Florida Native American Heritage Trail - (Page 10) Northwest Region Fort Gadsden Historic Site, Apalachicola National Forest Eastpoint, Franklin County 850.643.2282 www.fs.fed.us/r8/florida/recreation/index_ apa.shtml Sites are listed in alphabetical order by city, then site name. Also see map, on pages 18-19. Heritage Park and Cultural Center Florida Caverns State Park Fort Walton Beach, Okaloosa County 850.833.9595 www.fwb.org/content.php?page=55 Marianna, Jackson County 850.482.9598 www.floridastateparks.org/floridacaverns/ default.cfm Fort Gadsden, also known as the Negro Fort, was originally built during the War of 1812 by the British and manned by African Americans and Creeks. In 1818, the U.S. government took over and rebuilt the fort, naming it after the lieutenant who supervised construction. Interpretive exhibits and artifacts on the role of Native and African Americans during the early 1800s are displayed along a level pathway on the banks of the Apalachicola River. e IndianTemple Mound Museum is located next to the National Historic Landmark Temple Mound that gave name to the impressive Fort Walton Period ceramics. ere is a short trail to the mound. Museum exhibits reflect the spiritual, technological, and artistic achievements of the Native American people from 12,000 years ago through Spanish contact in the early 1500s. e park features cave tours of the dry (air-filled) caves, which are very rare in Florida. Native Americans used the caverns for shelter for 1,000 years. Displays include a variety of exhibits on the cultural and natural history of the park area, including preEuropean periods. Letchworth-Love Mounds Archaeological State Park Monticello, Jefferson County 850.922.6007 www.floridastateparks.org/ letchworthmounds/default.cfm Site of San Pedro de Potohiriba Historical Marker Madison, Madison County In the mid 1600s San Pedro de Potohiriba, a Spanish mission, was established in this area on the Old Spanish Trail. e first courthouse of Madison County was erected at San Pedro, the county seat from 1828 to 1838. e Letchworth Mounds site includes Florida’s tallest recorded Native American ceremonial mound at 46 feet in height. e people who built the mound are believed to have been members of the Weeden Island Changes in Stone Tool Technology Florida’s native people used chert to make a wide variety of tools. Because this flint-like rock is durable, chert tools and the waste flakes that result from their manufacture are common artifacts in Florida. When people arrived here at the end of the last Ice Age, their stone technology was already quite advanced. Their tool kit included large, lance-shaped spear points designed for hunting large mammals, as well as knives, an assortment of scraping and wood-working tools, small drills and gravers, implements used to engrave leather and stone. When large Pleistocene mammals died out around 9,000 years ago, people focused on hunting deer and other small game, fishing, and collecting plants. Their stone tools changed too, becoming smaller, less specialized, and suited to a mobile lifestyle. Stemmed bifaces (stone chipped or flaked on both sides and having a stem at the base) were used as hunting implements, knives, and scrapers. Flakes from tool manufacture were used more often when convenient and practical, replacing large scrapers and choppers. As people expanded into new territories, high-quality chert was less available, but tool makers learned that slowly heating stone improved its flaking qualities, and heat treatment became widely practiced. About 1,000 years ago, the bow-andarrow emerged as a primary hunting implement with the arrows tipped with small triangular points. After this time, stone tools that were used to u 10 http://www.floridastateparks.org/floridacaverns/default.cfm http://www.fwb.org/content.php?page=55 http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/florida/recreation/index_apa.shtml http://www.floridastateparks.org/letchworthmounds/default.cfm
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