The Deering Estate at Cutler is a 444 acre environmental, archaeological, historical, and architectural preserve owned by the State of Florida and managed by the Miami-Dade County Park and Recreation Department, and it has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1986. In 1913, Charles Deering, a wealthy industrialist from Chicago, first chairman of International Harvester, early environmentalist, and patron of the arts, purchased the original 320 acres to establish his winter home in South Florida. Long before South Dade became a bustling community, many cultures inhabited this land over thousands of years. Archaeological records date back more than 10,000 years. Paleo-Indians, Tequestas, Seminoles, Afro-Bahamians, and others built bay side communities on these grounds until the 1700's, and in the 1890s one of Miami's early pioneer townships, the Town of Cutler, had been platted here.