Little Manatee River State Park

The Little Manatee River has shaped the park’s and surrounding communities’ histories. From the earliest native Americans to the cowboys, pioneers, entrepreneurs, and dreamers who have settled here over the years, Southern Hillsborough County has been home to an interesting mix of people.

Over 10,000 years ago, the Uzita were the first native people to settle at the mouth of the Little Manatee River at Cockroach Bay. The Uzita fished in the river, went clamming and fishing in the gulf, and built burial mounds out of shell deposits. Some of the first written accounts of the Uzita people came from a Spanish expedition to Cockroach Bay.

Throughout the 1800s, peninsular Florida remained sparsely settled, and wilderness prevailed in southern Hillsborough County. A few Florida crackers would pass through the landscape, trailing their cattle through the vast free range of palmetto and pine flatwoods.

Overnight, logging camps appeared along the river and bays; loggers would harvest the bald cypress and longleaf pines, then dismantle camp and move to the next harvest location. The “fly up the creek” was a homestead area where they could live off the land.

The earliest settlers along the Little Manatee River sought solitude and wilderness. Some were looking to flee; some may have been deserters from the army or the Second Seminole War; others may have been outcasts or outlaws; and still others were simply hoping to escape the city and the inevitable growth that lay ahead.

The Little Manatee River continues to take the same winding, sinewy path it has for centuries. It is one of Florida’s few rivers that has never been significantly dredged or altered by canals or mining operations.

At the turn of the twentieth century, some local communities, including the socialist colony of Ruskin, hoped to establish a more commercially viable port and trade channel, but funding was never available, and the timing was never quite right for those requests to be fulfilled. The river is still one of Southwest Florida’s most pristine blackwater rivers.

With the arrival of the South Florida railroad in 1884, the population grew exponentially. Small towns like Palmetto, Wimauma, and Willow sprung up almost overnight along the railroad line. Willow grew up on the south bank of the Little Manatee River, where the Seaboard Air Line railroad crossed the river. Willow is now a ghost town that has been reclaimed by the scrub. Three miles upstream from the park, the historic railroad bridge still stands over the river.

New industries moved to South Florida as the railroad made it more accessible. Northerners were sold on the health benefits of the warm, sunny climate, and tourism flourished. “Citrus fever” swept the country around the turn of the century, and truck farming flourished in Ruskin and other towns in this region.

On the park property, there are remnants of two old homesteads, tomato fields, and light cattle ranching.

Other historical uses of the land within the park are no longer visible in the landscape. Historic sites have reverted to scrubby flatwoods, and remnants of the early 1900s fish camp and the 1950s riverside bar have all but vanished.

Only oral history passed down from park staff and local residents keeps the park’s history alive.