Ruskin Hall Atop Shell Point Mound C 1910

This poor quality photo, contained in a scrap book provided by Mac Miller, is the only known photo of Ruskin Hall, the hotel/sportsmen's club that stood atop the Shell Point mound when George Miller arrived in the area in 1907. The Miller family first lived in this hotel and had an intention to create a new town in the vicinity, to be called Venoa. After realizing that the immediate surrounding lands could ill support agricultural he, along with the Dickman's, negotiated with Captain C. H. Davis of Wimauma to purchase 12,000 acres along the Little Manatee River which was platted into the town of Ruskin. Ruskin Hall, sometimes referred to as Ruskin Lodge, burned to the ground in 1918. Not long after the shell that comprised the mound was carted off to help pave Shell Point Road, thus destroying this important archeological site.