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<< Text Pages >> Mound Key Archaeological State Park - Artificial Mound in United States in The South

Submitted by AKFisher on Friday, 11 August 2023  Page Views: 168

Pre-ColumbianSite Name: Mound Key Archaeological State Park Alternative Name: Mound Island, Mound Key Site, Estero Bay Mounds
Country: United States Region: The South Type: Artificial Mound
Nearest Town: Estero, FL
Latitude: 26.423050N  Longitude: 81.86524W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
2 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
3 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
no data Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
4

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Artificial Mound in The South

Mound Key Archaeological State Park is a Florida State Park, located in Estero Bay, near the mouth of the Estero River. One hundred and thirteen of the island's one hundred and twenty-five acres are managed by the park system. It is a complex of mounds and accumulated shell, fish bone, and pottery middens that rises more than 30 feet above the waters of the bay.

Mound Key was an important site of the Calusa tribe, and most experts believe it to be the site of their capital, Calos. The Mound Key Site on the island was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on August 12, 1970. The island is only accessible by boat from the Koreshan State Historic Site or Lovers Key State Park.

History:
Mound Key was created over 2,000 years ago by the Calusa. The Calusa culture is carbon-dated back to 1150 B.C. at Mound Key. The site likely began as a low-lying oyster bar on Estero Bay. The site would have been rich in marine food resources, and very appealing to the Calusa, who were actually hunter-gatherers. As the human population grew, food waste was heaped into the middens that form the island. The Calusa formed an extensive structure of mounds, water courts and canals whose features still exist today. Mounds were constructed by the collection and organization of "midden" which is a collaboration of shells, fish and animal bone, and artifacts such as pottery. Islands that were created by the Calusa, such as Mound Key are sometimes called "trash-heaps" as their composition is made from waste products of their culture. They are not however, just "heaps of Calusa garbage" simply tossed aside, but intricate compositions of substrate that were used for a display of power, religious monuments, and as burial memorials. It served for many years as the ceremonial center for their kingdom, which extended over numerous shell midden islands they made up and down the southwest coast of Florida. It is also believed by most researchers to have been the site of Calos, the capital of their kingdom. Their kingdom spanned from Tampa Bay southward to the Ten Thousand Islands and eastward to Lake Okeechobee.

The arrival of the Spanish was the beginning of the end for the Calusa. In 1566, the appointment of Spain's first Governor of Florida happened on the island. This was closely followed by the establishment there of a fort and settlement, in an effort to colonize the area. A Jesuit mission was also founded there at the same time by Juan Rogel, a priest of that order. Called San Antón de Carlos, it was the first such mission in the Spanish New World. There was frequent conflict with the Calusa, though, and eventually the island was abandoned by the Spanish in 1569.

The Spanish brought with them diseases to which the Calusa had no immunity. These diseases and warfare with the Spanish eventually ended the Calusa civilization around 1750.

In subsequent years, the island was used and sometimes inhabited by pirates, fishermen (Cuban, Portuguese and Spanish), and American pioneers, among others.

Frank Johnson and his wife, Grandma Johnson, were given a homestead on Mound Key in 1891. This marked a period of European immigration to the former Calusa capital.

Grandma Johnson remained at Mound Key and allowed several families — Luettich, Hawkins, Hanson and Fernandez — to build homes on the island.

She taught them to fish, to farm, how to build houses that would stay cool in the summer and protect them against Florida's abusive sun and summer storms. By the turn of the 20th century, most all Mound Key settlers had moved up river to Estero, then a citrus and cow farming town. The Johnsons sold the island to the Koreshans, a utopian cult, in 1905.

In 1894, the followers of a scientific/religious belief system known as Koreshanity arrived in the area. They built a community based on their utopian ideas, growing over the next two decades. During this time, part of the property they acquired included most of the parcels on Mound Key.

After the death of their leader, Cyrus Teed, in 1908, their numbers declined. In 1961, the remaining Koreshans decided to give over ownership of the key, as well as other land in nearby Estero, to the state. It was used to form the park, which is administered by the Koreshan State Historic Site. Approximately nine acres still remain privately owned by the McGee family. The McGee family agreed to sell their remaining parcel to Lee County in 2019.

In 2020, archeologists confirmed that Mound Key was the site of Fort San Antón de Carlos. Which was a Spanish fort as well as one of the first Jesuit sites in North America. The fort was abandoned in 1569, after the Spanish-Calusa alliance broke apart. The fort is also the oldest known North American example of Tabby concrete [1]. From Wikipedia.

Reference:
1. "Archaeologists verify Florida's Mound Key as location of elusive Spanish fort". phys.org. Retrieved April 26, 2020.

Further reading and information:
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mound_Key_Archaeological_State_Park
Florida State Parks
https://www.floridastateparks.org/parks-and-trails/mound-key-archaeological-state-park

Directions:
From Estero, FL via S Tamiami Trail, US Hwy 41 S, 16 mi. Note: Located in Estero Bay, visitors typically launch from Koreshan State Park or Lovers Key State Park to access the park.
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Mound Key Archaeological State Park
Mound Key Archaeological State Park submitted by AKFisher : Mound Key Archaeological State Park marker sign on site. Photo credit: Florida State Parks. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Mound Key Archaeological State Park
Mound Key Archaeological State Park submitted by AKFisher : C. B. Moore excavated a few hundred mounds on the west coast of Florida. This illustration (1900) depicts one of the large shell mounds on Mound Island in Estero Bay. The island (128 acres) was covered with dozens of such mounds some reaching 60 feet in height. Photo courtesy Dr Greg Little, author of the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Native American Indian Mounds & Earthworks (2016).  (Vote or comment on this photo)

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Nearby sites listing. In the following links * = Image available
 32.6km S 170° Naples Canal Not Known (by us)
 38.7km NW 313° Pineland* Ancient Village or Settlement
 71.2km NE 51° Ortona Prehistoric Village Artificial Mound
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 107.2km NW 324° Spanish Point Shell Midden* Artificial Mound
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