Crane Point Museum and Nature Center

Today we went to Key Vaca part of the Marathon group of islands just 5 miles south of the camp.

From Wikipedia:

Crane Point Museum, Nature Center and Historic Site is a non-profit natural history museum and nature center located in Key Vaca, Florida, in the heart of the Florida Keys. Created in 1976, the Florida Keys Land & Sea Trust purchased the land and saved the area from being developed into private homes and shopping malls.

Crane Point features several facilities:

• Museum of Natural History of the Florida Keys - Exhibits focus on the natural and cultural history of the Keys area, including Calusa Indians, Spanish explorers and other Keys pioneers, pirates, a diorama of a coral reef, butterflies, tree snails, sea turtles, shells, Key deer and local tropical fish. The museum was established in 1990. The museum is part of the Smithsonian Traveling Exhibit, from the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History, that contains depictions of Keys heritage and landscapes.

• Florida Keys Children's Museum - features two saltwater lagoons and many marine touch tanks which contain native Keys invertebrates and fish, including a nurse shark, as well as an interactive pirate play area.

• George Adderley House - a historic house museum that was built by George Adderley, a Bahamian pioneer, in 1903 that still stands on Crane Point's property. The exterior of the house was constructed with Tabby, a concrete-like material made of burned conch and other shells and sand.

• Marathon Wild Bird Center - a rehabilitation center for injured and orphaned wild birds. Opened in 1998, the center also offers education programs and research projects. Some recovering birds can be viewed in the outdoor flight cage.

• Nature trails

 

Dug out canoe from the Indian past

George Adderley House

Trail signs OLD

Trail signs NEW

the bees are busy.

It was a beautiful day with little wind and temperatures in to low 20C. ( 70’sF.). This evening we walked the 100 yards down to the sea wall in the campground for the sunset.