Snead Island is a small island to the west of

Palmetto, Florida Palmetto is a city in Manatee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was listed as 13,323. It is part of the Bradenton-Sarasota-Venice, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. History A post office called Palmetto ha ...

. The island is primarily residential, although there are two private dry boat storage facilities or boatworks located on the island. Remnants of a former

palm tree The Arecaceae is a family of perennial flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are called palm trees ...

nursery also are located on the island. The island is located on two bays and a river, to the north and northeast is Terra Ceia Bay, to the west is

Tampa Bay Tampa Bay is a large natural harbor and shallow estuary connected to the Gulf of Mexico on the west-central coast of Florida, comprising Hillsborough Bay, McKay Bay, Old Tampa Bay, Middle Tampa Bay, and Lower Tampa Bay. The largest freshwater in ...

, and to the south is the

Manatee River The Manatee River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 18, 2011 river in Manatee County, Florida. The river forms in the northeastern corner of Manatee County an ...

. On the western end of Snead Island is Emerson Point Preserve, a preserve operated by

Manatee County Manatee County is a county in the Central Florida portion of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 US Census, the population was 399,710. Manatee County is part of the North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its county s ...

. The preserve includes several Native American mounds designated as the Portavant Mound Site, which is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. The land from which the preserve was made, previously had been owned by the Horton family.

History

This area of Florida was inhabited seasonally for approximately five thousand years by Native Americans who were hunters and gatherers. As the waters of the ocean rose and the area became coastline along the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

with the bays and the river, the changes in the habitat of the area afforded development of maritime culture on the island. Peoples of the

Safety Harbor culture The Safety Harbor culture was an archaeological culture practiced by Native Americans living on the central Gulf coast of the Florida peninsula, from about 900 CE until after 1700. The Safety Harbor culture is defined by the presence of Safety H ...

are credited with the construction of the mounds found on the island today, made with the shells from their fishing from the bountiful waters surrounding it during the period of 900 A.D. to 1725 A.D. The first officially recorded non-native settler to Snead Island was Edward Sneed, who established a homestead in 1843 under the

Armed Occupation Act of 1842 The Florida Armed Occupation Act of 1842 () was passed as an incentive to populate Florida. The Act granted of unsettled land south of the line separating townships 9 and 10 South (an east–west line about three miles (5 km) north of P ...

. The island was named for this first settler. In newspapers and other documents, the name of the island can be found spelled as either Sneed Island or Snead Island, as well as Sneed's Island and Snead's Island. Eventually, the misspelling of the first settler's name became the official name of the island. Sometime during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, the U.S. Kingfish, commanded by Joseph H. Hallet, would land at the site of what was formerly a Native American mound at the Emerson Point Preserve. At one point, he and the soldiers under his command found a barracks that they burned to the ground. They also captured three boats. Despite its name from the earliest of records, initially, it was not much of an island. Snead Island was only separated from the Palmetto mainland by a shallow mudflat that was home to many oysters and mangroves. Although that channel was nearly dry during low tide, at other times it frequently was used by small sailing vessels as a shortcut to Terra Ceia Bay from the Manatee River. In 1900, the channel, called "the Cut-Off” was dredged deeply enough to allow steamers to pass. This dredging solidified Snead Island's status as a legitimate island, and a barge-ferry had to be used to make the connection from the island to the mainland before a bridge was built. In 1920, the Davis Toll Bridge across the Manatee River that connected the towns of Manatee and Palmetto was disassembled and its pieces were used to create the Snead Island Bridge.

Overview

Much of the island remains undeveloped. Most of the island's residents are native Floridians, which is atypical in the surrounding

area.

References

{{authority control Islands of Manatee County, Florida Islands of Tampa Bay Islands of Florida