was created which linked Port Tampa to the mouth of the bay, enabling Plant to greatly expand his steamship line. In 1917,

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4160-640: The freshwater species found in Asia and North America. Birds of all kinds will also eat clams if they can catch them in the littoral zone : roseate spoonbills of North and South America, the Eurasian oystercatcher , whooping crane and common crane , the American flamingo of Florida and the Caribbean Sea, and the common sandpiper are just a handful of the numerous birds that feast on clams all over

4240-428: The large body of water. Local marketing and branding efforts (including several professional sports teams, tourist boards, and chambers of commerce) commonly use the moniker "Tampa Bay", furthering the misconception that it is the name of a particular municipality when this is not the case. Tampa Bay formed approximately 6,000 years ago as a brackish drowned river valley type estuary with a wide mouth connecting it to

4320-553: The marine ecosystem. Many previously common species became scarce, and bay beaches were regularly closed due to unsafe levels of bacteria and pollutants. Beginning in the early 1980s after federal and state legislation to improve water quality, authorities installed improved water treatment plants and tightened regulation of industrial discharge , leading to slow but steady improvement in water quality and general ecological health. By 2010, measures of sea grass coverage, water clarity, and biodiversity had improved to levels last seen in

4400-555: The material culture of earlier and later Weedon Island manifestations. It is most widely accepted that the Weeden Island culture be split into two time periods: the Weeden Island I Period (200 AD - 700 AD) and Weeden Island II Period (700 AD - 1200 AD). Some Weeden Island II cultures later developed into local variants of the Mississippian culture , collectively known as proto-Mississippian . The Weeden Island culture

4480-576: The mouth of the Hillsborough River in 1824. For the next several decades, during the Seminole Wars , the Tampa Bay would be a primary point of confrontation, detention, and forced expulsion of the Seminole & Miccosukee people of Florida. Fort Brooke, Fort Dade, and the American military's miscellaneous Egmont Key facilities were the primary sites associated with the removal of the Seminole in

4560-829: The mud and the turbidity of the water required varies with species and location; the greatest diversity of these is in North America . Clams in the culinary sense do not live attached to a substrate (whereas oysters and mussels do) and do not live near the bottom (whereas scallops do). In culinary usage, clams are commonly eaten marine bivalves, as in clam digging and the resulting soup, clam chowder . Many edible clams such as palourde clams are ovoid or triangular; however razor clams have an elongated parallel-sided shell, suggesting an old-fashioned straight razor. Some clams have life cycles of only one year, whilst at least one has been aged to more than 500 years. All clams have two calcareous shells or valves joined near

4640-507: The refuge on Egmont Key . Most of the islands (including several man-made islands built from dredge spoil ) and sandbars are off-limits to the public, due to their fragile ecology and their use as nesting sites by many species of birds. The Tampa Bay Estuary Program keeps watch over the Bay's health. Tampa Bay was once teeming with fish and wildlife. People of the Safety Harbor culture lived almost entirely from mullet, shellfish, sea turtles, manatees, crabs, and other bounties harvested from

4720-423: The region. As in other Weeden Island areas, there is a difference between ceremonial/prestige pottery , found primarily in burial mounds, and the utilitarian pottery found in village sites and shell middens. The prevalence of undecorated pottery and the lack of major excavations means that the chronology of the Weeden Island culture in the north peninsular Gulf coast is poorly understood. The Weeden Island culture

4800-444: The sand very close to the beach, it cannot be harvested by mechanical means without damaging the beaches. The bamboo clam is also notorious for having a very sharp edge of its shell, and when harvested by hand must be handled with great care. On the U.S. West Coast, there are several species that have been consumed for thousands of years, evidenced by middens full of clamshells near the shore and their consumption by nations including

4880-407: The sea. As late as the early 20th century, visitors still reported huge schools of mullet swimming across the bay in such numbers that they "impeded the passage of boats". The establishment and rapid growth of surrounding communities during the 20th century caused serious damage to the bay's natural environment. Heavy harvesting of fish and other sea life, constant dredging of shipping channels, and

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4960-696: The secular ceramics show considerable variation between regions. Milanich, et al. compare the Weeden Island sacred complex to the Hopewell and Mississippian complexes, i.e., a ceremonial complex practiced by several cultures. Scholars believe that the secular components of Weeden Island cultures emerged from the Swift Creek culture during the Middle Woodland Period (ca. 200 - 500 CE ) in the lower Chattahoochee - Apalachicola river drainage , where Alabama , Florida and Georgia meet. To

5040-516: The shoreline. Albert Whitted Airport on the St. Petersburg waterfront and Peter O. Knight Airport on Davis Island near downtown Tampa were both established in the 1930s. Later, Tampa International Airport and St. Pete–Clearwater International Airport were established on opposite sides of Old Tampa Bay, and MacDill Air Force Base opened on the southern tip of Tampa's Interbay Peninsula. Weeden Island Culture The Weeden Island cultures are

5120-610: The strawberry cockle; and Dinocardium robustum , which grows to be many times the size of the European cockle. Historically, they were caught on a small scale on the Outer Banks , barrier islands off North Carolina, and put in soups, steamed or pickled. Up and down the coast of the Eastern U.S., the bamboo clam , Ensis directus , is prized by Americans for making clam strips , although because of its nature of burrowing into

5200-602: The surrounding mangrove -dominated wetlands, the bay provides habitat for a wide variety of wildlife. More than 200 species of fish are found in the waters of the bay, along with bottlenose dolphins and manatees , plus many types of marine invertebrates including oysters , scallops , clams , shrimp and crab . More than two dozen species of birds, including brown pelicans , several types of heron and egret , Roseate spoonbills , cormorants , and laughing gulls make their year-round home along its shores and small islands, with several other migratory species joining them in

5280-453: The surrounding communities much faster and furthering the economic development of the Tampa Bay area. The difficulty of traveling between Tampa and St. Petersburg in the early 20th century inspired the world's first scheduled air service, the St. Petersburg-Tampa Airboat Line , which operated during the tourist season of 1914. While the construction of bridges made air travel across Tampa Bay unnecessary, several airports have been built along

5360-405: The tide than European species on the West Coast, and on the East Coast they are often found in salt marshes and mudflats where mosquitoes are abundant. There are several edible species in the Eastern United States: Americardia media , also known as the strawberry cockle, is found from Cape Hatteras down into the Caribbean Sea and all of Florida; Trachycardium muricatum has a similar range to

5440-402: The village have yielded radiocarbon dates of AD 200 to 750. The mounds served different purposes. The one named (arbitrarily) 'B' had a rectangular building on it that has been interpreted to be a temple or the residence of the priest who conducted ceremonies for the dead. The presumed holder of that office was buried inside the building. Evidence of animals chewing on some bones indicate that

5520-427: The way around Tampa Bay, a trip that still took about two hours into the 1950s. In 1924, the Gandy Bridge over Old Tampa Bay reduced the driving distance between Tampa and St. Petersburg to 19 miles (31 km). Ten years later, the Davis Causeway (later renamed the Courtney Campbell Causeway ) was built between Clearwater and Tampa. More bridges criss-crossed Tampa Bay over the ensuing decades, making travel between

5600-487: The western bay shore opposite Tampa. By 2010, the Tampa Bay Area was home to over 4 million residents. As Tampa began to grow in the mid-1800s, roads across central Florida were still just rough trails and rail lines did not yet extend down the Florida peninsula, so the most convenient means of traveling to and from the area was by sea. By the late 19th century, however, the shallow nature of Tampa Bay made it impossible for large modern vessels with deeper drafts to reach

5680-417: The winter. The cooler months are also when warm-water outfalls from power plants bordering the bay draw one out of every six West Indian manatees , an endangered species, to the area. Tampa Bay was designated as an "estuary of national significance" by the United States Environmental Protection Agency in 1990. Two National Wildlife Refuges are located in Tampa Bay: Pinellas National Wildlife Refuge and

5760-553: The world. Most species of octopus have clams as a staple of their diet, up to and including the giants like the Giant Pacific octopus . Cultures around the world eat clams along with many other types of shellfish. In culinary use, within the eastern coast of the United States and large swathes of the Maritimes of Canada, the term "clam" most often refers to the hard clam , Mercenaria mercenaria . It may also refer to

5840-424: Was a sharp dichotomy between sacred and the secular" artifacts (particularly ceramics) within the Weeden Island culture, though this pattern has not been observed west of the Aucilla River. The north peninsular Gulf coast variant of the Weeden Island culture existed along the Gulf of Mexico coast of Florida from the Aucilla River southward to what is now Pasco County . It also included such inland wetland areas as

5920-441: Was a village next to a stream with three mounds. These three mounds were created in an isosceles triangle, with the main axis of the triangle pointing towards the summer solstice sunrise. The mounds were likely built between 350-475 CE. Abundant evidence of occupation was found in a crescent around a presumed plaza , which was essentially bare of artifacts . The three mounds flanked the plaza on three sides. Wood and charcoal found in

6000-445: Was decorated with lines and dots and sometimes 'painted' with red clay. This prestige ware was found most often in the mounds, but occasionally elsewhere in the village. The sacred vessels, which were found only in the mounds, were elaborately decorated and sometimes were in the shape of animals. Some of the sacred vessels apparently were imported, but the ones with animal shapes usually were made from local clay. Clams Clam

6080-413: Was dominant in the area at the time of first contact with Europeans in the mid-1500s. The Tocobaga , who built their principal town near today's Safety Harbor in the northwest corner of Old Tampa Bay, are the most documented group from that era because they had the most interactions with Spanish explorers . However, there were many other coastal villages organized into various small chiefdoms all around

6160-577: Was excavated by Smithsonian Institution archaeologist J. Walter Fewkes in 1923 and 1924. Archaeologists now recognize that the Weedon Island site is well outside the heartland of the Weeden Island culture. The Weedon Island site was part of the Weeden Island-related late Manasota culture . The Manasota culture developed around 500 BCE, 700 years before the development of the Weeden Island sacred complex. The secular component of

6240-592: Was not uniform over the north peninsular Gulf coast. Ceramics related to the Swift Creek culture are found scattered at early sites throughout the area, but particularly so in Taylor County , the northernmost part of the region. Later sites in Taylor County show some influence from the Fort Walton culture. In Dixie County , to the south of Taylor County, later sites appear to have been influenced by

6320-533: Was preceded by the Deptford culture (and the later Swift Creek and Santa Rosa-Swift Creek cultures in the panhandle). It was followed by the Alachua culture in the Cades Pond culture area, by the Suwannee Valley culture in the McKeithen culture area and by the Fort Walton Culture in the Northwest area (the panhandle). Several archaeologists including William Sears indicate "that there

6400-603: Was still a freshwater lake. Evidence of human habitation from this early period has been found at the Harney Flats site, which is approximately 10 miles east of the current location of Tampa's downtown waterfront. The earliest evidence of human habitation directly on the shores of Tampa Bay comes from the Manasota culture , a variant of the Weeden Island culture , who lived in the area beginning around 5,000–6,000 years ago, after sea levels had risen to near modern levels and

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