We went to the place where Hernando de Soto camped in the winter of 1539-1540. The site is the only place where physical evidence of his expedition has been uncovered. Broken bottles, the jaw bone of the non-native pig, a crossbow quarrel, and bits of chainmail were all found at the site. However, none of that is still on site. There is a building there that houses the offices some of the offices of the Florida State Bureau of Archaeological Research and there is an informational display and mannequin in the foyer. There is also a historical marker at the edge of a parking lot. The Bureau people told us they are working to improve the site and to get some of the artifacts back on display there. It turns out that most of the site is actually now under an office park-type complex next door. Maybe we expected too much.The second stop was a Civil War battlefield. Away southeast of Tallahassee is a smaller city called St. Marks. At the tail end of the war in March, 1865 a Union force landed at the mouth of the St. Marks River and marched up the river toward the town. There were some railroads and shipping stuff there they planned to destroy. Some Confederate volunteers (mostly just the very young and the very old by that point) mounted a resistance force. There is a place where the St. Marks River “sinks” underground for a few yards and then “rises” again. This is some natural effect of rivers running in areas near caves and sinkholes. These few yards of land make a natural bridge over the river. The Union force tried to cross and the Confederate force aimed their cannons at the bottleneck and kept them from crossing. The Battle of Natural Bridge kept the Union from taking St. Marks and protected Florida’s capital beyond. This is strictly a small-scale battle, less than 1500 people were involved on both sides and only 24 people were killed, mostly on the Union side.
We didn’t know anything about the battle or the site until we got there. Knowing what we know now that we’ve read the signage, it seems like an interesting battlefield to see. The thing is, there isn’t much at the site to see. There is a huge monument erected in the 1920s, a pair of signs (one each for the Union and the Confederacy), some picnic tables, and a parking lot. The local folks do a reenactment of the battle every year so we really expected more there to do the reenactment around. No, just the stars and bars-draped monument, the smallish signs, and some people fishing on the “sink” side of the bridge. The whole place is for sale, so maybe someone will develop it as a more history-friendly place. That or it’ll be a new sub-division called Battlebridge Estates.
The third stop of the day was the tallest indian mound in the state (46 ft). To get there from where we were we drove a long way down a 1 ½ lane road between a tree farm and a completely dilapidated forest the looked like it could turn into a swamp at any moment. The road turned into gravel and then into dirt. Maya said it looked like a lost-to-humanity type road that would be in a Stephen King novel. In the end, GoogleMaps served us well and we came out of the wilderness where we expected to and made it to Letchworth-Love Mounds. Unfortunately, they were closed for repairs! Well, the road into the park was closed for repairs. So, we don’t know anything about these mounds. We didn’t expect the park to be much more than a wide spot to stop and look at the mound. They might be great! Either way, we’ll have to find out some other time. Next time we’ll take the not-dirt road way around. A total bust!
No comments:
Post a Comment