Strolling along a stunning shoreline usually conjures up feelings of serenity and awakens your senses to the splendid surroundings before you. Yet did you ever wonder about the people that traveled that beach ahead of you? My family and I recently walked a coastline of Florida's Gulf Islands and discovered its rich history and all the secrets it holds.

Where the southern shores of Tampa Bay meet the Manatee River and Terra Ceia Bay lays rustic and Old Florida-style Snead Island. Here you'll find the 365-acre Emerson Point Preserve. This Manatee County property at the tip of Snead Island in Palmetto has been witness to humans for more than 4,500 years. Both ancient inhabitants and Florida pioneers have called this breathtaking stretch of land home, along with diverse groups of native and exotic animals and plants.

Karen Fraley, a naturalist and owner of Around the Bend Nature Tours, escorted my family on a hike around the island, where modern and ancient mix.

"This is a nice change of pace from the theme parks," said Fraley before we embarked on our eco-tour. "You can have a real adventure in the real Florida."

Fraley explained to my husband and me and our two sons, Baker, 13, and Jake, 11, that the original inhabitants of the island are referred to as "Amerindians." Their true names are unknown, but, Fraley said, "The Amerindians came to Emerson Point Preserve for the abundant shell fish and other food and raw materials thousands of years ago." Remnants of the cultures that lived on Emerson Point Preserve are still there today.

Fraley told us how the Amerindians made canoes, homes and other necessities from what was available in the environment surrounding us. She asked the boys to pull some fiber strands from the native cabbage and sabal palms. Baker and Jake quickly granted her wish with handfuls of the stuff. She sat them down and engaged them in native rope weaving, which entailed braiding the palm fibers. Proud of his work, my younger son took a piece of his creation and fashioned a rope bracelet around his wrist.

The native Indians used rope like the boys made in many ways, and not just for accessories. They used the palm fiber to make casting nets to catch fish, fastening heavy shells on the nets for weights, and also for fire.

Fraley brought out a mechanism made from a round chip of an oak tree, a stick and the homemade rope. The device created friction to start a kindling fire. The boys took turns furiously churning the fire starter, trying to get a puff of smoke.

"This is hard," Jake said with a wide grin on his face. Fraley encouraged the boys to keep trying and they abided, enjoying every minute of it.

As a group, we ascended a wooden boardwalk that led us to the highest point in the park, the Portavant Temple Mound. Overlooking the Manatee River, the 1,200-year-old Indian mound is the largest in the Tampa Bay area.

"This was not a burial mound," Fraley said in response to my older son's question. "It was a place were chiefs and elders would preside over ceremonies with the villagers." On top of the shell mound, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it was easy to imagine a chief or shaman leading a ceremony for the villagers below.

Major Robert Stewart Griffith built the island's first pioneer home on top of the Portavant mound in 1867. Griffith introduced citrus trees, bananas, peppers and tomatoes to the island that now features a combination of residential homes, agricultural endeavors, a marina and a restaurant. Griffith married Anna Webb, a member of a pioneering family that settled in Sarasota County.

Fraley showed us the remains of their small home, a home chimney and a cistern. "They used shell, sand and burnt oyster to create lime called 'tabby' to build parts of their homes," said Fraley.

Baker and Jake were then challenged by our guide to pull a pod off a nearby nickerbean vine and open it up. Inside the pod the boys found two brown, round, hard beans. "That is what the pioneer boys and girls used to play marble games," she said.

"That's cool," said Jake as he juggled the beans in his palm. He put the beans in his pocket to show his friends later. Baker followed suit and grabbed a couple more pods to open as we continued on our trek.

As we hiked along, we saw other native plants, such as gumbo-limbo trees, strangler figs -- which enticed my children because they really do strangle other trees -- wild coffee, beach sunflowers, blanket flowers, firebush, coral bean buttonwood and all three species of mangrove trees. Animal sightings were scarcer, but the preserve is home to raccoons, foxes, gopher tortoises, ospreys, anhingas, wood storks, roseate spoonbills and abundant sea life.

The culmination of our journey was when we reached the observation tower. We were awed by the breathtaking views of three bodies of water (Tampa Bay, the Manatee River and the Gulf of Mexico) coming together and the view of the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, Anna Maria Island, Egmont Key, Bradenton and beyond. It was there we could see why man has chosen to settle on this spit of land for thousands of years.

Jake noticed a large cruise ship in the distant channel of Tampa Bay, bringing my thoughts back to the present time. It occurred to me that my family and I just received and enjoyed a great history lesson of a splendid part of Florida.

Around the Bend Nature Tours also provides nature-heritage experiences in the Bradenton area at Coquina Bay Walk at Leffis Key (for birding), in the Joan M. Durante Park mangrove forest on Longboat Key, in the ancient Indian village of Emerson Point and out to the wildlands of Duette Preserve in eastern Manatee County.

Two other exciting, family-friendly water eco-tours in Manatee County include Ray's Canoe Hideaway on the Manatee River and Canoe Outpost on the Little Manatee River.

At Ray's you can enjoy a paddling adventure by canoe or sit-on-top kayak on the serene Upper Manatee River Florida State Canoe Trail. The scenery offers jungle-like surrounding where you and your family can swim with manatees, soak up the sunshine, hunt for fossils or picnic on white-sand beaches. Fishing is available for snook, redfish, striped bass, bream, speck and the area's largest freshwater catfish. Or you can just drift leisurely and spot herons, egrets, hawks, ospreys, otters, bobcats and turtles. Primitive camping also is accessible on the river or at Rye Wilderness Park.

Real canoe enthusiasts can take on a journey on the Little Manatee River through the Canoe Outpost. Paddlers can choose from four trips ranging from 2 1/2 miles to 15 miles, depending on what suits your group. Designated an "Outstanding Florida Waterway," the river has the highest level of water quality in the state. A steady 3-mile-per-hour current makes for easy paddling through the 2,400-acre Little Manatee River State Recreation Area. Picnic pavilions, restrooms, hiking trails and nature walks are along the river.