At Emerson Point in Manatee County, a temple mound and shell middens preserve a long record of human life from prehistoric Amerindian communities to Florida's pioneer days and modern conservation. The area was once home to thriving American Indian communities and includes the largest remaining ceremonial mound in the Tampa Bay region. Because these native people lived before European exploration in Florida, their real names and traditions are unknown. About 1,000 years ago, the shell mounds would have stood white in the sun, with thatched houses on and around them, smoke rising from cooking fires, children at play, people at daily work, hunting parties returning by canoe to unload the day's catch, and conch shell hammers opening shellfish along the shore. The site also contains evidence of successive homesteaders who lived there before the State of Florida and Manatee County bought the land in 1991 for conservation and natural resource protection. Across generations, from prehistoric to modern times, people altered the island environment to meet their needs, and the temple mound complex is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.