researchers at the national level."

Since 1999, each year, the state has offered cultural grants for archeology projects abroad through the Cultural Heritage Institute of Spain. The total amount has changed with the years, from 204,400 euros in the first five years to a high of one million euros in 2011. That is when the downward slide began. Last year it was 730,000 euros, and the budget for 2013 is 430,000 euros, which will presumably be shared out among groups that happen to be based in regions that meet the requirements of Finance Minister Cristóbal Montoro.

In a December 2012 letter to Jesús Prieto, director general of Fine Arts and Cultural Assets, an archeology professor named Juan M. Campos, who leads a project in Tétouan (Morocco), explained the gravity ofKing Street dock needed to be demolished to make room for the construction of the original Barron Collier Bridge.

The Punta Gorda Fishing Company and the West Coast Fish Company began operating from the Maud Street dock, and later tenants included Gulf Coast Oil Company and Matt Week's Boat Shop.  The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, who operated the previous dock, connected their track to serve the Maud Street dock via a spur that once served the Long Dock (the Punta Gorda Linear Park adjacent to Fishermen's Village today runs along the former rail spur).

In 1939, a fire broke out on the pier destroyed some of the business on the dock.  The dock eventually fell into disrepair, but in 1977, radio personality Earl Nightingale and local developer Don