Casey Key / Nokomis / Osprey

Casey Key is a spectacularly lush barrier island 15 miles south of Sarasota. Named for Captain John Charles Casey—an English-born army officer who graduated from West Point with General Robert E. Lee—Casey Key stretches from Siesta Key on the north to the Island of Venice at its southernmost tip, allowing boaters and fishermen easy access to the Gulf of Mexico. The majority of the island is a conservation district, established in the early 1970s by the Florida State Legislature. Casey Key has matured well, its charm being its single greatest attraction. Residential real estate opportunities consist almost entirely of single-family homes and opulent waterfront estate homes. Visitors and residents enjoy the beaches and recreational opportunities on the island. Shore-side activities include volleyball, picnicking and simply soaking up the sun and scenery. Fishing is also a beloved activity. Celebrities have even been known to call Casey Key home, attracted to its secluded sands, low-key way of life, and the nearby endless amenities of Sarasota.

A small seaside hamlet, Nokomis is bordered by the beautiful cities of Venice to the south, and Sarasota to the north. Once considered a farming town, where cows were thought to outnumber people, Nokomis is now revered as a place where life bends and flows with the water that surrounds it. Spend a leisurely afternoon at Nokomis Beach Park, Sarasota County's oldest beach, where you'll find a great place to launch your boat, bask in the sun or plunge into the azure blue surf. At the south end of the park, the North Jetty is a great place to fish, sip morning coffee, toast the sunset, or just enjoy the view of boats hustling in and out of the bay. Nokomis has the bucolic charm of a small fishing village where local residents know one another and send a friendly wave to visitors and newcomers. There are waterfront neighborhoods located on Shackett, Salt and Fox Creeks, Dona, Roberts, and Lyons Bays and along the shores of Blackburn Bay and southern Casey Key. Nokomis also offers several semi-private and public golf courses. You'll find every sort of residential option in Nokomis, from waterside condominiums to canal-front ranch or seaside estate homes.

Judge John G. Webb of Utica, New York was the first man to settle in the area he later named Osprey, after the large bird that nests in the loftiest branches of the town's indigenous pines, live oaks and gumbo limbo trees. The Osprey Post Office was established in 1884 with Webb as its first postmaster. Today's Osprey, located on Little Sarasota Bay, is a thriving community with abundant residential opportunities. Osprey is noteworthy for being the site selected in 1910 by Bertha Honore Palmer, widow of Chicago magnate Potter Palmer and an early Sarasota visionary, for her winter estate and gardens.

At Spanish Point, site of the estate, she designed elaborate gardens while preserving early pioneer dwellings and the remains of the area's prehistoric past. Historic Spanish Point remained in the Palmer family until 1980, when the site was donated to Gulf Coast Heritage Association.

Osprey is also home to Oscar Scherer State Park, 1,384 acres of pine and scrub flatwoods located on the banks of a small tidal creek. The park offers canoeing, a swimming lake, campgrounds, nature trails, bicycle paths and picnic areas.