Treasure Island is best known for its rich and vibrant pirate history, but the island itself has actually been settled for much longer than that. The first residents of the island were actually the Timucuan Indians, who’s settlements on the island date back nearly 1,700 years. In 1528, Spanish explorers began flocking to the island, driving away the native inhabitants to other territories. Sitting mostly unoccupied for a couple hundred years, it wasn’t until the 18th century that Treasure Island finally caught the eye of pirates and smugglers located around the area.
Between the arrival of the Spanish in 1528 and the later 18th century, Treasure Island was something of a utopia for pirates and smugglers looking for refuge around the Gulf of Mexico. At this time the native settlers have been driven away by the Spanish, but the Spanish didn’t stick around, leaving a mostly deserted island in the perfect location and ripe for the taking. Villages began appearing in the late 18th century, signaling the end of the pirate paradise.
One common misconception about Treasure Island is the presence of actual buried treasure. While the island was occupied by pirates and smugglers during the 16th, 17th, and early 18th centuries, they actually didn’t leave their treasure behind. In truth, property owners on Treasure Island in the early 20th century were looking for ways to boost the value of their land and shrewdly looked back to the island’s real pirate history for an idea. Several property owners buried two wooden chests filled with “treasure” on the island and dug up the chests themselves claiming that they found genuine pirate treasure in an effort to boost property values. News of this “discovery” spread quickly, and the name Treasure Island spread throughout the people and began to stick.