Coastal History and Cartography
The
history of the Broward County coastal area is closely linked with the wider
maritime history of the New Bahama Channel, now known as the Straits of Florida,
as well as with the native people
that were indigenous to the peninsula, and later the early white settlers who
made South Florida their home in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. From
the era of Menendez in the mid sixteenth century, the coastal zone marine
environment, lying between the Florida Current and the eastern peninsula, became
the route of choice south from St. Augustine. This littoral current, flowing
south only when an eddy goes by, was described by Menendez in 1565, in a letter to the Spanish monarch,
Philip II. Bernard Romans in his Sailing Directions of 1775 more explicitly
described the bottom conditions and coastal relief. The survey area described
and investigated in this study lies within an area of historic navigation and
has the potential to contain historic shipwrecks and associated cultural
materials.
The
historic topography that now constitutes modern Broward County remained, until
the massive drainage projects of Napoleon Bonaparte Broward in the early
twentieth century, physically similar to southeast Florida as discovered by
Spanish explorers in the first quarter of the sixteenth century. Until the land
reclamation projects that began on the New River in 1906, the southeast
peninsula consisted of coastal estuarine wetlands and the extensive Everglades
region lying south of Lake Okeechobee. Along the half mile of upland that ran
along the eastern coastline was a narrow elevated strip that consisted of a
relic reef foundation and drifted sand uplands. Sites along the coastal ridge at
the mouths of the Miami River, New River, Hillsboro Inlet, Lake Worth, and
Loxahatchee River at Jupiter Inlet - were first populated by the pre-Columbian,
and later by the Indians of the historic era. In the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries these locations, situated on biologically fertile, river estuary
systems, became the sites of the first white settlements. East of the coastal
uplands was a narrow zone of water and wetlands that separated the barrier
islands from the greater peninsula. This natural waterway was only partially
navigable until the twentieth century when the Arm Corps of Engineers dredged
these wetlands to form the present Intracoastal Waterway System.
To
better understand the potential for cultural resources to be found in the survey
area a short review of Broward County coastal history has been undertaken. The
intent of this review is to document the importance of historic Broward County
as a maritime community, strategically located on a route of passage important
to all the trading nations of the world. In the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, the Spanish, French, English and Dutch vied for control of the Bahama
Channels. Later in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the balance of world
power shifted and the coastal waters of Florida became important as the new
Republic of the United States consolidated power in the territories of Louisiana
and Texas. In the nineteenth century the coastal waters of Florida served as the
primary route to supply U.S. forces in the Seminole Wars, the Civil War, and at
the turn of the century, the Spanish American War in Cuba and the Philippines.
The Prehistoric Era
The
prehistoric peoples who inhabited the Florida peninsula exhibited a pattern of
cultural continuity that evolved slowly over the past ten thousand years; then
in the era three thousand B.C. the culture of the pre-Columbian native people of
Florida experienced a period of cultural elaboration and diversification. This
period of change lasted until the sixteenth century and the arrival of European
explorers and the settlers who later established a permanent presence on the
northeast peninsula at St. Augustine in 1565. A generally accepted framework for
the pre-historic periods in Florida is:
Paleo-Indian
Period - 10,000 - 7,000 B. C
Archaic,
with Early, Middle and Late Periods - 7.000 - 1,5000 B. C.
Transitional
Period - 1,500 to 500 B. C.
Three
Glades Periods- a Glades III from 1200 to 1566
Historic
Period - 1566 to 1763
(after
McGoun, 1993)
During
the Archaic Period of native development the prime accelerator for population
growth and cultural change was the gradual warming of the continental climate at
the end of the last Ice Age. In the thousand years from 3,500 to 2,500 B. C.,
the water table rose to the point where the present contours of the Florida
peninsula were established. Over this period the boundaries of the Lake
Okeechobee and Everglades wetlands systems became stabilized in their present
location and configuration. The expanding system of coastal estuarine wetlands
situated between the present barrier islands and the Florida peninsula became a
primary area for habitation for the Florida native people. The combination of
increased drainage from the wetter interior and the decrease in sea level rise
led to the formation of brackish estuaries, mangrove forests, and tropical
marine meadows, a rich coastal habitat capable of supporting ecologically well
balanced animal and human communities (Widmer, 1988).
Three
types of native living sites predominate in the prehistoric period. Large,
multi-component cultural sites, that exhibit the remains of extensive middens
and a wider range of tools and natural resource remains are always near wetlands
and denote large primary living sites - or
villages. Smaller special use sites surround these primary sites and yet
smaller sites throughout the peninsula, but their remains are generally
concentrated in the coastal zone. Multi-component sites are usually located in
association with shell mound complexes found at the mouths of coastal rivers and
on the barrier islands. Examples of multi-component mound site complexes may be
found at Jupiter Inlet at the mouth of the Loxahatchee River estuary system.
Another good example of such a complex is Turtle Mound, on the barrier island
north of Cape Canaveral (McGoun, 1993; Rouse, 1951; Widmer, 1988).
The
rapid settlement of the lower peninsula after the turn of the 20th century
resulted in the loss of many of these mound complexes, which were utilized for
road fill, or bulldozed flat to facilitate construction projects. The foundation
of many local communities consists of this material; an existing example is the
trailer park complex south of Jupiter Inlet. The Jupiter lighthouse, constructed
north of the inlet in the mid nineteenth century, was also built on the remains
of a prehistoric shell mound.
In
Broward County important examples of special
use prehistoric habitation sites have been discovered and excavated in
the drained wetlands of central Broward County near the historic New River. Five
such sites, Markham Park II, Taylor Head, Peach Camp, Rolling Oaks II, and Deep
Fork, have been investigated by the Broward County Archaeological Society. These
sites are located from just north of the
North New River Canal, to a point, north of the South New River Canal. These
modern canals were dredged in 1906, along the historic north and south branches
of the New River, near the Pine Island cultural complex.
This
area has been described by local archaeologist, Gypsy Graves. “Topographically this central portion of Broward County is generally
flat with numerous slight rises above the landscape. The soils are very poorly
drained. The organic material is Dania muck - peat and residuals of decomposed
saw grass - which overlies Miami oolite limestone. The hammocks are slightly
elevated limestone rock deposits. To the east are the sandy flatlands, the
Atlantic Coastal Ridge, Pine Island Ridge, and the coastal marshes and swamps.
To the north and south lie the sawgrass marshes and the wet prairies of the
Everglades. To the west lies the Big Cypress Swamp. The elevations of underlying
rock vary between four and five feet above mean sea level with greater
elevations to the northwest, northeast, and southwest. This central Broward
County location is generally the lowest elevation inland along the great flow of
fresh water south from above bedrock and the habitation sites are on hammocks
rising two to five feet above the surrounding surface. The climate is semi -
tropical with warm moist summers and mild winters. The periods of greater
precipitation are in June and November. When water level decreases due to lack
of precipitation, the organic soils dry out and fires are not uncommon. It is
within the boundaries of this - Sea of Grass - and along the coast that the
Tequesta lived, pursued the food quest, and flourished for several thousand
years (Graves, 1982).”
Upon concluding the excavations of the Rolling Oaks II Site it was the
opinion of Ms. Graves that this site and the others were more than mere hunting
camps; that they were semi – permanent, inter-related inland communities.
Based on non ceramic artifacts and ceramic shards excavated, the sites were
believed to date from the Late Archaic through the Glades Period. The term
“semi permanent” may mean that the five central Broward sites were special
use sites, which would also be supported by the fact that burials and extensive
midden remains indicate prolonged occupation. In the words of Ms. Graves: “These
sites represent a continuum of habitation sites of time. They are not villages
in the same sense as the coastal settlements, but reflect a greater
occupation than mere hunting camps (Graves, 1982)”.
Spanish Colonial Era
In
1513, Juan Ponce de Leon during his exploration of the Bahamas and search for
the legendary Fountain of Youth made a landfall at some point along the central
or lower southeast coast of Florida. This landing, to replenish water supplies,
has been variously placed in what is present northern Palm Beach County or as
far north as Martin County. What is known, however, is that the landing was
contested by hostile Indians, and Ponce sailed on. This encounter with the
natives was the beginning of a series of conflicts that would continue through
the Seminole Wars of the nineteenth century
(Milanich, 1995).
The
east coast of Florida saw no permanent Spanish settlement until Pedro Menendez
de Aviles founded St. Augustine in 1565. Later in the 1560’s, there were two
reported massacres of the Spanish by coastal natives, and in 1565 Menendez
attempted to establish a garrison somewhere between Jupiter and St. Lucie
Inlets. However, due to hunger, mutiny, and the hostility of the local natives
(the Jega, or Ais), this attempt to garrison the lower peninsula failed
(Lyon, 1990). In 1517, Hernandez de Cordova sailed up the west coast of Florida
on a voyage of exploration and Bernal
Diaz recorded the first pitched battle between the Spanish and the warlike
people that controlled the lower peninsula, called the Calusa. According to
Diaz:
“The
Indians were very tall dressed in deerskin, and carried long bows, good arrows,
lances, and a type of sword. They attacked immediately, wounding six of us and I
received a small cut. We answered so quickly with sword and fire that they
retreated to the aid of their companions in canoes, who were fighting hand to
hand with our sailors. Our boat had been captured after four sailors had been
hurt and Alaminos had been wounded in the throat. We returned their attack in
water more than waist deep and made them abandon our boat. Twenty lay dead on
the shore and in the water and we took three prisoners, who died of wounds on
shipboard (Diaz quoted in Gilliland, 1989).”
Menendez,
and a strong Spanish force guided by the shipwreck survivor Fontenada, visited
the Calusa of Mound Key located in Estero Bay and their Chief Carlos in 1556. In
this chronicle published later in Spain, Fontenada describes the propensity of
the coastal Indians to seek out shipwrecks:
“I
was two years among the natives” he writes, “on all the coast of which I
will speak hereafter, there is not base gold to be found, much less pure, for
that which they have is from the vessels which are wrecked in passing from New
Spain, and Peru when storms overtake them (Fontenada’s Journal, Centennial
Folio Edition, 1992).”
Material
evidence of an artistically advanced pre-Columbian culture has been
archaeologically recovered from the Key Marco area, south of Mound Key.
Archaeological remains of the sophisticated Marco culture consist of ornately
carved wooden figures and a canal system dug through the key which provided
water craft access to the protected interior of the key which had become much
elevated through centuries of oyster shell deposits (Gilliland, 1989).
It
was apparent in 1556 that the Calusa were the dominant tribe of a loose
confederation of Florida natives. One clear indication of this dominance was the
fact that Fontenada and other Spanish shipwreck survivors were routinely
transported to the primary Calusa village at Mound Key by the politically and
militarily less powerful tribes, like the Matacumbe’s, who dwelled in the
Florida Keys.
It
is unknown if Calusa dominance extended to the southeast coast, the home of the
Calusa contemporaries, the Tequesta. The southeast coast Tequesta inhabited the
area from the Miami River north to present Broward County and Palm Beach County.
It was Tequesta sites at the mouth of the New River that Florida archaeological
pioneer Irving Rouse excavated after World War II, as was the Rolling Oaks II
site excavated by Graves in the drained wetlands of west Broward.
North
of the Tequesta lived the Jega, in a major village at Jupiter Inlet. It was the
Jega people that Jonathan Dickinson and the Reformation shipwreck victims
encountered on Jupiter Island in 1696. In present Martin County, on the St.
Lucie River were the Ais, a dominant tribe that controlled the coastal
peninsula, and Hutchinson Island north to Cape Canaveral. At the time of
the Reformation shipwreck, it was the Ais that dominated the Jega. Eugene
Lyon describes the Ais in 1565, as encountered by Menendez.
“The
Spaniards had also entered a very different cultural area of the Florida
Indians. The people who lived in this area, (present Hutchinson Island south of
the Cape) were called the Ais, had built a long and stable culture organized
almost entirely around the sea. Turtles, fish, and shellfish from the river,
inlets, and ocean sustained their life. Over twenty years of acquaintance with
Spanish shipwrecks along the coast had accustomed the Indians to the taking of
white prisoners and the salvage of ships. By 1665, they had already built a
reputation for ferocity and cruelty which compelled the advancing Spaniards to
move with caution (Lyon, 1990).”
During the sixteenth century, the southeast coast Tequesta may be
compared in lifestyle and ferocity to the Calusa and Jega. Their possible
dominance by the Calusa of the southwest coast, and the central coast Ais, may
well have had more to do with demographics and the number of warriors individual
tribes could put into the field, rather than with the individual tribes’
warlike nature. The ability of the various coastal estuary systems to support
population growth and the number of warriors available for domestic warfare was
the key to tribal dominance. It is safe to say that the hostile natives that
Ponce de Leon encountered in 1513 - either
Tequesta, Jega, or Ais - were as warlike as the Calusa encountered by
Diaz twenty years later. In 1565, both Menendez and Fontenada bore witness to
the Florida natives propensity to raid shipwrecks, and take shipwreck victims
captive (Lyon, 1990). This was true a hundred years later at the end of the
seventeenth century as supported by Jonathan Dickinson’s Journal (Dickinson,
1696). What the Florida natives had learned over two centuries was that they
were no match for armed Spanish forces. This was evident in the aftermath of the
Spanish 1715 fleet disaster. The armed survivors of the six 1715 shipwrecks
experienced no hostilities from the warlike central coast Ais (Burgess &
Clausen, 1976).
By the middle of the eighteenth century, the original Florida Indians had
been decimated by warfare and disease and few remained. Late in the eighteenth
century the British carried out an extensive mapping survey of the Atlantic and
Gulf coasts of the Florida peninsula. The Bernard Romans chart of 1774 (Figure
2) has no annotations for any coastal sites inhabited by native people, only the
shell mounds where villages had been previously constructed. The 1769 chart
clearly shows the coastline of present Broward County. On this chart it appears
that an inlet is open in the area of the New River - Rio Nuevo.
The Era of Transition
In
1983 the topographical engineer Charles Vignoles published a report entitled - Observations
Upon the Florida’s. This study establishes the fact that early in the
nineteenth century, before the outbreak of the Second Seminole War, there was
little knowledge of the south Florida interior. Little cartographic information
of the southern peninsula had been gathered since the Menendez era, when the
Spanish explorer had searched for a natural flowing trans-Florida waterway.
Menendez believed that this waterway ran from the St. Johns River in northeast
Florida to southwest Florida, possibly emptying into the Gulf of Mexico at
Charlotte Harbor, or Estero Bay. Vignoles describes the St. Lucie River, circa
1823, and the unknown interior of the south central peninsula, which he
describes as an - “extensive inundated region covered with Pine and Hammock
Islands of all sizes and generally called - The Ever Glades (Portion of Vignoles
1823 Survey Map Figure 3).”
“The
majestic appearance of the St.
Lucie River affords at first sight the greatest expectations; disemboguing by a
mouth nearly a mile in width, its volume of waters into a wide and extensive
bay, it gives the idea of its having traversed a long region from the west,
perhaps originating in the much talked of Lake Mayaco, which like the fountain
of youth has never been found (Vignoles, 1823).”
Another
indicative example of the southern peninsula as
“terra incognita” - unknown land
is demonstrated by a relatively late - 1768 - Spanish chart (Figure 4).
The route of the plate fleets in the Gulf of Mexico, Loop Current, is accurately
depicted, as is the route around the Martyres - Florida Keys - into the Bahama
Channel. The most peculiar points of topography on this chart are the two lakes,
at the position of present day Lake Okeechobee. Another anomaly is a waterway
that leads from what appears to be the present Loxahatchee River, or St. Lucie
Rivers, around the northern most lake to the Gulf of
Tampa Bay. This mythical route probably indicates the Spanish belief that
a trans Florida waterway existed.
In the American Revolution Bicentennial reprint of William Geroald de Brahms - The Atlantic Pilot, editor Samuel Procter supports this “terra incognita” asseration of: “Florida as an unknown land, when the British took control of the peninsula from Spain in 1763 - Geographic
data was almost non-existent, and the crude maps drawn by the
Spanish who had occupied Florida for almost 200 years were inadequate (Proctor,
1974).”
Although
ignorant of the Florida interior, Vignoles and the other pioneer Florida
cartographers produced accurate coastal maps and charts. Vignoles was quick to
appreciate the potential of the maritime coast. The Florida coastal zone with
inumerable interconnected inlets, bays, estuaries, sounds, and rivers offered a
bright future for intracoastal navigation. Vignoles description of the coast at
Jupiter speaks to this potential; he might as easily have been describing the
two forks of the New River in present Broward County. Vignoles: “The
three streams are distinguished as the Grenville River on the north, Middle
River, and Jupiter Creek on the south, the latter as well as Fresh Water Creek
near the bar, have some connection with the fresh water lake which approaches
within four miles of Jupiter, by means of lagoons and marshes, through which a
channel might easily be dug; thereby with another short cut on the south, making
a
complete
though intricate communication practicable at least for boats,
from Cape Florida and the Keys to within forty miles of St. Augustine
(Vignoles, 1823).”