First Residents

Paleoindian hunter-gatherers who populated the Big Bend of Florida 12,000 years ago lived in an environment that was drier and less lush than today. The sea level was lower, and the shoreline of the Gulf of Mexico extended outward as much as 80 miles. People hunted big and small game rather than depending on the sea for most of their food.

Sea levels began to rise about 6,000 years ago; the environment became wetter; and the big game were gone. Native residents of this time, called the Archaic era, lived close to the coast and relied heavily on the sea for their food. Evidence of this has been found in mounds of shells and fish bones, called middens, that have been excavated by archaeologists.

Over time, native peoples developed many methods for gathering aquatic resources and traveling on waterways. They used bows and arrows, nets, and traps to capture food, and they made large and small canoes from tree trunks. By the time Spaniards arrived in the 16th century, local populations still relied on waterways for travel and food, but farming in inland areas also had become an important way of life.

Spanish expeditions led by Pánfilo de Narváez in 1528 and Hernando de Soto in 1539 had a devastating effect on native inhabitants, reducing their numbers substantially by disease and war. Spanish missions established during the 1600s also impacted their lifeways. By the early 1700s, few original inhabitants lived in the Big Bend region.

Think about the environment

What are the implications of continued global climate change? The potential effects for the Big Bend―from sea-level rise to the frequency and intensity of storms—reinforce the importance of understanding humankind’s relationship to the earth’s changing climate.

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