Historic Spanish Point in Osprey is a 30-acre site located on Little Sarasota Bay dedicated to archaeological, historical and environmental preservation. Indians lived here 5,000 years ago and visitors can see existing remains of their culture. There are burial mounds and ceremonial piles of shell and bone. The site also contains pioneer
homestead buildings from the 1860's and formal gardens planted in the 1910's by Bertha Matilde Honore' Palmer, the widow of Chicago magnate Potter Palmer. She had a winter estate on the property, which stayed in the Palmer family up until the 1980's.