Beaufort Republican. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1871-1873, 1873-05-15
> The Florida Indian Mounds.

The Turtle mound is among the most
famous in Florida. A correspondent
says of it:
The mound is on the beach side of
MOSQUITO Lagoon, nearly hundred
miles south Of st. Augustine. About
eighty feet in height, it covers nearly
an acre of ground, and can be seen at
great distance looming up on the
eastern horizon far above the palmetto
scrub fringing the ocean. 1t is shaped
like an immense turtle. This shape
gives it its name. 1t is the highest
point of land on the eastern coast OF
Florida, and stands within three hun
dred yards of the roaring ocean surf.
From the deck of a vessel ten miles at
sea it resembles q ruined fortifcation
built upon hill.
Turtle Mound is great heap of very
large oyster shells covered with from
one to two feet of dirt. On the north
west corner the rain has washed away
the dirt, leaving perpendicular bank
of shells, eighty feet high. The build
ers of the work evidently raised it with
the greatest care. Every shell was
placed in given position. Where the
slide has occurred the oyster shells rest
in plumbed layers, with the smooth sur
face facing the sky. A stone wall could
not have been erected with more pre-
cision. The mound is alive with tropi-
cal shrubbery. Wild orange trees load
ed with fruit wave on its summit above
an almost impenetrable thicket. A
hollow covered with rank vegetation has
been scooped out of the top of the hill.
1t has an easy slope, and is probably
twelvefeet in depth. 1t looks as though
the bones of some large animal had
been dug out of it in ages past. Mos
quito Lagoon washes the western base of
the mound.
I found a small deer path which led
from little sandspit up the side of the
hill. The path, however, was soon lost
in the thicket, and it was with the
greastest difficulty that I finally sue
ceeded in forcing my way through the
thorny undergrowth and sharp-pointed
Spanish bayonets to the top of the
mound. Even then the shrubbery was
higher than my head, and the wild
oranges were higher than the shrubbery.
I spent half an hour in forcing myself
to point of observation.
No mountains nor hills could be seen
from the monnd; nothing but one vast
fiat surface veined with lagoons and
rivers and covered with spots of wax
like vegetation.
The builders of Turtle Mound are
unknown. They were undoubtedly q
race of Indians who were wiped out of
existence centuries ago. The Seminoles
and other Florida tribes declare that
they have no traditions that explain the
mystery. They look upon the mound
with nearly the same awe as the whites.
What is singular with regard to Turtle
Mound is the fact that there are no oys-
ters excepting the small coon oyster,
within thirty miles. 1t would be inter-
esting to know why these shells were
brought from an oyster region far away
and SO carefully deposited at this spot.
Some think that the mound builders
of Florida were contemporary with the
mound builders of the West. They be-
lieve that the whole State was once un-
der their control, and that thousands Of
years ago they were accustomed to visit
Turtle Mound once year, fill them
selves with fat oysters which might at
that time have been found in the vicini-
ty, and pile the shells in layers as they
now appear in the mound. This may
have been a religious observation with
the Indians. But the whole thing is
speculation. Nobody knows anything
about it, and there is no probability
that any one will ever discover the Sc
orat