When the Spanish arrived in Florida, it meant the end of an Indian culture that had lasted here for thousands of years. There are ancient mounds and villages all over the county. Here are just a few of them:

Tick Island in the Lake Woodruff Wildlife Refuge was one of the most significant sites in central Florida. The mound on this island was inhabited by 4000 B.C., and some of the earliest pottery found in North America was discovered here. The ancient Floridians kept a charnel house here, where important leaders were placed when they died. One of the tribe members would protect and care for the dead, and also keep away animals from disturbing the bodies. Unfortunately the shell mound here was mostly destroyed about 30 years ago as a source for road fill. The place is appropriately named, because I found plenty of ticks here.

The Spruce Creek Mound at Spruce Creek State Park was still inhabited as an important mound village when the Spanish arrived. Unfortunately looters have destroyed much of the important evidence that would have told us about these ancient Floridians.

Green Mound is a state historical site at Ponce Inlet. You can still see it between the beach and highway A1A, off of Peninsula Drive.

The Ross Hammock Site was another midden where early Floridians lived from about 1 to 1400 A.D.

Other Second Seminole War Forts:

Fort McCrea was in the area of Tomoka State Park. The remains of the fort are known as the Addison Blockhouse, and can still be visited today, but with much difficulty going through the woods. The blockhouse was made to guard a local plantation known as Carrickfergus. The South Carolina militia soldiers who manned the blockhouse in early 1836 barely survived at least one skirmish against the Seminoles and abandoned it soon after.

Fort Kingsbury was on a former Indian mound on the north shore of Lake Monroe, known as the Enterprise Mound. This fort was at times used as a recreation area for the soldiers across the lake at Fort Mellon. The mound was destroyed years later by weather and taken away for road fill.

This popular park is famous for the manatees that come here for the warm spring waters in the winter. Although most people don't know it, these slow moving, peaceful animals were an easy food source for the ancient Timucuans.

Where the spring run meets the St. Johns River, is the Thursby house, an early pioneer house. The house is also on top of the Thursby Mound. Items excavated here showed that this was once an important mound village, with clay figures of plants and animals found in the mound. Also something that is really rare found in the mound: small gold and silver objects. These objects are very unusual for this area, and look like Calusa objects found in southwest Florida, or the Lake Jackson Mounds near Tallahassee. This mound was inhabited from 500 B.C. to 800 A.D., which is about the same time that the Crystal River mounds were active.

Nowhere else in central Florida have we found gold or silver objects, but looters are still destroying mounds for false beliefs of treasure stashes. Maybe one day these excavated items will be returned from the museums up north, and brought home to Florida for local Floridians to see and learn about their ancient heritage.

While visiting here, you can take a two-hour river trip on a pontoon boat operated by Hontoon Marina. This excursion will take you up the old logging canals and creeks, and along the scenic St. Johns River. You can also board at Hontoon Marina instead of Blue Springs, which will save you the admission charge into the park. This is a trip that the whole family will enjoy, but there is an admission charge for this boat ride; about $10 for adults. (1997 prices.)

Hontoon Island State Park:

Near Blue Springs is another state park, which is a large island in the St. Johns River. This place also had a mound village. You can visit the mound by a one-mile nature trail from the main dock.

Underwater were found some beautifully carved wooden animal totems. The most interesting one of an owl totem pole has a replicate at the front of the park. Although the owl usually represents death, it was a powerful bird to be respected. It would have been a powerful clan symbol. This mound was inhabited from about 1 A.D. until the late 1700's.

The only way to reach this island is by boat, but there is ferry service operated from the small parking area each day. Also on this island is an observation tower you can hike up and see the surrounding river and boat marina.

Canaveral National Seashore:

There are two large mounds that you can easily visit in this national park. The first one is Turtle Mound, which has a boardwalk and interpretive signs. It is 50 feet high, but with the scrub bushes and trees on top, it is hard to imagine its real size. At one time it was probably 75 feet high and inhabited year-round. When it was an ancient Timucuan village, the Cacique (chief) probably had a hut on top with a spectacular ocean view. It was still inhabited when the Spanish visited in 1605.

Castle Windy Midden is another mound not far away along the Indian River with access by a nature trail. It has been mostly destroyed by road construction, and doesn't have a nice boardwalk like Turtle Mound. It was inhabited the same time as Turtle Mound, and part of the same village.

Tomoka State Park:

The Timucuan village of Nocoroco is recorded by the Spanish as being here at this state park near Ormond Beach. It was inhabited year-round, and the people had plenty of food from the natural sources available. They were giants, and stood at least a foot taller than the Spanish because of their good nutrition. They hunted game, ate shellfish, fished, and even grew crops and put them in a communal storehouse. There is a small museum here, and a monument to commemorate the mythical Chief Tomokie.

Ormond Burial Mound:

This was a former burial mound and charnel house. Important early Floridians were kept in this charnel house and attended by the priest. When only the bones were left, the remains were bundled up and buried in the mound. Today this is a small county park on Mound Avenue, south of highway 40 in Ormond Beach.
 

Seminole Rest Mound:

I have not been here yet, so if anyone has a report, please let me know.
This is a new mound complex open to the public with nature trails.  Part of the Canaveral National Seashore, Oak Hill.
These mounds were occupied from 4,000 years ago until the arrival of the Spanish.  Despite the name, it really doesn't have much to do with the Seminoles, unless this is one of the mounds they briefly occupied in this area.

DeLeon Springs State Recreation Area:

This was a resort until it became a state park. The resort was advertised as Ponce de Leon's Fountain of Youth. Nobody can seriously believe that Ponce de Leon made it this far into the central Florida swamps. The spring flows into Spring Garden Creek, into Lake Woodruff, and is part of the St. Johns River system. You can rent canoes and paddleboats, but don't try to take a paddleboat to Lake Woodruff, since it is about three miles away. The favorite feature of this park is the pancake restaurant where you cook your own pancakes on a hot plate on each table.

This park was the home of Timucuans and other, even older groups of Floridians. A dugout canoe found underwater here has been dated to be 5400 years old. That is probably the oldest canoe found in North America. Artifacts date back to 8000 B.C., one of the oldest sites in the area and most certainly connected with the mound village on Tick Island. The ranger's residence sits on top of a mound, but the house was built before it was a state park. An archaeological investigation was completed here in 1998.

The British grew indigo on plantations here and at Tomoka, and the crops they grew gave this area the name of Spring Garden. In the early 1830's, there was a sugar plantation at these springs owned by Orlando Reeves, which was burned by the Seminoles when the Second Seminole War started. There is a small ruin of Reeves' works.

There was another sugar plantation nearby built by Major Joseph Woodruff. (Lake Woodruff is named after him.) He suffered disaster from the beginning. In 1823 he purchased the land, but had a very difficult time finding it. His Negro guide was lost at first; it was a very remote location and nobody was really sure where it was. Once there, they also had problems with starvation and fever.

Once Woodruff's family had arrived at his Spring Garden purchase, they met Yuchi Billy with his village. Yuchi Billy and his people were Yuchi Indians (also spelled Uchee, Euchee), and are considered Creeks, but a much older group, and spoke a language not related to Muskogee Creeks. Yuchi Billy had his village and crops planted at Spring Garden for a long time, and the first thing that Major Woodruff did was drive the Yuchis off the land. They may have been the Indians that returned and destroyed the plantation in early 1836.

Major Woodruff's family suffered from numerous sicknesses. They even adopted children who were orphaned because of the illness in the area. One summer when Mrs. Jane Woodruff had a child, the infant died about the same day from sickness, and the rest of the family was in bad shape themselves and nearly died. After that the family would stay in St. Augustine during the sickly season.

By 1834 the Mr. and Mrs. Woodruff died of sickness in Charleston, and only two of their eight children survived. The ownership of the plantation went to the Woodruff's nephews, Joseph and Henry Woodruff. Their father George Woodruff had a plantation at Volusia. When the Second Seminole War started up, Henry was killed near Volusia by an Indian boy he had once raised. Joseph joined the militia from St. Augustine, known as Captain Douglas Dummett's Mosquito Roarers. When Joseph Woodruff brought the militia forces to pick up supplies and forage for their horses at the Spring Garden plantation, they found the place in flames, and a large group of warriors in the midst of a war dance among the ruins. The militia force received heavy fire and was driven away.

New Smyrna Sugar Mill Ruins:

The Dunlawton Plantation was another sugar mill plantation that was destroyed by King Philip and his son Coacoochee (Wildcat) at the beginning of the Second Seminole War. The owners were brothers John and James Anderson, and they were mustered into the Mosquito Roarers militia from St. Augustine.

When the Anderson brothers returned with the militia to retrieve all their belongings, cattle, and equipment that were still at the plantation, they found the Indians already occupying the place. All the cattle had been gathered and penned up by the Indians. A skirmish ensued, which turned into a defeat for the militia, and they were forced away under heavy fire.

At the beginning of the battle, Coacoochee charged the soldiers wearing an unusual item on his turban. The lighthouse at Mosquito Inlet (now Ponce de Leon Inlet) had been burned a few days before. Coacoochee was wearing the reflectors from the lighthouse prism (or fragments of it) in his turban.

Another skirmish happened in the area of Ponce de Leon Inlet in September 1837, when soldiers captured King Philip and his band. That ended two years of destruction of the plantations, but the days of the east coast sugar plantations were over. But, this was one of the few mills that were rebuilt and operated until the Civil War, when they became Confederate salt works.

In 1856 during the Third Seminole War, there was a community in this area known as Dunlawton. One night the Seminoles attacked the area and burned down many of the homesteads. This put the Florida residents into a panic, because nobody was expecting an attack this far north.

In the mid-20th century, the ruins became a local tourist attraction known as "Sugar Mill Gardens". The old ruins were promoted as a former Spanish mission that was later converted into a sugar mill. In the late 1970's an archaeology excavation revealed the truth of the ruins, which were confirmed as only sugar mill ruins, and not a Spanish mission. While it was a tourist attraction, the owner put up dinosaur statues to get more people to show up. When the state took over the park, the dinosaurs were removed.

New Smyrna Museum of History:

I haven't been to this one yet, so if anyone has a report, please let me know.
Several Native American displays including Seminoles.

Volusia Museum:

The Volusia Museum is now closed. Mrs. Gibson was not able to keep up with it. The artifacts have been donated to the Barberville Pioneer Settlement where she often did volunteer work, and are currently being cataloged. You can visit Barberville Pioneer Settlement at the community of Barberville in west Volusia County, on Hwy. 40 near the intersection of Hwy. 17. I'm leaving the information about the Volusia museum here because it is very interesting.

The town of Volusia on the St. Johns river has long been a major settlement, river crossing, and trading point. Although a small town today, most people in Florida are not aware of its importance in history. Before the Europeans arrived, the Indian town of Maiaca was built on several large shell mounds. By 1558 the Spanish documented the beginnings of the settlement at Volusia, seven years before St. Augustine was founded. Indian mounds served as the foundations of some early buildings.

Volusia in early-recorded history soon became a trading spot where French, Spanish, British, and American artifacts have been recovered. Truly an important crossroads. William Bartram stopped for a while at the Spalding store at Volusia in the 1770's while studying all the plants and fauna in Florida that he could find.

During the Second Seminole War, Forts Call, Columbia, Barnwell, and Volusia were all established on the east side of the St. Johns river on high ground. One the west side in the low, swampy area was Fort Butler.

The Volusia Museum is the private collection of Lillian Gibson. Her family has lived in this area for many generations. Her great uncle was stationed at Fort Volusia during the Second Seminole War. Several years ago she traveled to Washington to copy all the historical documents that mention Volusia, going back to 1558. She started the museum when a bicentennial committee rejected a paper that she had submitted, saying that it was too long. Not being discouraged, Mrs. Gibson turned her paper into a book, Early Days of Volusia.

The Volusia Museum contains artifacts that Mrs. Gibson and her family have unearthed and carefully cataloged. Items displayed include Indian pottery, English and Spanish coins, and military buttons from the Seminole War period. Also Indian pottery and shells, and an arrowhead collection that was personally cataloged for her by the late Ripley Bullen, one of the most famous Archaeologists in Florida. On display were artifacts representing all groups and periods of Florida history.

Running a museum by yourself out of a converted garage is not always easy. Once a scoundrel took off with an original copy of William Simmons' 1822 printing of "Notices of East Florida," and cleaned out his hotel room before the police could catch up with him. Mrs. Gibson had to put up a fence to keep back the hoards of treasure hunters and thieves, who would show up with metal detectors on her yard at 6:00 a.m. It is nice that she has now donated the collection to a place that can care for it.

The museum was off State Road 40 at the St. Johns River crossing. On the east side of the river there is a big, majestic oak tree with a historical marker telling about William Bartram. (First street on the north side after the bridge.)

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© 1998, 2002, 2003, 2007 Chris Kimball
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