Question: What does the Little Salt Spring in North Port preserve?
Answer: Organic materials.
The sinkhole preserves organic artifacts, such as wood, bone, and even brain tissue, because its deep waters are oxygen-poor, providing archaeologists with an unusually intact window into Paleo-Indian life. The Rosenstiel School has exclusive access to an underwater archaeological and ecological preserve at Little Salt Spring, a site located in southern Sarasota County about 10 miles from the Gulf. The site has produced the second-oldest dated artifact ever found in the southeastern U.S.—a sharpened wooden stake that is about 12,000 years old.
