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A visit to
De Soto National Memorial

The objective of De Soto National Memorial is to commemorate the landing of Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto in southwest Florida coast on May 30, 1539, probably in this location or any point nearby. De Soto left Havana with a license from the King of Spain to explore, colonize and pacify the Indians of the area known as La Florida, discovered by Ponce de Leon on Eastern Sunday in 1513 near present-day St. Augustine.

The De Soto Trail Monument near the Visitor Center marks the possible landing of Hernando de Soto with approximately 600 men and the starting point of his ill-fated four-year expedition across the southeastern United States. Two years later, on May 8, 1541, with a reduced number of soldiers De Soto and his companions where the first Europeans to see the mighty waters of the Mississippi River at a point about half-way between present-day Memphis and Greenville, Mississippi. In wooden rafts they crossed the flood-swollen river and went as far west as present-day Hot Springs, Arkansas. The soldiers were dying due to epidemic fevers and attacks from the Indians. They returned to the Mississippi where De Soto himself died, probably of malaria. His men buried him under the waters of the river in order to keep the Indians unaware of the news about the death of the man they feared. The survivors paddled and floated down the river 700 miles to the Gulf and eventually just few of them reached Veracruz in Mexico.

This National Memorial was authorized on March 11, 1948 and is located on the mouth of the Manatee River and Tampa Bay 5 miles west of Bradenton, Florida. In the Visitor Center a twenty-two minute film entitled, "Legacy of a Legend" is shown on the hour. The film illustrates the 4,000 mile-journey that De Soto and his men did across the Southeastern United States. The Visitor Center has some small exhibits of artifacts from the explorers as well as from the native Indian culture that flourished in this area at the time of De Soto's arrival. A one-half mile self guided interpretative trail leads throught mangrove and coastal environments. The trail takes the visitor up to the De Soto Point and then turns around bordering the mangrove jungle and the cove beach formed by the river.

Information

Hours: 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., closed New Year's, Thanksgiving and Christmas Days.

There is no admission fee.

For more details, please visit the Web Page of the National Park Service indicated below.

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