Suncoast Lifestyles, www.yoursun.com, September 5, 2018
Snook Haven, as always, sits alongside the Myakka River on the far east end of Venice Avenue.
The place has had various incarnations through the years, however.
Snook Haven's storied history will be the focus of an exhibit, opening Oct 8, for the 2018-19 season, at the Venice Museum & Archives.
The title will be "Snook Haven: The History of Movies, Mischief, and Music on the Myakka."
These days, Snook Haven is a family restaurant with tables indoors and out. In fact, it has a relatively new, longer name: Snook Haven Restaurant and Waterfront Park.
People sit by the water and watch alligators drift past. They listen to live music, including banjos played by a 30-year old society of people who plunk along together at the water's edge. They rent canoes and fish. And they enjoy a new Sarasota County park there.
As the title of the exhibit indicates, though, Snook Haven was not always what it is now.
A few generations ago, Snook Haven was a wild and wooly Florida roadhouse at the end of a land-and-a-half wide gravel road that cut through a jungle.
Movies were made there a long time ago, too, because the scenery available made making a movie there less expensive than going to the jungles of Africa, which appear similar.
Among the tales told about Snook Haven (perhaps the exhibit will get to the truth) is that monkeys escaped from movie sets and took up residence in Sarasota County decades before the place became popular with snowbirds. There are stories told about killer turtles too.
The Venice Museum & Archives is located at 351 Nassau Street.
Ali H. Johnston, MBA in Real Estate
REALTOR®, Lic. Broker #BK3284964
19503 S West Villages Pkwy
