The Randell Research Center (RRC) is a program of the Florida Museum of Natural History focused on the coastal and island cultural and natural heritage of Florida.
Archaeologists, biologists, and other scholars from the Florida Museum of Natural History have conducted research and education programs in southwest Florida, including Pine Island, since 1983. The RRC has existed since 1996 when Patricia and Donald Randell gifted more than 53 acres of the Pineland archaeological site, located on Pine Island, to the University of Florida Foundation.
The Pineland site property is now mostly state-owned and serves as an outdoor museum and educational resource open daily to the public, including the Calusa Heritage Trail and classroom. RRC staff manages the daily operations of the Pineland archaeological site and oversees the operations and public programing at the Calusa Heritage Trail. Visitors are able to traverse Calusa shell mounds and canals, and a diversity of coastal terrestrial and wetland habitats. RRC staff and volunteers offer tours to the public, as well as special tours for schools and many other groups of all ages. The center provides a dedicated classroom space, interpretive signs, a gift shop, and annual events that bring together scholars with community members.
The RRC represents the Florida Museum of Natural History in south Florida. The Florida Museum of Natural History is located on the campus of the University of Florida in Gainesville. It was chartered in 1917 as the state’s official natural history museum and is fully accredited by the American Association of Museums. With more than 40 million specimens and artifacts in its permanent collections, the Florida Museum is the largest collections-based natural history museum in the southeastern United States. These collections are the foundation of the Museum’s scientific research and university teaching programs. The Museum also draws heavily upon its collections in meeting its public education mission through permanent and traveling exhibits as well as outreach programs, including the Randell Research Center, designed to inspire and educate the public about Florida’s natural history and rich cultural heritage.
The Mission of the RRC is to maintain, at the internationally significant Pineland archaeological and historical site, a permanent facility dedicated to learning and teaching the archaeology, history, ecology, and biodiversity of Southwest Florida.
The RRC is more than just the Pineland site. It is an interdisciplinary program coordinating research, education, and publication efforts that involve and serve southwest Florida, greater Florida, and beyond to learn about and safeguard coastal and island cultural and biological heritage at a broader scale.
Christy Rau, RRC Administrative Assistant. On Pine Island at the Pineland site and Calusa Heritage Trail, Christy provides administrative and fiscal support for the center, as well as program development and capacity building with community outreach.
Andy Jendrusiak, Maintenance Specialist and Head Grounds Keeper. On Pine Island at the Pineland site and Calusa Heritage Trail, Andy oversees daily maintenance and grounds keeping, as well as event preparation.
The RRC staff are supported by dedicated part-time staff members Jeremiah Scoone, Sara Mercie, and Jim Niehaus, as well as a large group of dedicated volunteers.
The RRC Staff work closely with an advisory board composed on supporters from Pine Island, southwest Florida, greater south Florida, and the University of Florida in Gainesville.
The Pineland site complex is located in coastal Lee County, northwest of Fort Myers. The site was a Calusa Indian village for over 1,500 years. Enormous shell mounds still overlook the waters of Pine Island Sound. The remains of many centuries of Indian village life blanket the former pastures and citrus groves. Remnants of an ancient canal that reached across Pine Island sweep through the complex. Sand burial mounds stand in the woods. Historic structures representing Florida’s early pioneer history also still exist at Pineland. Native plants and animals characteristic of coastal hammocks, pinelands, wetlands, and shell mounds are in abundance. The site is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, and as a designated County Historical Resource.
Pineland is important to archaeology and ecology for several reasons. First, its waterlogged deposits preserve artifacts not found in dry sites, including ancient botanical remains found nowhere else in North America. The remains of many centuries of Calusa daily life reveal a fascinating, complex world that existed before the arrival of Europeans. Second, Pineland provides a key to understanding larger, global issues. Its accumulated deposits hold information on sea-level fluctuations and climate changes of interest to scientists all over the world who study the earth’s environmental history. Third, it has proven to be an ideal location for teaching students and the general public about Florida’s environment and history.
The motto of the Randell Research Center is “As We Learn, We Teach.” Our commitment to research, education, and service is interwoven into all we do as a Florida Museum of Natural History Center and as a part of the University of Florida.
At the center we focus on how cultural and natural heritage together shape Florida’s unique environments, lifeways, and economies. Center faculty, staff, and colleagues work to bridge cultural heritage (e.g., archaeology, history) and natural heritage (e.g., biodiversity, ecology) disciplines and research methods to best understand how long-term perspectives of human-environment interactions through time may in form how we choose to live and interact with environments today.
We have an unwavering focus on education at the broadest level, from elementary school children to University of Florida graduate students, from hands-on educational opportunities for local citizens to the Internet. Notably, thanks to several endowments, and an endowment grant from the Sear Family Foundation, the at the Pineland site and Calusa Heritage Trail, we offer educational site tours to several Title 1 schools each year and is developing new public early education and elementary school programing. Title 1 schools are those with a significant number of families living below the poverty line.
Approaching education as a public service, at the RRC we believe that learning about one’s surroundings and history is not just for children – the excitement extends to adults of all ages and people of all backgrounds. Many newcomers are fascinated by Florida’s environment and history and are eager to learn about them. We offer exciting programs for the visitor who stays just a few days as well as meaningful activities for the longer-term visitor or part-year resident.
Ann Cordell, Florida Museum of Natural History
Elise LeCompte, Florida Museum of Natural History
George Luer, Archaeologist, Sarasota, Florida
Darcie MacMahon, Florida Museum of Natural History
Lee Newsom, Pennsylvania State University, Dept. of Anthropology