That's all there was until 1896, when a railroad came through. It grew into a huge metro area. In 1998 a developer razed the Brickell Apartments to make way for twin high-rise residential towers. To their surprise, they uncovered the Miami Circle - a mysterious circle 38 feetacross, formed by 24 large and many more small holes and basins carved into limestone bedrock. New Age enthusiasts speculated it was the base of a circle of pillars - a New World Stonehenge.
More sober minds think it was likely the foundation of a large building such as a council house.
After a long legal battle, the city, the state and the Trust for Public Land combined resources to condemn and buy the property hours short of the deadline. But it will anchor one end of the planned Miami River Greenway. Meanwhile, the axes turned up there. An associate professor of geology at the University of Miami, Jacqueline Dixon, and two students compared the axheads' physical and chemical traits to a database of basaltic rocks. They matched types common in Central Georgia.