Spanish Colonial
Five million years ago, Southwest Florida was a shallow tropical sea teeming with life. During the Ice Ages, the sea level around Florida rose and fell as the ice sheets thawed, reformed and melted again. Each time the water receded, a new layer of sand and shell was deposited, gradually building up the limestone and sandy sediment that lie beneath much of Collier County today.

The first humans reached Southwest Florida at least 10,000 years ago, when the climate was colder and drier. The earliest archaeological evidence of man in Collier County was discovered in 1880 at the Bay West Site, northeast of Naples, and dates back to about 6,500 B.C.

Centuries before Columbus landed in the New World, Florida's lower Gulf coast was controlled by the Calusa Indians. A complex and powerful people, the Calusa built huge mounds of shell and earth for their religious temples and public buildings. Highly skilled Calusa artisans also created elaborate masks and wood carvings for religious and ceremonial purposes, such as those discovered by Frank Hamilton Cushing on Marco Island in 1895.