Florida State Parks 75th Anniversary Logo
The Bay City Walking Dredge helped build the Tamiami Trail in the 1920s and is a National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark. A favorite activity at the park is canoeing down the Blackwater River, through one of the largest mangrove forests in North America. The park is home to many different species of wildlife, like this red shouldered hawk. A nature trail and boardwalk weave through a tropical hardwood hammock filled with plants more suited to the tropics than other parts of Florida.
Collier-Seminole State Park
The Blockhouse is the park's interpretive center, built in 1940 and modeled after a Third Seminole War fortification from a century earlier.
The park takes part of its name from the Seminole Indian tribe who lived in this area. Seminole Indians
The road that opened the last frontier in Florida. The Silent Machine
Where the royal palms grow. Memorial Field 1948
A unique habitat for south Florida. Paradise preserved.
Family camping during a pleasant winter. Family Camping

History and Culture

In the 1700s, Seminole Indians emigrated from the Creek Confederacy to Florida. Three wars took place to remove the Seminoles from Florida and send them to reservations. During the Third Seminole War, the Seminoles resisted and retreated to the swamps of southwest Florida. Soldiers searching for the Indians drew maps. One crude 1857 military map illustrates the Blackwater River with an area labeled `palm grove'. That area, now a part of the park, contains the beautiful royal palm trees. In the early 1920s, advertising tycoon and pioneer developer, Barron Collier purchased nearly a million acres in southwest Florida. In 1923, it became Collier County. The park was created to preserve the royal palm trees. The park served as a memorial to Barron Collier and those who fought on both sides of the Seminole Wars. In 1947, the county donated the land, which became Collier-Seminole State Park.

The park takes part of its name from the Seminole Indian tribe who lived in this area.

Seminole Indians

The Seminole and Miccosukee Indian tribes successfully resisted removal from Florida in the mid-1800s and remained in the area. When the Tamiami Trail opened in 1928, many Seminoles moved their villages along the highway to take advantage of the new economic opportunities.

The road that opened the last frontier in Florida.

The Silent Machine

It was said that a highway across the Everglades could not be built, but Barron Gift Collier came down to southwest Florida and found a way to complete it in 1928. He set aside this park for people to rest and enjoy the wilderness. The Bay City Walking Dredge now sits quietly in the park, near the highway that it helped construct many years ago. People have come here to see the dredge and learn about the construction of Tamiami Trail.

Where the royal palms grow.

Memorial Field 1948

This park is one of only three places in Florida where majestic royal palms grow naturally. Barron Collier recognized this habitat and set it aside for preservation. In the center of the park is a memorial honoring Collier.

A unique habitat for south Florida.

Paradise preserved.

Collier-Seminole State Park looks much different today than in the past, due to quick growing tropical foliage. Hurricanes also shape the landscape, but plants grow back to quickly fill in the gaps. The tropical hardwoods will continue to grow, even when knocked down by a storm. Dense growth in the interior of the hammock regulates water and temperatures throughout the seasons.

Family camping during a pleasant winter.

Family Camping

Camping has always been a popular activity at Collier-Seminole State Park and people come here from around the world to stay. The park is ideal for visiting the Ten Thousand Islands, Big Cypress National Preserve or Everglades National Park. The climate is pleasantly mild in the winter.