BRADENTON, Fla. — Manatee Village Historical Park has extended their current temporary exhibit, The Wars of Manatee, to be on-site through Saturday, December 10, 2022. The second floor exhibit gallery in the Wiggins General Store will be closed starting Monday, December 12, for installation of a new exhibit, Living Off the Land: Florida’s Pioneering Efforts to Make a Living, opening January 3, 2023.
Living Off the Land explores the various ways settlers in the mid-1800s through the early 1900s took advantage of readily available natural resources of the land and sea. As Manatee County developed during the Pioneering Period (1830-1918), a number of commercial activities grew out of the environmental realities people moving into the area built upon. One of the earliest brought fishermen who set up seasonal camps along our shores. These fishermen set up semi-permanent Fishing Ranchos where they caught and prepared schools of mullet and other fish for Cuban markets.
In the 1840s, when the first waves of American expansion into the area started, sugar production became a major economic engine. At its peak, there were over a dozen sugarcane plantations established within the Manatee River area. By the mid-1800s and early 1900s, Florida’s population was growing along with its economic prosperity. With the development of steamship lines, connected to the first railroads, local businesses began to send products to ports and destinations around the nation and throughout the world.
Living Off the Land: Florida’s Pioneering Efforts to Make a Living will be available on-site at Manatee Village Historical Park starting January 3, 2023, through November 2024. Regular hours are Monday-Friday and the 2nd/4th Saturday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The museum will be closed November 11-12, November 24-26, and December 23, 2022–January 2, 2023, in observance of the holidays.
Manatee Village Historical Park is located at 1404 Manatee Avenue East (State Road 64) in Bradenton, Florida. For more information, email Manatee.Village@manateeclerk.com, call 941-749-7165, or visit www.manateevillage.org.
Manatee Village Historical Park is part of the Manatee County Clerk of the Circuit Court & Comptroller Historical Resources Department. This program is offered in conjunction with the Manatee County Historical Commission, Inc.
ABOUT THE CLERK’S OFFICE
The Clerk of the Circuit Court was established as a public trustee by the Florida Constitution in 1838. The Clerk of the Circuit Court serves as the Clerk of Courts, the Clerk of the Board of County Commissioners, Auditor, Recorder, and Custodian of all County Funds. In Manatee County, the Clerk’s office also administers a child support enforcement program, violence protection advocacy program and Teen Court programs. Located at 1115 Manatee Avenue West in Downtown Bradenton, the Courthouse is open Monday-Friday from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Please be sure to visit our web site at www.manateeclerk.com.
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