Emerson Point Preserve in Manatee County, Florida

Photograph: Emerson Point Preserve, 2014.jpg by Packer1028 · CC0 · Restored from the credited Wikimedia Commons file, normalized to the consistent attraction-card frame and converted to WebP by 1stFlorida.com. Portrait originals retain their complete composition over a softly blurred extension of the same photograph.

Manatee County attraction

Emerson Point Preserve

Manatee County · Gulf Coast

Three hundred and sixty-five acres at the western tip of Snead Island, west of Palmetto, where the Manatee River meets Tampa Bay.

ABOUT THIS PLACE

In the early 1980s an eight-story condominium was proposed for this ground. The objection from the community was strong enough that the county and the state bought it instead, taking the first hundred and ninety-five acres under the state conservation lands program on October 23, 1991, and adding to it since. What that saved includes the Portavant Mound, the largest surviving temple mound in this part of Florida, built by people who lived on these shores long before the Spanish arrived, with a boardwalk leading around it so the earth is not walked on. An observation tower looks out over Terra Ceia Bay, Tampa Bay and the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. Trails and boardwalks cross mangrove, hammock and shoreline, open to walkers and cyclists. Entry is free. This is the quietest of the big Manatee County preserves because it takes a drive down a narrow island road to reach, and that is the reason to come

GETTING THERE

Get Directions ↗Official Website ↗

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