Newspaper - Turtle Mound

I grew up in Virginia, where the history is quite different from that of Florida. Virginia's history is colonial, evoking thoughts of “1776.” In contrast, Florida has a unique culture and history that is both ancient and exceptionally modern—a place where Native Americans, French, and Spanish intermingled. Although their interactions weren’t always harmonious, what we see today results from the eventual blending of multiple civilizations.

Since moving here, I’ve found the abundance of ancient Native American culture fascinating, visible nearly everywhere. Sometimes it’s unmistakable, right in front of you, while other times it’s subtle, blending into the landscape. Most of these ancient markers have nearly disappeared with time. Florida is a treasure trove of ancient native civilizations. The St. Johns River was home to thousands of indigenous people, providing food and a means to navigate Florida’s often treacherous landscape.

We don’t know what the land of Florida was called before the Spanish arrived and named it La Florida, but we do know it was a vast network of villages and cities. Some cities were comparable in population to modern metropolises. Though these people were once considered primitive and uneducated, their surviving tools and burial grounds suggest otherwise.

If you’ve been to Florida, even just passing through, you’ve likely driven past an Indian mound. You may not have noticed it, or perhaps you did and thought, “What a strange place for a pile of dirt.” Florida is dotted with Indian mounds. Some are burial grounds, offering archaeologists a glimpse into the religious and cultural ceremonies of these people. Other mounds, called shell middens, could be likened to ancient dumps. Like colonial American dumps, these are a rich source of information, a virtual gold mine revealing details of everyday life. Shell middens preserve centuries of information about the habits and daily lives of the indigenous people who inhabited these lands.

Just north of where rockets launch humans into space sits a large shell midden, considered the tallest shell mound in the mainland United States and possibly in North America. Known as Turtle Mound, it currently stands at 37 feet and extends 600 feet along the shoreline. It once reached a staggering height of 75 feet, containing approximately 35,000 cubic yards of shells. This shell midden, surrounded by smaller mounds, is an imposing sight. It contains shells and pottery from the Timucuan people, dating between 800 and 1400 AD, though some pottery suggests it could have been started in the BC era, with pieces estimated to be around 1,400 years old. The first recorded mention of Turtle Mound was by Spanish explorer and cartographer Alvaro Mexia in 1605. He noted that tribes used it as high ground during hurricanes and that it was so large the indigenous people launched their canoes from it.

Unfortunately, shell middens like Turtle Mound were used as road fill, with many shells and pottery harvested for road expansion. As a result, history has been lost, and the record of a once-great civilization was reduced to road material. Now, laws and regulations protect Indian mounds on federal and state property.

Visit Turtle Mound or discover a mound of your own, chances are you aren’t far from one. Using Google Maps, you can zoom in on areas around Cape Canaveral and along Florida’s coast to see small circles. Indian mounds.

Bibliography

Britannica, Encyclopeadia. Shell Mound. n.d.

Livingston, Stephenie. "A Race Against Erosion for Turtle Mound." WUSF (2022).

Moten, Lisa M. www.visitflorida. n.d. 2025.

Trail of Florida's Indian Heritage. n.d. website.