Note 2 — The Spanish Entradas

Such is the conclusion of the U.S. De Soto Commission headed by John R. Swanton (Final Report, Washington, D.C., 1939), which was appointed by President Roosevelt to study the explorer’s route to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the landing, an opinion affirmed by two other scholars, Charles Hudson and Jerald T. Milanich. For a contrary opinion that favors the Fort Myers area, see R.F. Schell, De Soto Didn’t Land at Tampa, Fort Myers Beach, 1966. Jeffery P. Brain in a new edition of the report for the Smithsonian Press (1985) concludes that the most we can now say is that De Soto landed somewhere along the central Florida gulf coast, “between the Caloosahatchie River to south and the vicinity of Tampa Bay to the north.” It is conceivable that future archeological studies will narrow down the landing site.