View of Longboat Pass
27.444363°N 82.690557°W Hernando de Soto passed through here on his way to Tampa Bay.
There is much debate about where de Soto arrived when he came to Florida. Duncan believes he entered between Longboat Key and Anna Maria Island here in 1539 to explore and was forced to camp on either Longboat Key or Anna Maria Island when the winds became too intense to make it back to his major ships.
Hernando de Soto
Hernando de Soto (c.1496/1497–1542) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador who led the first European expedition deep into the territory of the modern-day United States, and the first documented to have crossed the Mississippi River.