Cortez, a census-designated place (CDP) in Manatee County, Florida, United States, is a small Gulf Coast commercial fishing village that was founded by settlers from North Carolina in the 1880s.

The Safety Culture people formed chiefdoms and villages along the shoreline of Tampa Bay and the adjacent Gulf of Mexico coast.

The Safety Harbor culture virtually disappeared due to disease and incursions by other Native Americans.

The Calusa people, often referred to as the "Shell Indians", also inhabited the southwest coast of Florida.

[5] The Calusa became the dominant power in the Tampa Bay area with the waning of the Safety Harbor Culture in the 1600s.

The Calusa people made nets from palm tree webbing in order to catch mullet, pin-fish, pig-fish, and catfish.

They used spears topped with arrowheads crafted from fish teeth and spines in order to hunt eels and turtles.

Women and children of the tribe caught shellfish, including crabs, lobsters, oysters, clams, and conch.

They used the shells they collected to make a variety of things such as tools, utensils, ornaments, weapons, and jewelry.

The eventual demise of the Calusa people is attributed to invasions from other tribes and disease brought by Spanish and French explorers.

[7] Cuban fishermen began journeying northward in order to fish the waters of the Gulf Coast of Florida around the mid-1700s.

Once the journey to Florida had been made, the fishermen would set up temporary camps called ranchos where they would reside for around half a year while they fished the plentiful waters of the area.

This proved effective as the fishermen would return home before Lent to sell their catch when fish was in high demand.

This area was made all the more appealing because its environment was conducive to inshore net fishing (the preferred method of the Spanish Cuban fishermen).

[8] Originally called "Hunter's Point", Cortez was settled in the 1880s by families from Carteret County, North Carolina.

[9] When a post office was established in 1888, the village needed a new name to avoid confusion with another Hunter's Point in Florida.

The people of Cortez had little to no warning that the storm was coming before it hit, so they took refuge in the 1912 Rural Graded Schoolhouse.

[18] Cortez during the Great Depression was notably one of the only communities in the United States not to receive federal aid.

Women and young girls began working and fishing for seventy five cents an hour to support their families and fill in for the men.

and Cortez hosts a Commercial Fishing Festival during the 3rd weekend of February that is attended by thousands of people.

The museum is also home to a folk school that teaches traditional Florida skills and a research library with a variety of books, plans, logs, diaries, periodicals, letters, records and related archival material whose content is relevant to research concerning maritime subjects, with special emphases on Florida's Gulf Coast.

The museum is housed in a 1912 schoolhouse building at the 95-acre (38 ha) Cortez Nature Preserve at 4415 119th Street West.

Other historic structures located on the site include the 1890 Burton Store, a wood cistern, and the Pillsbury Boat Shop.