South Lido Key Southern Nature Trail |

South Lido Key Southern Nature Trail

December 30th, 2010

The Southern Nature Trail of South Lido Key (Once known as Sarasota Key)

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You have to go back to 1890 to regain a sense of the pre-development state of the waterway we refer to as the Sarasota Bay system. For the last hour I have been reading about the history of our islands around Sarasota. Otto Schmidt Zoldan, a pioneer, settled on the southern tip of this key and in 1904 applied for a homestead. His claim, granted in 1910, included much of the land which became South Lido Park. The island was renamed Lido Key as part of the 1920′s Ringling Isles development and this is when all of the filling and dredging began. You can get a real sense of the history of these islands by reading the following document:

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OFTHE GULF INTRACOASTAL WATERWAY

You get a real sense of the history of the islands by walking South Lido Beach and the Southern Nature Trail. Rounding the south end of Lido beach you have a clear view of Bird Key. I figured this was a great place to spend the day with my Godson who flew in from Boulder CO. I had the chance to spend the day with him teaching him some fly fishing, doing some nature photography, walking the Australian Pine Southern Nature Trail, and looking down the lush mangrove tunnels. The Southern Nature Trail only takes about 20 min. to walk but we spent over 3 hours enjoying beach, woods, and mangrove forest. I highly recommend spending some time around this area and walking South Lido Key Southern Nature Trail.