Weedon Island Preserve

ABOUT THIS PLACE

The preserve runs along the western shore of Tampa Bay in St. Petersburg and has been managed by Pinellas County since 1993. It went on the National Register of Historic Places on June 13, 1972, and the reason is under the ground rather than on it. Shell mounds here record thousands of years of occupation, and a dugout canoe roughly 40 feet long and about 1,100 years old was recovered from the site. The Weedon Island culture takes its name from this place. About 4.7 miles of trail cross the preserve, including accessible boardwalk, and the Tower Boardwalk leads to an observation platform 45 feet up with a view over the bay and the mangrove. A four-mile self-guided paddling loop called the South Paddling Trail threads tunnels cut through the mangroves, and it is the reason many people come. The Cultural and Natural History Center opened in 2002. Roughly 1,100 acres are upland pine, scrub and hammock