In 1866, after release from a Union prison, Major Robert Stewart Griffith homesteaded here, building a small wooden house and planting banana and citrus trees. In 1869, two years after his marriage to Anna Webb of Spanish Point in Osprey, their first child was born on this spot. The remains of the fireplace and chimney Griffith built of cement, shell midden, and brick still survive. Because there were no bridges connecting the island to the mainland, transportation for the couple was by water, and they rowed upriver to the village of Manatee, now east Bradenton, to sell their produce and buy supplies. Their nearest neighbor was Edward Sneed, for whom Snead Island was named. Next to the northern ramp at the mound, a large cistern installed by Captain June Poitevent in 1894 stored rainwater. In 1910, Peter and Golden Marine purchased the property, and their legacy is most clearly seen in the remnants of a stately avenue of royal palms they planted from the mound to the river bank. In a tragic accident in 1922, both died in the river when Golden tried to save her drowning husband. In 1924, Mabel and Freeman Horton purchased the property and moved into the house atop the mound in 1933. The Hortons added a room and indoor plumbing, used much of their land for farming and citrus, and carefully preserved the mound area. The Hortons' heirs sold the property to the State of Florida and Manatee County in 1991.