Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1873-05-03
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 a 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
bred yards of the roaring ocean surf.
From the deck of vessel ten miles at
sea it resembles a ruined fertilization
built upon hill.
Turtle Mound is a 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 a 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 a 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.
l 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 1 finally sue
ceeded in forcing my way through the
thorny underground and sharp-pointec
Spanish bayonets to the top of the
mound Even then the shrubbery wa,
higher than my head, and the wilG
oranges were higherthan the shrubbery
[ spent half an hour in forcing mysel
to point of observation.
No mountains nor hills could be see1
from the mound nothing but one vas
fiat surface veined with lagoons ant
rivers and covered with spots of wax
like vegetation.
The builders of Turtle Mound ar,
unknown. They were undoubtedly {
race of Indians who were wiped out o
existence centuries ago. The Seminole
and other Florida tribes declare tina
they have no traditions that explain TIN
mystery. They look upon the mound
with nearly the same awe as the whites
What is singular with regard to Turtl
Mound is the fact that there are no oys
tiers excepting the small coon oyster
within thirty miles. 1t would be inter
esting to know why these shells wer
brought from an oyster region far ava,
and SO carefully deposited at this spot
Some think that the mound builder
of Florida were contemporary with tn
mound builders of the West. They be
lieve that the whole State was once un
der their control, and that thousands O
years ago they were accustomed to visi
Turtle Mound once year, fill them
selves with fat oysters which might q
that time have been found in the vicini
ty, and pile the shells in layers as the
now appear in the mound. This ma
have been religious observation wit
the Indians, But the whole thing j
speculation. Nobody knows anythin
about it, and there is no probabilit
that any one will ever discover the Sc
cret.