COLONIZING WESTERN FLORIDA

COLONIZING

Western Florida

This drawing of Presidio Isla de Santa Rosa was done by artist Dominic Serres in 1743.

The Spanish established settlements in both eastern and western Florida.An investigation of Presidio Isla de Santa Rosa,an outpost near present-day Pensacola,reveals how remarkably different these settlements were.

By KC Smith

Beautiful, but remote and inhospitable. This description came to mind as I drove along Santa Rosa Island’s two-lane road from the National Park Service ranger station toward one of northwest Florida’s finest archaeological finds, Presidio Isla de Santa Rosa. I was traversing the western end of a 50mile-long barrier island that is part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore. Protected and pristine, this landscape nonetheless is rearranged regularly by tropical storms and occasional hurricanes that make landfall on the narrow spit. Santa Rosa Island is a haven for nesting birds, nature lovers, sunbathers, and anglers, but 250 years ago, its western tip was home to a determined outpost trying to secure another foothold in Spain’s northern dominion of La Florida. As I motored along, enchanted by the exotic but harsh landscape, I asked myself, “What would cause anyone to settle here?” A short walk through scrubby underbrush led to a clearing where staff, students, and volunteers from the University of West Florida’s (UWF) Archaeology Institute worked under a tent city that protected excavation units and field crews from the blistering sunshine and regular rainfall.

I was greeted by Judith Bense, the director of the Archaeology Institute and the project’s principal investigator. For 25 years, her research in Florida’s western panhandle has helped to explain the cultures—native, Spanish, French, British, and U.S.—that have occupied the area. Bense calls Presidio Isla de Santa Rosa the “crown jewel” of the three fortified frontier settlements that protected Spanish West Florida from French intrusion between 1698 and 1763. “The site had a very dynamic and rich history. It was destroyed by a catastrophic hurricane, immediately abandoned, and left virtually untouched until modern times,” said Bense. “It was the largest Hispanic colonial settlement on the Gulf.”

The archaeological features in Santa Rosa’s soft sands are so fragile that this excavator was dressed in stockinged feet and confined to a boardwalk while doing her work.

In 2002, UWF archaeologists began field research to identify the boundaries and spatial arrangement of the site, the composition and social organization of the community, and the archaeological correlations between Santa Rosa and the other Pensacola Spanish colonial presidios, which Bense also excavated. She and project director Norma Harris, an expert in historic-era Native Americans of the region, also sought to augment a growing body of data about the nature and function of presidios, a distinct type of settlement that protected Spain’s North American Borderlands. Another objective—to nominate Santa Rosa as a National Historic Landmark—prompted a partnership between the university and the National Park Service, Gulf Islands National Seashore, which manages the island.

A hand auger was used to bore through the spoil to determine the northern extent of the settlement.Through the years, dredging operations have discharged up to 30 feet of sand on top of the original colonial shoreline,complicating the task of identifying Santa Rosa’s boundaries.

Sheets of clear plastic were erected over the excavation units to enable the researchers to work during frequent downpours.

The Spanish Foothold

Although Pensacola was visited by Spanish explorers and mariners in the early 1500s, the first colonial venture occurred in 1559 with the fateful expedition of Tristán de Luna y Arrellano. Luna’s fleet of 11 ships—carrying supplies, arms, tools, and 1,500 settlers, soldiers, and servants—had been anchored in the bay only a month when a devastating hurricane struck. Deprived of most of their possessions and several ships, the colonists barely survived before abandoning the site in 1561.

For the next 137 years, Spain ignored West Florida in favor of its east coast settlement at St. Augustine, founded in 1565, and a productive system of Catholic missions that radiated northward and westward. Protecting the treasure fleets that sailed from Cuba back to Spain along Florida’s perilous seaboard was a strong incentive for securing a colony along the route in eastern Florida. In addition, the eastern half of La Florida still had substantial populations of Indians to convert, press into service, or rely on for resources, whereas the western half was largely depopulated of natives due to early 16th-century contacts with Spanish

These sherds were recovered during the excavation.Most of the ceramics found at Santa Rosa were made in Mexico,or by Native Americans,but many were also made in England,France,Holland,Germany,and China.

expeditions that resulted in widespread epidemics of European diseases. This lack of indigenous support influenced the demographics and economy at all of Pensacola’s presidios, because it meant that the labor force had to be transported from New Spain (Mexico). Unlike the hundreds of other presidios established throughout the Spanish borderlands, the Pensacola presidios were colonies of mostly creole men of mixed Spanish and Indian descent who were forced to build and defend military installations on the far western border of La Florida.

Spain was forced to refocus its attention in the 1680s when France began to explore the lower Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico. To prevent this adversary from using Pensacola as a base for harassing Spanish commerce, the viceroy of New Spain authorized the establishment of a new settlement, and Santa María de Galve was founded on Pensacola Bay in 1698. The presidio was occupied by a small group of military men, officials, and civilians, a large contingent of Mexican convicts and conscripts, and a few African slaves and immigrant Indians. Essentially a penal colony, the townsite was supported by undependable supply ships from Mexico and reciprocal but illicit trade with the French at Mobile. Santa María was attacked unrelentingly by Indians from Georgia and Alabama, who were encouraged and supplied by British Carolinians. In 1719, when France fought Spain in the War of Quadruple Alliance, troops from Mobile captured and burned the presidio, and the Spaniards retreated.

Bense directed the excavation of Santa María, located on the Pensacola Naval Air Station grounds, from 1995 to 1998. Studying the fort and associated buildings, and the nearby civilian village, the researchers discerned clear status distinctions that were apparent in the artifact concentrations and structures they discovered. Based on evidence such as the different areas where high and low status artifacts were found, Bense concluded which barracks were inhabited by the officers, soldiers, and convicts.

These findings provided baseline data that informed the excavation of Presidio San Miguel de Panzacola in 1999 and 2000, which existed from 1752 to 1763 in what is now downtown Pensacola, and the Santa Rosa project. Presidio Santa Rosa was the last studied because of its remoteness, pristine preservation, and rich archaeological remains, and the challenges uncovering those remains presented. When Pensacola was returned to Spain in 1722, little remained of Santa María. The Viceroy of Mexico ordered construction of a new settlement on Santa Rosa Island, and the site selected near the western tip, bounded by water on three sides and a swamp on the fourth, seemed secure and defendable. But storms visited the community several times—requiring rebuilding that is reflected in the archaeological record—before a three-day hurricane in 1752 flattened all but two structures. In the aftermath, residents hastily retreated to the mainland, leaving the buildings and their possessions to settle into the sands of time.

Modern Discovery

Because of its strategic location and hardwood trees that were eyed for shipbuilding, the island became U.S. government property after Florida became a territory in 1821. Until bridges linked it to the mainland, its remote location also protected the buried presidio, although shoreline erosion, a World War II railroad bed, and a drainage ditch dug 40 years ago for mosquito control have impacted the site. In addition, the northern perimeter has been covered by spoil from periodic dredging of the bay. The presidio remains were discovered in 1962 by G. Norman Simons, an amateur archaeologist and curator at the Pensacola Historical Society. Simons contacted archaeologist Hale Smith of Florida State University, who directed a summer field school with students and volunteers in 1964. Smith excavated 11 irregular trenches, uncovering one small structure entirely and portions of others, and numerous refuse pits, hearths, and other features. He also collected nearly 30,000 artifacts. Smith’s brief study demonstrated the archaeological potential of This map shows the locations of the three Spanish presidios within Pensacola Bay.

Judy Bense,Norma Harris,and laboratory director Jan Lloyd devise a strategy for the day’s excavations.

This drawing illustrates the continuous process of building,repairing,and rebuilding structures that took place at Santa Rosa.The lines represent the different construction episodes that occurred in this part of the site.

Presidio Santa Rosa, prompting a survey by Bense in 1985. Unfortunately, Smith’s field documentation is lost but for a few drawings and a summary report. Reconciling his work with the UWF excavation was one of many challenges that Bense and Harris faced.

In 2002, Bense’s team established a grid and mapped the site. They employed a metal detector and a magnetometer, which registers disturbances in the earth’s magnetic field, to determine where to excavate. More than 100 shovel tests revealed artifacts, intact deposits, and features, and some of Smith’s excavations.

An historic document from 1723 says the presidio included a warehouse, paymaster’s office, powder magazine, bake oven, governor’s residence, 32 houses for officers and civilians, and a lookout tower. Greater detail was provided by a drawing from 1743 by the artist Dominic Serres. Seen from Pensacola Bay, the settlement includes a fort, church, main street, houses with fences, and myriad structures.

The artifacts recovered in 2002 were clustered in discrete areas, with high-status items such as window glass in the western portion of the presidio, and low-status items such as Indian ceramics in the east, near a marshy area called Siguenza Slough. In 2003, Bense and Harris identified the site boundaries and located major structures, such as the fort, church, and houses of officials and soldiers. Bense also initiated a historical research program, undertaken by UWF history professor John Clune and his students, to add to the small cache of documents already uncovered in archives in Europe, Mexico, and the U.S. This program has revealed many details about life at Presidio Santa Rosa including the effect of several powerful storms, trade, and the makeup of the population.

Digging at the presidio was a challenge because the white, sandy substrate is, as Bense put it, “tricky, subtle, and fragile.” Changes in soil color and consistency that are obvious at most archaeological sites often were scarcely discernible. When the sand was dry, it was difficult to keep unit walls straight, and they were sometimes dug at an angle so they wouldn’t collapse. The water table is a mere two or three feet below the surface, and that often determined the depth of excavation. Fifty inches of rain made their work all the more challenging. Despite efforts to protect open units, rising groundwater threatened to undercut walls and cause their collapse. The coup de grâce was delivered in late June by Tropical Storm Bill, which halted operations for a week.

To prevent the destruction of the site and keep the project going, wellpoints were installed adjacent to excavation areas to remove subsurface water. This involved boring holes about seven feet deep, inserting a perforated pipe into each hole, and then pumping the water that collected in these pipes into an outflow pipe that emptied into Seguenza Slough. The well points allowed the excavation to continue, but the high water table limited the digging. Nonetheless, the crew recorded 78 colonial features and recovered nearly 45,000 artifacts.

The Summary Season

In 2004, with the hum of the wellpoint pumps in the background, the crew examined units that were flooded in the previous season, as well as new areas that promised additional data about the community structure. “The 2004 season took us from first base to home plate,” said Bense. “We identified significant architectural remains, including four complete house floors with artifacts above but not below, numerous burned or collapsed structures, and examples of multiple building episodes. These features not only added details, but they also verified the site’s integrity.” Those details included the sizes of buildings, sequences of building and rebuilding, details of construction techniques, and identifying inside and outside areas of structures.

A group of excavators established the profile of a trench wall.They worked quickly because once the wall was exposed to the fierce sun, the sand soon dried out and sometimes blew away.Consequently, the archaeological information revealed by the different colors and textures of the sand was lost.

One excavation unit revealed seven distinct building episodes in which walls were replaced or new structures were constructed. Harris called the collapsed, burned, and overlain structures “a testimony to the impact of storms and an environment that caused building materials to rot quickly.” Because many of the structures were large, she believes they were either high-status or public buildings.

“This place was an artifact trap,” said Bense. “Possessions were abandoned after the hurricane, and attempts to salvage them were impossible because everything had been swallowed by the sand. Consequently, we recovered artifacts that we don’t see elsewhere. Moreover, they have a very international flavor—for example, Dutch, French, English, and Chinese pottery as well as Spanish, Mexican, and native wares—which reinforces the presidio’s reliance on importation and trade for survival.”

The unusual artifacts included earrings, bracelets, cufflinks, keys, painted and etched glass, porcelain, and rosary beads. The most enigmatic objects were a collection of clay human and animal figurines, all from the same area of the site. Bense suspects that they may reflect a tradition of home shrines among peasants in the Mexican countryside, where most Santa Rosa residents came from.

The crew also recovered numerous items commonly found at historic sites, such as bricks, glass, pottery, metal hardware, and faunal remains, as well as the gunflints, bullets, and gun parts typical of a military post. While the nature of the artifact concentrations uncovered in the 2002 season seemed to clearly suggest which social class occupied what area, as was the case at Santa Maria, by the end of the project the lines of demarcation were less clear. The artifacts overwhelmingly are of Mexican origin and manufacture, which is atypical of assemblages found at other Hispanic colonial sites in Florida. “By this time, a distinct Mexican culture had emerged from the blending of Spanish and native peoples,”

In 2004,a local contractor,Thompson Pump and Manufacturing Company,donated two large diesel pumps,equipment,and labor for a well-point system allowing archaeologists to continue digging when groundwater levels were extremely high.

These students documented a complicated complex of wall trenches and features associated with a structure that burned sometime after 1750.

noted Harris. “That culture was imported to Santa Rosa by the people who came to occupy the presidio.” In contrast, residents of the St. Augustine presidio and many other settlements in East Florida primarily were of European descent.

Artifacts such as women’s jewelry reveal that, while Santa Rosa began as a penal colony, it later counted women and children among its residents. The archaeological evidence is corroborated by historic supply lists that include items such as petticoats. These documents indicate this change occurred about the midpoint of the presidio’s existence, but there is no explanation as to the reason for this change.

In the process of recovering over 80,000 artifacts and identifying numerous structures and features, they confirmed the site’s archaeological and historical significance, meeting the criteria for a National Historic Landmark designation. While final conclusions await the analysis of artifacts, field data, and historical records, a picture of life for Santa Rosa’s residents already has emerged. “The members of this community lived in flimsy, wooden structures outside the boundaries of the fort,” said Bense. “Because there were no farms, haciendas, or significant Indian labor, they relied on unpredictable imports and trade to survive. And they struggled constantly with the environment.” The historical documents are full of complaints about the lack of supplies from Mexico.

Bense and Harris agreed that the excavations of the two other presidios was a prerequisite to tackling Santa Rosa. “On a scale of 1 to 10, Santa Rosa was a 9.5 in terms of its pristine nature. It was a single component site with high integrity and a substrate that protected the presidio’s artifactual and architectural remains,” Bense noted. “By providing models of what to expect in the way of material evidence and community organization, Santa María and San Miguel prepared us for Santa Rosa’s difficult archaeological and environmental circumstances. If we had started at Santa Rosa, we would have missed much of what was going on here.

“In many ways, Santa Rosa was different from the other Pensacola presidios. However, viewing them as a group, we now realize that the history of Spanish interaction in West Florida was very different from East Florida. They were two different worlds. East Florida had contact with and support from Spain, Cuba, the gold fleets, and local natives. West Florida had none of that. It had contact with Mexico and to some extent Mobile. This was a colony of New Spain, and the people who were living here, most against their will, were Mexicans. That’s news!”

KC SMITH coordinates the Florida History Fair and the Florida Heritage Education Program at the Museum of Florida History in Tallahassee.

To learn more about this project,visit the Web site www.uwf.edu/anthropology/research/presidioSR.cfm