Marco Island Historical Museum

Free county museum built around the Calusa story — the vanished maritime civilization that ruled southwest Florida for two thousand years before contact. The centerpiece is the Key Marco Cat: a six-inch kneeling human-feline figure carved from wood around 500–1500 AD, pulled from a Marco Island muck pond in 1896 by a Smithsonian expedition led by Frank Hamilton Cushing. It is considered one of the finest pieces of pre-Columbian art in North America. The Smithsonian owns it — but the original sits here on extended loan, alongside other Cushing-excavation pieces and a recreated Calusa village scene. Small, quiet, and free.

What to order

Go on a Tue–Sat morning; budget 45–60 minutes. Head straight to the Key Marco gallery — the cat is smaller than photos suggest, which is the point. Free admission, donations accepted.

Hours

Tue–Sat 9a–4p · closed Sun & Mon