Europeans arriving at Hutchinson Island in the 16th century found hundreds of Native Americans living in settlements along both the Atlantic Ocean and the Indian River. The island’s rich marine environment provided fish, shellfish, and sea animals including whale and sea turtle, while the land offered deer, bear, snakes, and edible and medicinal plants. Lacking hard stone, these Native Americans made tools and weapons from bone, shell, and wood, and made vessels from gourds, wood, and clay. Wooden dugout canoes carried groups and families between the Atlantic Ocean and the St. Lucie and Indian Rivers. Archaeologists have documented numerous prehistoric sites on Hutchinson Island, though many have been damaged by hurricanes and looters. Gilbert's Bar House of Refuge was built atop a prehistoric settlement dating to as early as circa 800 BC. By the late 18th century, disease, warfare, and slave raids had decimated the Native American populations, and no known descendants of Hutchinson Island’s first people remain.