Art of the Dig at Marco Island Historical Museum

For the first time since it was discovered more than 125 years ago, the Key Marco Cat is back in town and reunited with other rare pre-Columbian artifacts

The Key Marco Cat, one of the finest pieces of pre-Columbian Native American art ever discovered in North America, is on exhibit at the Marco Island Historical Museum now through 2026. Courtesy of Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution (A240915)
The Key Marco Cat, one of the finest pieces of pre-Columbian Native American art ever discovered in North America, is on exhibit at the Marco Island Historical Museum now through 2026. Courtesy of Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution (A240915)

A favorite local mascot of Marco Island is the Key Marco Cat, a 6-inch figure carved in native Florida buttonwood depicting a mysterious half-human, half-panther figure. For the first time since it was discovered more than 125 years ago, the Key Marco Cat is back in town and reunited with other rare pre-Columbian Native American artifacts at the Marco Island Historical Museum. The mysterious creature, thought to be a spiritual icon of the Calusa tribe, will hang around through 2026. 

Painted wooden Calusa mask found at Key Marco. Watercolor by Wells Sawyer. Courtesy National Anthropological Archives
Painted wooden Calusa mask found at Key Marco. Watercolor by Wells Sawyer. Courtesy National Anthropological Archives

The rare artifacts were discovered in 1896 by Smithsonian anthropologist Frank Hamilton Cushing and are on loan from the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology through April 2024. The Key Marco artifacts were remarkably intact—including their original paint colors—presumably because they were buried in oxygen-free muck that preserved them for hundreds of years. While many disintegrated upon exposure to the air, artist Wells Sawyer, of the Pepper-Hearst expedition to Marco Island, captured them in his paintings and black and white photos. Sawyer’s original watercolor paintings, on loan from the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville, will be on display at the Marco Island Historical Museum through January 2023. 

The Marco Island Historical Museum is part of the Collier County Museum system; its exhibitions include information on the Calusa Indians and the history of development on Marco Island. 

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