Celebrating artifacts at the Mound House

Apr 20, 2026 By Nathan 3 min read

The Friends of the Mound House will be holding a celebration of the new artifact preservation center at the Mound House with a fundraiser and presentation this Saturday.

The free event will run from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and will include hors d’oeuvres, a singer and a brief presentation from Mound House Museum Registrar Breanna Vaccaro on the development of the artifact preservation center and laboratory, and its future.

The Town of Fort Myers Beach, which operates the Mound House, began work on the preservation center in December of 2024 in order to preserve and research thousands of artifacts that were found around the property during excavations that began in 2002. Many of the artifacts date to the time that the Calusa tribe were present in the areas. The preservation center opened last year.

“We’re very proud of it. A lot of work has been done since it opened,” Vaccaro said. “I am really excited for the public to be able to come and see what we have to offer in there.”

The artifacts at the preservation center range from shell tools to pottery and ancient Calusa canoe anchors, Vaccaro said. The artifacts and documents possessions held at the Mound House also include the original deed from President William McKinley for 200 acres of land around the site that was given to the Gilbert family.

The Mound House sits atop an ancient Calusa shell mound that was believed to have been constructed about 2,000 years ago. The Calusa are believed to have begun building settlements around the land a few hundred years later and maintained a presence there for more than a millennium. The underground shell mound site was closed after Hurricane Ian, reopened about a year later and then was closed again after flooding from Hurricane Milton.

Ellen Vaughan, the chief fundraiser for the Friends of the Mound House, credited Alex King with financing the upcoming event at the Mound House.

Vaughan said Vaccaro has been working on cataloging thousands of artifacts that were uncovered after excavations around the property after the town acquired the site. After Hurricane Ian totaled the Town of Fort Myers Beach Town Hall where they were stored, they were moved to storage units. Now they are all back at the Mound House in the new artifact preservation center.

“It’s going to take a few years for her to get through all of the collections,” Vaughan said.

Vaccaro gives archaeology tours of the new preservation center, on the second floor of the Mound House Museum every Wednesday and Saturday 11 a.m. “It is the first and only public archaeology lab in Southwest Florida,” Vaccaro said. “It’s a really unique opportunity for the public to learn more about the fields of archaeology and collections management and get first-hand experience looking at the collection that we have at the Mound House.”

Vaccaro said the collection storage facility is rare because it is within a retrofitted 1921 home and museum. Folks who visit the Mound House Museum on other days besides Wednesday and Saturday can still see the preservation center through a window as they tour the museum. In the meantime, Vaccaro is hard at work cataloging the collection with other volunteers and preparing them to be shown in the museum.

In November, there will a celebration of the anniversary of the Mound House museum opening. The Mound House grounds are open daily, though the museum’s house are Wednesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Mound House is located at 451 Connecticut Street on Fort Myers Beach.

To reach Nathan , please email nmayberg@breezenewspapers.com