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Many of Florida's fishing villages emerged on bays along the Gulf during the late 1800s. Bays, bodies of water surrounded by land on most sides, provided fishermen with calm water. They built their docks, fish houses, and other businesses close to or on the bay.Cortez is on Sarasota Bay, which connects to the Gulf. Sea grasses, studded with oyster beds, carpet the bay's floor. Barrier islands, including Anna Maria Island, enclose the bay. The bay is also an estuary.Estuaries are coastal bodies of water where freshwater from rivers and streams mix with salt water from the ocean. Lined with mangroves and marshes, estuaries create a safe place for unique communities of both plants and animals to thrive. This earns them the name "cradle of the ocean.”Cortezians found this bay so rich in fish and wildlife that they nicknamed it the "Kitchen."Due to this richness, there are two commercial fish houses located in Cortez, A.P. Bell Seafood and Cortez Bait and Seafood.

An aerial view of Cortez taken in the 1960s shows how life revolved around Sarasota Bay – like it still does today. 

Diorama displaying different netting techniques in the shallow estuaries. 

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Florida's story is interwoven with the salt water surrounding it. The Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico frame the state and shape life on the coast.  In Cortez and other fishing villages, people build their lives around and on water. For these people, it is not just where they live and work. It is a way of life. 

The Makings of a Fishing Village - Florida Maritime Museum

Commercial fisherman from Carteret County, North Carolina, founded this community in the late 1800s.Originally known as Hunter’s Point, Cortez received its name in 1888 when the post office was established. It has been a working waterfront community since its inception and is one of the few remaining fishing villages in the state of Florida. The Florida Maritime Museum tells the stories of the fishermen who have lived and worked in Cortez throughout its history.Today, the museum consists of the 1912 schoolhouse, 1907 Pillsbury Boat shop, 1890’s Burton Store, a cistern, 3 fountains and 2 native gardens. The schoolhouse is open to the public and hosts the museum’s permanent exhibits, a rotating temporary exhibit, and a gift shop. The Burton Store is only open to the public during classes at the Folk School at Florida Maritime Museum. This second story of this building also serves as collection storage. The mission of the Florida Maritime Museum is to protect, preserve and share artifacts, stories, and traditional knowledge related to Florida’s fishing and maritime heritage. Exhibits include historic photographs, boat models, tools, instruments, and other historically significant material relevant to Florida’s maritime culture and history with a special emphasis on working waterfronts. The museum is also home to a research library that includes a variety of books, plans, logs, diaries, periodicals, letters, records and related archival material concerning maritime subjects. As a function of the <a href="https://www.manateeclerk.com/departments/historical-resources/" target="_blank">Historical Resources Department of the Manatee County Clerk of Circuit Court and Comptroller's Office of Ms. Angelina Colonneso</a> and with support from the <a href="https://mymanatee.org/departments/parks___natural_resources" target="_blank">Manatee County Board of County Commission</a> the Florida Maritime Museum is free to the public. The facilities are available for self-guided tours, group tours, and school field trips. The museum also offers free lectures, affordable traditional skills classes at the Folk School at Florida Maritime Museum, as well as special events throughout the year.

Established in December 2007, the museum is located on almost 4 acres of the Cortez Preserve within the boundaries of the historic commercial fishing village of Cortez. The Florida Maritime Museum is a result of the efforts of residents of the village and Manatee County government. Consisting of three buildings, three fountains, two native gardens and a lake, the 1912 brick schoolhouse is the primary building that is open to the public. The schoolhouse is home to permanent exhibits, a rotating temporary exhibit and a gift shop. As a function of the Manatee County Clerk of Circuit Court, the museum is free to the public for field trips, self-guided tours and lectures. Additional features of the museum include a folk school, special events and a native walking tour of the grounds. 

Many of Florida's fishing villages emerged on bays along the Gulf during the late 1800s. Bays, bodies of water surrounded by land on most sides, provided fishermen with calm water. They built their docks, fish houses, and other businesses close to or on the bay. Cortez is on Sarasota Bay, which connects to the Gulf. Sea grasses, studded with oyster beds, carpet the bay's floor. Barrier islands, including Anna Maria Island, enclose the bay. The bay is also an estuary. Estuaries are coastal bodies of water where freshwater from rivers and streams mix with salt water from the ocean. Lined with mangroves and marshes, estuaries create a safe place for unique communities of both plants and animals to thrive. This earns them the name "cradle of the ocean.” Cortezians found this bay so rich in fish and wildlife that they nicknamed it the "Kitchen." Due to this richness, there are two commercial fish houses located in Cortez, A.P. Bell Seafood and Cortez Bait and Seafood.

Mullet, in Cortez and the rest of the southeast, has been historically a prized catch. The fishermen, who founded Cortez in the 1880s, came here in search of this jumping fish. Cortezians enjoyed eating the fish smoked, which continues to be a local favorite.Other types of seafood caught in Cortez include grouper, stone crabs, and shellfish. <blockquote>"Stone crabs are particularly popular with fisherman in Cortez and throughout the state as Florida is the only place you can commercially harvest them. Stone crabbers use a variety of methods to catch and harvest these crabs including stone crab traps, dip nets, or a landing net.</blockquote><blockquote>In Manatee County, it is believed that the first stone crab trapper was Jack Moore, who began harvesting in the late 1920s. Moore lived in Cortez and would sell his harvested stone crab claws at the retail markets in Manatee County.</blockquote><blockquote>To harvest Stone crabs, instead of taking the entire crab as other fisheries do, the trappers take only one of the claws (typically the larger one) and release the crab back into the water where the claw is regenerated. Due to this, the crab is able to defend itself and another claw can be harvested the following year. "</blockquote> For each type of seafood, commercial fishermen use different specialized tools. In Cortez, fishermen use skiffs to navigate Sarasota Bay. Skiffs, like the one you see in the photos above, were shallow, flat-bottomed open boats with sharp bow and a square stern. This design allows them to move with ease through shallow waters of Sarasota Bay.

Warm waters rich with sea life support today's commercial fishing industry of Cortez. In the commercial fishing industry, fishermen catch seafood to sell in markets - as food or bait. Here common catches include mullet and stone crabs. For each fishery, different tools are needed bring the catch of the day to the shore for your enjoyment.

Fishing in Cortez - Florida Maritime Museum

Some of the earliest residents of the southwest coast of Florida were the Calusa Indians. They lived along the coast and waterways and relied on the water for their sustenance. They caught a wide variety of fish and shellfish including mullet, catfish, eels, turtles, crabs, clams, and oysters. They used shells as tools, utensils, jewelry, and spears. They built dugout canoes from cypress trees to travel the coast. The Calusa Indians died out in the late 1700s as a result of European disease and raids from enemy tribes. Fishing continued in the area after the Calusa, with Cuban fishermen arriving seasonally in the 1700s and 1800s. Cortez was established in the late 1800s by commercial fishermen from North Carolina. It remains an active fishing village today, its residents reliant upon the sea life found in the Gulf of Mexico. One such resident was Captain Blake Banks, who lived and worked in Cortez as a commercial fisherman. He owned and operated Deep Reef Fisheries Inc. and captained the boat, Medusa. His wife, Betty, did the accounting for the business. Betty also relayed messages and weather forecasts by radio to her husband when he was at sea. While out on the water, Banks became fascinated by life below the waves and began to collect specimens from his fishing trips. As his interest grew, Blake attended marine biology classes at Manatee Community College (now State College of Florida) and taught himself how to preserve his finds. Alongside his physical collection of sea life, Banks documented his life on the Gulf. He kept daily logs, permits, and other information related to fishing. He recorded details such as the weather, water temperature, and even the price of gasoline. After his death in 2004, Blake’s wife Betty donated part of his collection to the Florida Maritime Museum.

The wetlands of the Florida Gulf Coast total over 5 million acres and serve as a habitat for a diverse array of sea and animal life.  The ecology of the Gulf Coast has helped to shape the heritage, culture, and economy of those who have lived and worked there throughout history. They aid in protecting the coast from storm damage and sea level rise. From early Native Americans to present-day residents, the sea has had a profound impact on the lives of Florida’s peoples, including Captain Blake Banks of Cortez. 

The Importance of Gulf Coast Ecology - Florida Maritime Museum

Francis Philip Fatio, Swiss-born merchant from London, sailed to St. Augustine, Florida in 1771. He settled there with his family and started three plantations. In a report back to the British Government, he wrote: <blockquote>“The barren lands now occupied in East Florida produce the best naval stores in all America…The forests on these lands will produce any quantity of tar, pitch and turpentine…The yellow pine of East Florida is remarkably large, straight and of fine grain – rather heavy for single stick or large mast. For made masts, I humbly apprehend, it would be very proper as it is easy to find large trees free of all kinds of knots – from 40 to 50 feet in length – for deck planks no wood is equal to it.”*</blockquote> Throughout the latter half of the 1800s, the lumber industry in Florida boomed. There were 87 sawmills in the state in 1860. By 1880, there were 135 sawmills which produced 248 million feet of lumber that year. It was during this period that the Fogartys arrived, settled, and flourished in Manatee County. In 1865, John Fogarty first sailed up the Manatee River after being blown into Tampa Bay by a storm. As a shipbuilder, John was impressed with the wooded hammocks of the area. Bald cypress (Taxodium distichum) and pond cypress (Taxodium acednens) trees were desirable as shipbuilding materials because they are naturally resistant to decay. Additionally, these kinds of trees produce “knees”, natural bends in the wood used to strengthen joints of ship. John, with the help of his brothers, Bartholomew “Tole” and William “Bill” Fogarty, established a homestead and built the Fogarty Brothers Shipyard on the south side of the Manatee River - now West Bradenton. The homestead grew into a small community called Fogartyville. Boats continued to be built at the Fogarty Brothers Shipyard until the early 1900s.

The earliest settlers to Florida recognized the value of the state’s forests. Cypress, oak, pine, and cedar trees were used in construction, shipbuilding, and the production of turpentine.  Manatee County shipbuilders and captains, the Fogarty brothers, were attracted to the land along the Manatee River for the trees that grew there.

Tools of the Trade - Florida Maritime Museum

<blockquote>“Navigation is the art and science of determining the position of a ship, plane or other vehicle, and guiding it to a specific destination.”</blockquote> Early sailors had no reliable means of navigation. They were guided by landmarks, shorelines, flora and fauna, as well as the sun and stars. For deep sea voyages, sailors would use dead reckoning, which estimated a ship’s position based on its last known position, its speed, and its direction. Tools such as the astrolabe and sextant were developed to allow for more precise navigation at sea. These worked by finding angles between the horizon and the sun or stars to determine latitude. Finding longitude also required an accurate clock, so that time of day could factor into the calculation. Later, the advents of radio and satellites allowed for navigation using radio direction finders (RDF) and global positioning systems (GPS). In addition to navigational tools used on board, sailors relied on external aids such as lighthouses and signaling devices. Lighthouses were used as a means guide ships safely through hazards or rough weather utilizing light or a radio signal. Signaling methods between ships were revolutionized with the invention of radio in the early 20th century. Prior to that, mariners used systems of lights, sounds, and flags to communicate. Today, electronic systems and satellites have all but made these methods of navigation and communication obsolete. Despite that, many older methods are still employed as a measure of redundancy and safety for those who sail.

Throughout history, sailors have used different methods of navigation and communication while at sea. Before tools like compasses and sextants were developed, early navigators relied on the sun and stars to find their way. They also used landmarks, often remaining within sight of land, to guide them. In modern times, sailors use radio and satellites to find their way.  


Florida Maritime Museum

The Makings of a Fishing Village - Florida Maritime Museum

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