SWFAS was founded in 1980 to provide a meeting place for people interested in the southwest Florida area's archaeology, history and cultural past.

UPCOMING PRESENTATIONS
NOVEMBER 18, 2026, 7:00 PM EST
In Person at the Bonita Springs Fire Department Station 24
27701 Bonita Grande Dr, Bonita Springs, FL 34135

Lecturer: Steve Koski
Presentation: Submerged Indigenous Archaeological Sites on Florida’s West Coast: Sea Level Rise, Incidental Discoveries, Predictive Modeling, and Preservation Methodologies

LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS PRESENTATION BY READING OUT NOVEMBER NEWSLETTER LINKED BELOW

Note that all SWFAS presentations are free to the public


Annual Field Trip: December 10, at 10:00 AM

SANIBEL HISTORICAL MUSEUM AND VILLAGE

Join us for our annual SWFAS Field Trip to a local site of historic and archaeological importance.  The Sanibel Historical Museum & Village (950 Dunlop Road) documents the early pioneers who settled the island after the Calusa left in the early 1700s. Sanibel’s earliest settlers were Spanish fishermen from Cuba who established fishing “ranchos”, first seasonally and then year-round. In 1821, Florida became a U.S. territory. The first attempt to settle on Sanibel (then Sanybel) in this area was in 1833, although unsuccessful. By 1885, the Sanibel lighthouse was operating, and the island’s population grew to 300 residents by 1900. The Sanibel Historical Village & Museum has preserved many buildings important to the development of the island community, including two from the 1890s.

Join SWFAS for a docent-led experience that weaves together stories of the island through the historical village. After the visit to the museum, lunch will be at Gramma Dot's Restaurant (634 N Yachtsman Drive on Sanibel).

ADVANCE RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED. Contact John Furey at jffurey@charter.net or 508-330-5566 with your information for the visit to the museum and if you will attend lunch. The trip is free, but the Historical Museum will gladly accept donations. Recommended minimum donation for the tour is $5/person.

2026 - 2027 SEASON SWFAS NEWSLETTERS

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OCTOBER


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SEPTEMBER


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The Volume 78, Number 2, June 2025, pp97-122, issue of The Florida Anthropologist has an article by John Beriault and Bob Carr about the Bonita Bay Complex in southern Lee County. This is a 30-site complex that SWFAS was an active participant in identifying, recording, sampling, and excavation of many of these sites, and the Craighead Lab processed much of the excavated material. SWFAS also published the results of several of these sites. These early days of SWFAS was a very busy time for salvage archaeology, and the article describes the historical involvement of SWFAS during its early days.

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