FLORIDA
Vol. 2 No. 2
Where old news is good news!
April-June 1999
SPANISH TREASURE FLEET SINKS All are lost!
QUIZ
1. Who discovered the 400 hundred year old shipwreck off the Dry Tortugas? 2. Why didn’t the soldiers of the 1st South Carolina need lessons in courage? 3. How many women were on the Pánifilo de Nárvaez Expedition to Florida in 1528? 4. Can you name some of the animals which would have lived out on the Florida prairie about 285,000 years ago? 5. What does the Confederate Civil War song, The Home Spun Dress, refer to? 6. What means of transportation is responsible for naming St. Petersburg? 7. After the last glaciation, the first ocean surge came flooding back 79 feet. How long did it take? 8. Why did you have to go grocery shopping every day in 16th century Spain? 9. What were the most popular forms of entertainment in 16th century Spain? 10. What are cazuelas used for? 11. In what year was the first sugar grown in the America’s exported to Spain? 12. What unspeakable thing did the conquistadors eat?
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Events …page 2 - 3 Museums & Societies…page 3 Women Who Set Sail…page 6 Learning from the Past…page 7 Scenes from the Past…page 8 Gamble Plantation…page 9 Woman’s World…page 10 Actin” Wild…page 10 Florida Railroad…page 11 A Journey to the Past…page 11 Books Reviews…page 12, 13, 14 Editorials…page 12 &14 Classified Ads…page 15 Cooking in Clay… page 16 Conquistadors as Food…page 16.
FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM by Elizabeth Neily
Army Life in a Black Regiment by Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Late Colonel 1st South Carolina Volunteers, Lee & Shepard, Publishers, Boston, 1882. Imagine being a runaway slave mustering into the very first black regiment of the Civil War. Imagine being the first white officers in charge of training these raw recruits, facing the uncertainties of racial prejudices and military life. Yet one man, Captain T. W. Higginson, had the privilege of doing just that. He left behind a diary and his memories of those incredible days when he became the leader of first U.S. regiment to be entirely made up of black soldiers, most of whom were runaway slaves. Many were from Florida. The First South Carolina Regiment was mustered into service at Camp Saxton, near Beaufort, S.C., April 19, 1862. One year later the 54th Massachusetts, of the movie Glory fame, was mustered into service. Captain T. W. Higginson, a white abolitionist, who had formed the 51st Massachusetts greeted the invitation from Brig.-Gen. R. Saxton to command the 1st S.C. Regiment with skeptical surprise.
Overwhelmed by huge waves, the passengers and crew of a Spanish treasure ship clung desperately to anything they could find during the hurricanne. Nearly 400 years later, Seahawk recovered the sunken treasure ship and what remained of their belongings - grim reminders of that disaster .
Cover Story by Jennette Flow August 1622 Spirits were high among the crew and passengers as the treasure fleet left port. They were going home to Spain, some to see wives, children, sweethearts that they hadn’t seen in years. They would be paid and life would be good. Yet there was trepidation for the journey across the great sea held dangers from storms, pirates and sea monsters. Even the most seasoned sailor prayed to his patron saint for safe passage. On the southern horizon along the tip of Florida, the steel grey sky grew ominous as the sea formed long mountainous swells. The merchant ships laden with gold from colonial outposts began to toss about like toys. Sailors grappled with ropes and sail to secure them against the gathering storm. Boards creeked and groaned under their feet. They had seen many voyages, many ports, both in the New World and the Old. They recognized
the signs and prayed once again to the saints for protection. As the winds gathered force, the men began to realize that this was no ordinary storm. Waves spilled over the deck of the galleon, washing their feet out from under them. Stinging torential rains blew sideways, blinding them. Winds howled in their ears like a thousand demons from hell. This storm was the developing into the one they dreaded — El Hurricane. As the fury of the storm raged, the galleons took on water, until they could no longer stay afloat. Screams were lost on the wind as the sailors sank to their watery grave. Neither gold nor prayers could save them now.
“I had always looked for the arming of the blacks, and had always a wish to be associated with them... But the prevalent tone of public sentiment was still opposed to any such attempts; the government kept very shy of the experiment, and it did not seem possible that the time had come when it could be fairly tried.” At first,his skepticism kept him from resigning his post until he had traveled to South Carolina to see for himself that General Saxton had not put him charge of “a mere plantation guard or a day-school in uniform. Fortunately it took but a few days in South Carolina to make it clear that all was right, and the return schooner took back a resignation of a Massachusetts commission. Thenceforth my lot was cast altogether with the black troops, except when regiments or detachments of white soldiers were also under my command, during the two years following.”
400 Years Later
Higginson managed to mold his regiment into shape under “microscopic scrutiny by friends and foes”. He overcame the recruits’ initial objections to military subordination by explaining that even the white officers had to submit to orders from those of higher rank, including himself. His diary leaves a rich insight into camp life.
or storage jar, identified as a colonial era Spanish olive jar by Robert Marx of See Treasure page. 4
See Black Regiment…page5
In the 1960’s, shrimpers working near the Dry Torguas snagged their deep water nets on a wreck. Tangled in the debris was a large ceramic amphora,
“I felt sometimes as if we were a plant trying to take root, but constantly pulled up to see if we were growing. The slightest camp incidents sometimes came back to us, magnified and distorted, in letters of anxious inquiry from remote parts of the Union. It was no pleasant thing to live under
EVENTS CALENDAR NORTH CENTRAL SOUTH
& Courtyard of Government House (advanced ticlets required) 25 Victorian Lawn & Tea Party - 1-5 p.m. at Government House on the Plaza de la Constitución, Step back in time to the gilded age — favorite dessert contest, sports, games, bands, barbershop quartets, strolling entertainers and Victorian reenactors, antique carriages and motor cars. Victorian Archictecture Tour 3pm Governor’s Concert 5-7 p.m.. Contact Nella Rogero Holton, St. Augustine Trust forHistoric Preservation. (904) 825-5088
May
NORTH April
1 April Fool’s Day 2 White Springs, Stephen Foster Day Celebration, 2 p.m., afternoon of special musical program & carillon recitals of Foster’s work hornoring the composer of Florida’s State song, “Suwanee River”. 2-4 Antique Tractor & Gas Engine Show. Stephen Foster State Folk Cultural Center, U.S. 41 N. Park Fee $3.25. Contact: (904) 397-2733. 3-4, Fernandina Beach, Ft. Clinch State Park, Civil War Garrison Encampment. Reenactors interpret 1864 life at the fort. Candlelight viewing of park after sundown on Sat. evening only. Daytime tickets $1/ Evening $2. plus park entrance fee. Off A1A. Contact (904) 277-7274. 10 Manatee Springs State Park, Ol’ Fashioned River Party, bluegrass, country, food, on the banks of the Suwannee River. Bring a blanket or chair. 1-9 p.m. Free. At the end of SR 320, off US 98, 6 miles W. of Chiefland. 12 Homosassa Springs State Wildlife Park, Gardening with Native Florida Plants, Marion Knudsen’s spring workshop, learn to conserve water with xeriscaping. Reservations required. Park fee. approx. On US19. (352)628-5343. 13-14 White Springs, Suwannee River Storytelling Festival, featuring some of the State’s most popular storytellers. Stephen Foster State Folk Cultural Center, U.S. 41 N. Park Fee $3.25. Contact: (904) 397-2733. 15 St. Marks, HuManatee/St. Marks Festival, welcome manatee’s back to the St. Mark’s and Wakulla rivers - food, crafts, music, walk, exhibits, at San Marcus de Apalache State Historic Site, Contact (850) 922-6007. 17 Micanopy, Paynes Prairie State Preserve, Prairie Rim Ramble. Experience the Real Florida (SM) by following in the footsteps of noted naturalist and artist William Bartram. 3.5 mile ranger leg hike. 20 person limit. Reservations. Park fee. 10 mi. s. of Gainesville, on US4412 & exit 73 off I-75. 17 Wakulla Springs State Park & Lodge, Wakulla Birding Festival, Welcome back song birds, boat tours, birdwatching basics. Located14 miles S. of Talahassee on SR 267 at SR 61. (850)224-5950. 18 Dunnellon, Rainbow Springs State Park, Boomtown Days, Antique Classic Car Show. food, beauty contest, (352) 489-8503 17 Gainesville, Florida Museum of Natural History, Earth Day at the Museum - Trashformations 1999 10:00 - 1:00p.m. Winning art treasures from recycled materials displayed. Disc golf (frisbee) course set up on grounds for visitors to try out their throwing skills. Performance by Jacare Brazil from 12 - 1:00p.m. 19-22 Gainesville, Florida Trust Resource Exposition Show ‘99, the Sheritan Hotel, preservation specilaists from all over the State gather for professional development. Contact” Heather Mitchell (850) 224-8128. 24-25 St. Augustine, Victorian Spring, Governor’s Tango Tea, soirée in a magical setting lit by Japanese lanterns, elegant gourmet food., romantic music n the Sala
1 Wakulla Springs State Park & Lodge, Sunrise Boat Tour & Breakfast 6:30 a.m., May 9th Mother’s Day Buffet at the lodge. 11:30 a.m. - 2 p.m. Reservations required. 14 miles S. of Talahassee on SR 267 at SR 61. (850)224-5950. 1-2, Fernandina Beach, Ft. Clinch State Park, Civil War Garrison Encampment. Reenactors interpret 1864 life at the fort. Candlelight viewing of park after sundown on Sat. evening only. Daytime tickets $1/ Evening $2. plus park entrance fee. Off A1A. Contact (904) 277-7274. 1 Gainesville, Florida Museum of Natural History(12-5)- Sunday, May 2 (1-4) The Fours Seasons Garden Club presents a standard flower show. 3 Fanning Springs State Rec. Area, 9a.m.- sundown. Birdwalk & Nature Event., natural craffts, exhibits, canoeing, primitive camping, food. US Hwy 19/98. Contact (352) 463-3420. 8 Torreya State Park, Gregory House Candlelight Tours, Heritage folk music, Civil War camp, candle dipping, hearth cooking, basket weaving & blacksmithing. Food & souvenirs. 3-9 p.m. Park fee plus tour fee $1 adults, 50¢ under 13. (850) 643-2674. 8-9 Eden State Gardens, Art Quest ’99, 4th Annual Fine Arts Festival, located in Point Washington, off US 98 on CR395 (850) 231-4214. 15 Pensacola, Big Lagoon State Recreation Area, Pickin’ in the Park, bluegrass music, food, free admission.7-9m, (850) 492-1595. 28-30 White Springs, Stephen Foster state Park, Annual Florida Folk Festival, folk songs, dances, legends, crafts, Gates open at 8 a.m. Fee TBA, (904) 397-2733. 31 Manatee Springs State Park, 6th Annual Memorial Day Treasure Hunt, All kids 16 & under are invited to hunt for Short Billy’s treasure chest said to include at least $25 hidden somewherer in the Spring. Tokens tossed into the spring can be retrieved for other prises. Bring snorkelling gear. 9 a.m. Park Admission. At the end of SR 320, off US 98, 6 miles W. of Chiefland.
June
5 Pensacola, Historic Pensacola Annual Open House, 10-4 p.m., Contact: Richard Brosnaham, (850) 595-5985 5 St. Augustine, Anastasia State Recreation Area, Beach Bash, Enter the sandcastle contest, & beach scavenger hunt. Sail board and kayak demos. Fishing tournament for kids. 9 a.m.-3 p.m. St Augustine beach off A1A on SR 3. Contact:(904) 461-2000 5 Withlacoochee State Trail, 3rd Annual National Trails Day. 9 a.m. Tentative Call for info. (352) 394-2280. 5-6, Fernandina Beach, Ft. Clinch State Park, Civil War Garrison Encampment, Reenactors interpret 1864 life at the fort. Candlelight viewing of park after sundown on Sat. evening only. Daytime tickets $1/ Evening $2. plus park entrance fee. Off A1A. Contact (904) 277-7274. 5 Wakulla Springs State Park & Lodge, Sunrise Boat Tour & Breakfast, 6:30 a.m. 14 miles S. of Talahassee on SR 267 at SR 61. (850)224-5950. 12 Gainesville Exhibit Opens: Masters of the Night: The True Story of Bats (Closes September 5th, 1999)
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CENTRAL April
10 St. Petersburg, Saber and Rose Ball, Museum of Fine Arts, 255 Beach Drive. N.E., Music by the Rebelaires, Sponsored by the Society for the Preservation of Southern History, 7-11:30 p.m. $55.00 ea. Contact: Shelly Jakes, (813) 286-2575. 10 St Petersburg, “Festival of States Kids Arts Festival and Brass Rubbings at Great Explorations on the Pier. 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. (727)821-8992 11 St. Petersburg, Natives and Strangers: Florida and the Columbian Exchange 2p.m., St. Petersgurg Museum of History., lectue in conjunction with Curse of the Black Legend and Survival and Success: Florida’s Unconquered Seminoles. 17 Largo, Florida Native Plant Sale & Open House, Advice from knowledgeable gardeners, tour natiove garden, Pinellas County Cooperative Extention Service, 12175 125th St. N., north of Heritage Park. Contact:(727) 544-7341. 18 Ybor City, Tony Pizzo Award for community development & historic preservation at Columbia Restaurant - brunch. 11 a.m., (813)247-1434. 26 thru Aug, 15, St. Petersburg, And I still see their faces: Images of Polish Jews — Exhibit of life affirming photographs by the American - Polish - Israeli Shalom Foundation.
May
1-2 Ruskin, Ruskin Tomato & Heritage Festival, 10am -5pm, music, all famous sliced Ruskin tomatoes you can eat, farmer’s market, Cinguo Demayo celebration, truck and car show. Location: E.G. Simmons Park, on the shores of Tampa Bay, at north end of Ruskin. I-75 to US41 turn west on 19th Ave NW. Just 20 miles south of Tampa. Entry Fee $2 Contact: (813)641-9201 7-9 Dade City, 8th Annual Mother’s Day Pow Wow at Withlacoochee River Park, Host Drum: Otto Mahsetky, Creek Nation Colr Guard, Rex Begaye, Dineh (Navaho Artist) Tour of Native American Villages. $2/under 12 free. US Hwy 301,
Take 98 Truck Route to River Road & follow signs. Mittie Wood (352) 583-3388 or Withaloochee River Park (352) 521-3012 9 St. Petersburg, Mother’s Day at Great Explorations at the Pier. Preserve mom’s palm print forever in a plaster cast. Casting sessions 12 noon, 2:30 p.m., & 4 p.m. Fee $4 per cast. (727)821-8992 26-28 Ft. Pierce, 34th Annual FIHA Pow Wow at the St. Lucie County Fair Grounds, Tye Bell, (561) 466-7379.
June
20 St. Petersburg, Father’s Day at Great Explorations at the Pier. Preserve dad’s palm print forever in a plaster cast. Casting sessions 12 noon, 2:30 p.m., & 4 p.m. Fee $4 per cast. (727)821-8992
SOUTH April
3 Little Manatee River State Recreation Area, Easter Egg Hunt Ages 12 & under, plus ranger guided tour and interpretive displays. 5 miles S of Sun City on Lightfoot Road. 18 Miami, Barnacle State Historic Site, Commodore’s Birthday Party, old fashioned picnic sponsored by the Barnacle Society to raise funds for continued restoration. 5-7 p.m. 3485 Main Hwy (305)448-9445. 29 Miami, Barnacle by Moonlight, oldest home in Dade County, Music under the skies. Bring a blanket. (Tours offered Fri. Sat. Sun. Jan.-Jun.) May 27 Miami, Barnacle by Moonlight. June 24 Miami, Barnacle by Moonlight.
PARKS ACCESSIBLE BY BOATS.
Participants must arrange for transportation. Bring a camera, walking shoes, sun block, and drinking water. April 2, May 7 Don Pedro Island State Rec. Area. Beach & Nature Walk, Offshore near Cape Haze. Call (941) 964-0375 April 17 Cayo Costa State Park, Cast Netting, 9 a.m., learn cast netting on a beautiful barrier island. May 15 Beach Nature Walk and June 19 Cayo Costa State Park,
FLORIDA
Vol.2 No.2 April. - June. 1999
Published Quarterly by Neily Trappman Studio 5409 21st Ave. S. • Gulfport • FL • 33707 Phone (727)321-7845 E-Mail tocobaga@gte.net Web Address http://home1@gte.net/tocobaga
“Understanding the past gives you the freedom to plan for the future.” Writers: Jenette Flow Robert Hawk Elizabeth Neily Ed Reiter John Shaffer Hermann Trappman Illustrations/Photography: Elizabeth Neily Hermann Trappman Computer Service: specializing in Apple Macintosh George Watson
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Writers, artists, photographers may submit articles to us for concideration. Subject matter must be written in style appropriate for all age groups from the 4th grade into the golden years. This is not meant to be a scholarly publication but one to increase awareness of Florida’s rich and varied heritage.We want to celebrate our past, not dwell wholely on our failures. Copyright 1998. Articles may be reproduced with prior permission. Just give us a call and we will be happy to accommodate your request. Exceptions are logo, masthead and where other copyrights apply.
Turtle Walk. Offshore, NW of Ft. Myers, SW of Boca Grande, W. of Pine Island. Call (941) 946-0375. April-June Jonathan Dickenson State Park, Trapper Nelson Tour, on Florida’s only federally designated “Wild & Scenic River” (561)746-1466 for details.
ANNUAL MEETING FLORIDA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
SUMMER CAMPS & ON-GOING PROGRAMS March 29 - April 2
Planter’s in Paradise: Florida’s Plantation Economy APRIL 29-MAY 1 HOLIDAY INN SUNSPREE RESORT DAYTONA BEACH For info (407) 690-1971
April 3, 10, 17, 24
ANNUAL MEETING FLORIDA ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY
St. Petersburg, “Beam Me Up” All about space. Hands on fun at Great Explorations on the Pier. Ages 6-9. children Fees $75 members $90 non-members. Phone:(727)821-8992 St Petersburg, “Month of the Child” Quality time for parent/child every Saturday throughout April featuring awesome chemistry demos at Great Explorations on the Pier.11 am, 1 pm and 3 pm. Fees - $2 per child & parent with $1 for each additional child. (727)821-8992
May
31 St. Petersburg, “Wacky World” Memorial Day Camp. All about space. Hands on fun at Great Explorations on the Pier. (727)821-8992
June
7-18 Safety Harbor, Museum of Regional History - Hands on History. Learn how the pioneers did it. 9a.m. - Noon. 329 Bayshore Blvd. S., Safety Harbor (727) 726-1668 21-25 Discovery Camp: learn about ancient cultures in Tampa Bay and yheir technology. Session1: 9a.m. - Noon Session 2: 1 p.m. - 4 p.m.
July & August
Airhead Physics, Electic Magic & Mesmerizing Magnets shows will rotate for some hands-on fun at Great Explorations on the Pier. 11 a.m., 2:30 p.m. & 3:00 p.m. $1 plus regular admission of $4/free under 3. (727)821-8992
April-June
Jonathan Dickenson State Park, Trapper Nelson Tour, on Florida’s only federally designated “Wild & Scenic River” (561)746-1466 for details.
June -July-August
Florida Museum of Natural History
Powell Hall, University of Florida CHILDREN’S SUMMER CLASSES for children entering kindergarten through fifth grade. Cost per week is $65 per class. Morning classes are from 8:30 - 12; afternoon classes are from 1-4:30. Classes run during the following weeks: June 21-25; June 28-July 2; July 12-16; July 19-23; August 2-6; August 9-13. Advanced registration is required. Please call (352)846-2000 ext.214 for more information.
Back-Rubs to Go… Relief for a Fast Moving World Therapeutic Massage Somatic Yoga Neuromuscular Certified Gale Stewart Klein, LMT Home: (941) 739-9172 Cellular 726-7284 MA# 0004730
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EARTH DAY ‘99
April 17 & 18 Contact your local STATE PARK/CITY for Special Events
Rennaisance Fair
APRIL 22-25 Elgin Airforce Base Ft. Walton Beach
Stephanie Carroll (850) 882-8454 E-mail carrols@ntserver.elgin.af.mil
FAMILY DAY at
HOLOCAUST MUSEUM
THOMAS FARM
FL Museum of Natural History’s famous fossil preserve May 1 8:30 a.m. at Powell Hall
Pre-Registration Only - $45 Erika Simmons: (352)846-2000 ext. 255
Historic Web Sites !
AUCILLA RIVER PREHISTORY PROJECT Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, Fl 32611. Contact:Joe Latvis. Phone: (352) 392-1721 www.flmnh.ufl. edu/natsc./vertpaleo/arpp.htm FLORIDA PALEONTOLOGICAL SOCIETY, INC. Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611. Contact:Eric Taylor Email: lilnbige@lc.gulfnet.com FLORIDA HISTORICAL SOCIETY Historic Roesch House 1320 Highland Ave., Melbourne, FL 32935 (407) 690-0099 Email wynne@metrolink.net www..florida-soc.org FLORIDA DIVISTION OF HISTORICAL RESOURCES http://www.flheritage.com History, Archaeology, Folk Life, Preservation, and more… 2ND SEMINOLE WAR - F.I.R.E.S. Florida Indian Reenactment Sociery E-mail okhmpkel@ix.netcom.com www.geocities.com/yosemite/1743/seminole.html AMERICAN CIVIL WAR www.cwc.lsu.edu/civlink.htm FLORIDA FRONTIERSMEN homel.gte.net/haddo/frontier.htm SPANISH AMERICAN WAR http://pw2.netcom. com/~rhichoxsaw1898.htm NORTHEAST FLORIDA ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY http://members.xoom.com PALEONTOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LEE COUNTY Fort Myers www.flmnh.ufl/org/Lee/PSLC.htm COLLIER COUNTY MUSEUM Naples, Florida www.colliermuseum.com NATIVE AMERICAN TECHNOLOGY http://www.nativeweb.org/NativeTech THE ESTEVANICO SOCIETY http://www.estevanico.org PONY EXPRESS FL Museum of Natural History http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/natsci/vertpaleo/pony AFRICAN AMERICAN LINKS http://home.earthlink.net/%7Eanthony/ africa.html THE ESTEVANICO SOCIETY http://www.estevanico.org
5th Annual Prehistoric Florida Show APRIL 17, 1999 9 a.m. - 6 p.m. TAMPA BAY HOLOCAUST MUSEUM 1st Ave. South * 5th Street Admission $3.00 - 6 years & Under FREE
Florida’s Largest Collector and Exhibition Showcase
FOSSILS • ARTIFACTS • ROCKS • ART Buy • Sell • Trade For info (727)541-2567 A percentage of the proceeds will go to “All Children’s Hospital”
3RD Annual RUSKIN Tomato & Heritage Festival Directed by the Ruskin Community Development Foundation
May 1~2, 1999 10a.m.~ 5p.m. SIMMONS PARK
on the shores of Tampa Bay at the north end of Ruskin. From 1-75 go west to US-41, Turn west on 19th Ave. NW. All the Sliced Tomatoes you can eat!
Car/Truck Show & Swap Meet $$$ CASH $$$ Grand Prize Door Prizes & Entertainment. No limits.
Anyone can enter $10 preregistration & $12 day of event
RUSKIN TOMATO FESTIVAL QUEEN Contest in five age categories.
Beat Ruskin’s very own paleontologist, Frank Garcia at horseshoes for a buck. (Win an autographed copy of his book)
Historical Reenactors • Storytellers • Music, Food Vendors and more… Spend an exciting day of fun on the beach. Festival Admission $2 adults/6 and under free
Info Call (813)641-9201
Treasure from front page
Indianlantic, FL. Although Marx noted the location of the wreck, the depth of the water made exploration improbable aat that time. Then in 1988, Seahawk Deep Ocean Technology out of Tampa, aquired the location of the site. The following April, the Research Vessel Seahawk located the wrecksite approximately 70 miles southwest of Key West, near the Dry Tortugas Islands. During 1990 and 1991, this ancient shipwreck was excavated from deep waters off the Dry Tortugas revealing the remains of a seventeenth century ship of Spanish origin. The Seahawk excavation was unique in many respects. No person ever physically visited the site and the operation was completed entirely by ROV’s (remotely operated vehicles) run by computors aboard a recovery vessel at the surface. Until this time, remote archaeological excavation was entried and innovation was required for every phase of the operation. First, a Phantom ROV, called Merlin, equipped with a video camera and a manipulator arm, was used to recover one artifact in order to establish an admiralty claim to the site. (a request for admiralty and maritime jurisdiction was filed in the United States district Court and granted giving title to the wreck to Seahawk on November 29, 1990. Now work could begin in earnest. Thousands of hours of videotape were taken by Seahawk for reference. Still photography (both 35mm and 70mm) captured views of the site and artifacts of special interest. Detailed computer generated dive data and reports kept thoughout athe recovery assisted in the interpretation of the wrecksite. Although the excavation was completed in 1993, the conservation and preservation of the artifacts continued until 1998. During the early years of the Age of Exploration, Spain was a major competitor in world colonization. By the seventeenth centruy, Spain had laid claim to much of the New World including the area of the Carribean Sea. By1622, Spain’s finances were strained; the Crown had borrowed heavily to help finance war with France and to continue the affairs of state. Spain’s position as a world power required the wealth found in the natural resources of the America’s. The system established for transporting the rtreasures of the New World back to Europe included several annual fleets, called flotas, with standardized routes. Traveling in groups like this offered the possiblitiy of help to a foundering ship, shared provisions in tiomes of need, and shared navagational knowledge. Routinely, the cargo ships were accompanied by heavily armed warships which offered protection from pirates and privateers. In 1622, problems and weather delayed the rendezvous of the flota from the planned date of July1 until late in August, well into hurricane season. Although danger was recognized, the flota of twentyeight ships left for Spain on september 4, 1622. Typically, to take advantage of the Gulf Stream currents and to stay near land as far as possible, fleets sailed north from Havana, through the Straits of florida, around the east coast of Florida as far north as Bermuda, then easstward toward Spain.It was between Cuba and Florida that the flota encountered a hurricane. The storm, described as of rather small diameter, scattered the fleet, capsized some ships, and slammed the Atocha and Santa Margarita onto the Flrida Keys. Damage to teh fleet ws extensive. Most accounts agree that three sivler galleons were lost: the Nuestra Senora de Atocha, Santa Margarita and the Nuestra Senora de l Rosario. Although these silver galleons were identified and salvaged by the Spanish and/or modern commercial salvagers, very little is known about the other vessels which sank in that storm.
Seahawk was not able to determine the identy of the ship they excavated. However, it is believed that it represents one of those ships lost in 1622. Support can be found among the almost 17,000 artifacts recoverd from the site. 7,000 pearls, probably came from South America. Coins included none later than 1622 and finger bars of gold share the markings of those recoverd from the Atocha., support the 1622 identy. Other items could be cross-referenced to the Atocha as well. The ceramic assemblage echos that of the Atocha, include markings inscribed on the olive jars. Two broze mortar and pestles are duplicates of those found on the Atocha. The size of the ship lead Seahawk to speculate that the remains are from the 1622 fleet. Ceramics represent the largest category of artifacts recovered from the Tortugas excavation. They include aboriginal wares, earthenware (majolical glazed and unglazed redware), miscellaneous pieces and a large collection of intact ceramic amphorae commonly called olive jars. also recovered were sherds of glass bottles, glass beads, objects of stone, stone ballast, coins of both gold and silver, object of lead, bronze, silver and gold. Organic materials included human and animal bone and teeth, pearls, ivory, leather, seeds and tortoise shell. The ships that made the dangerous Atlantic crossing in the 17th century were, crowded and incommodious by our standards. The men (and animals) on baorad were subject to seasickness and disease. always at the mercy of the weather, they lacked basic accomodations and bathrooms. Their diet was monotonous, fresh food was scarce and the water became stagnant after a few weeks at sea. The ships were infested with rats and insects. Accounts bring to the imagination that these ships were damp and dirty, the air foul and the provisions, disgusting. However, conditions may not have been as bad as some accounts suggest. Rat bone verified the presence of those pests but there was also evidence of pigs and seed from olives, hazelnuts, almonds and peaches or plums. The diet was considerably better than described in some other accounts of the period. The silver coins and gold bars carried on the vessel represented a fortune in the early 17th century. A ship’s captain earned 88.2 silver reales per month; a first class sailor earned 44.1; second class sailors (apprentises) earned 29.4 and cabin boys or pages 22 reales. This wreck revealed over ten years wages for a first class seaman. A single bar of gold could equal the same. The personal effects found in the wereckage offer a poignant story. A St. Catherine medallion may have offered hope of a safe voyage. An inkwell and shaker must have been cherished items to a literate person on the ship for the craftsmanship was beautiful. Hundreds of lives were lost in the catastophe of1622. The men, the children, and the animals too, must have been terrified by the storm. During the excavation, it took the remote vehicle, Merlin, about fifteen minutes to descend to the sea floor. During the disaster, the the noise of the storm, the slamming and breaking of the olive jars, the screaming of the people and the squeals of the animals must have quieted in less time than that as the ship sank. The dark quietness of the sea floor stood out in eery contrast to that terrible event 400 years ago. The scattered artifacts, a silent reminder of the terror of that day.• Jenette Flow, was the cheif archaeologist on the excavation team at Seahawk. She also curated the collection. She is currently employed by Odessy Marine Exploration, Tampa and is an Adjunct Professor of Humanities at Hillsborough Community College.
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Sweet Sage Coffee Café & Two Crows Garden
Lite Bites Served All Day Seating in the Grey Fox Room or Garden Catering/Private Parties • Custom Gift Baskets Open Daily 7:00 A.M. - 3:00 P.M. Phone/Fax (727) 391-0453
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Don’t Miss our Exhibit!
“Florida’s Harvest: Fruits and Vegetables that Created the Image of Florida”
June 1 - September 15, 1999
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5
From page 1… Black Regiment
re-enlisting from this empoverished Government, which can only pay seven dollars out of thirteen to its black regiments. and they see, on the other hand, thise colored men who refused to become soldiers and who have found more honest paymasters than the United States Gopvernment, now exulting in well-filled pockets and able to buy the little homesteads the soldiers need, and to turn the soldiers into the streets, Is this a school for self-sacrificing patriotism?”
such surveillance; but guaranteed the honesty of any success, while fully multiplying the penalties had there been a failure.”
Higginson wrote that the one lesson he never had to teach the black soldiers under his command was that of bravery. Courage was never at question. He recorded many stories of heroism that he heard from his troops and their families of their escape to freedom. He wrote, “I used to think that I should not care to read Uncle Tom’s Cabin in our
camp; it would have seemed tame. Any group of men in a tent would have had more exciting tales to tell. I needed no fiction when I had Fanny Wright, for instance, daily passing to and fro before my tent, with her shy little girl clinging to her skirts. Fanny was a modest mulatto woman, a soldier’s wife, and a company laundress. She had escaped from the mainland in a boat, with that child and another. Her baby was shot dead in her arms, and she reached our lines with one child safe on earth and the other in heaven. I never found it needful to give any elementary instructions in courage to Fanny’s family, you may be sure.”
Higginson also learned a lot about his own attitudes and was forced to come to terms with his own prejudices as he began to understand what these people had endured as slaves and what they were capable of as freedmen. Listening to their stories, he learned the sober reality of what escape to freedom meant.
“It always seemed to me that, had I been a slave, my life would have been one long scheme of insurrection. But I learned to respect the patient self-control of those who had waited till the course of events should open a better way. When it came they accepted it. Insurrection on their part would at once have divided the Northern sentiment; and a large part of our army would have joined with the Southern Army to hunt them down. By waiting till we needed them, their freedom was secured. But side by side with this faculty of patience, there was a certain tropical element in the men, a sort of fiery ecstasy when aroused... To balance this there were great individual resources when alone,— a sort of willingness and subtlety of resource. Their gregariousness and love of drill made them more easy to keep in hand than the white American troops, who rather like to straggle or go in little squads, looking out for themselves, without being bothered with officers. The black prefer organization. The point of inferiority that I always feared, though I never had occasion to prove it, was that they might show less fiber, less tough and dogged resistance, than whites, during a prolonged trial,— a long, disas trous march, for instance, or the hopeless defense of a besieged town. I should not be afraid of their mutinying or running away, but of their drooping and dying. It might not turn out so; but I mention it for the sake of fairness, and to avoid overstating the merits of these troops. As to the simple general fact of courage and reliability I think no officer in our camp ever thought of there being any difference between black and white, and certainly the opinions of these officers, who for years risked their lives every moment on the fidelity of their men, were worth more than those of all the world beside. No doubt there were reasons why this particular war was an especially favorable test of the colored soldiers. They had more to fight for than the whites. Besides the flag and the Union, they had home and wife and child. They fought with ropes round their necks, and when orders were issued that the officers of colored troops should be put to death on capture, they took a grim satisfaction. It helped their esprit de corps immensely. With us, at least, there was to be no play soldier. Though they had begun with a slight feeling of inferiority to the white troops, this compliment substituted a peculiar sense of self-respect. And even when the new colored regiments began to arrive from the North my men still pointed out this difference,— that in case of ultimate defeat, the Northern troops, black or white would go home, while the First South Carolina must fight it out or be re-enslaved. This was one thing that made the St. John’s River so
On July 10, 1864 Higginson angrily wrote to the New York Tribune again, expressing his deep disappointment in the Government. “No one can possibly be so weary of Suddenly there swept down from a bluff above us, on the Georgia side, a mingling of shout and roar and rattle as of a tornado let loose; and as a storm of bullets came pelting against the sides of the vessel,… [The men] were loading and firing with inconceivable rapitity, shouting to each othjer, “Never give it up!” From the chapter entitled “Up the St. Mary’s”. attractive to them and even to me;— it was so much nearer the Everglades. I used seriously to ponder, during the darker periods of the war, whether I might not end my days as an outlaw, — a leader of Maroons. At any rate, this ungenerous discouragement had this good effect, that it touched their pride; they would deserve justice, even if they did not obtain it. This pride was afterwards severely tested during the disgraceful period when the party of repudiation in Congress temporarily deprived them of their promised pay. In my regiment, the men never mutinied, nor even threatened mutiny; they seemed to make it a matter of honor to do their part, even if the Government proved a defaulter; but one third of them, including the best men in the regiment, quietly refused to take a dollar’s pay, at the reduced price. They even made a contemptuous ballad, of which I once caught a snatch.
Ten dollar a month! Tree ob dat for clothin’! Go to Washington Fight for Linkum’s darter!
This “Lincoln’s daughter” stood for the Goddess of Liberty, it would seem. They would be true to her, but would not take the half-pay. This was contrary to my advice, and to that of their other officers; but I now think it was wise. Nothing less than this would have called the attention of the American people to this outrageous fraud.* One of our ablest sergeants, Henry McIntyre, who had earned two dollars and a half per day as a master carpenter in Florida, and paid one dollar and a half to his master, told me that he had deliberately refrained from learning to read, because that knowledge exposed the slaves to much more watching and suspicion. this man and a few others had built on contract the greater part of the town of Micanopy in Florida, and was a thriving man when his accustomed discretion failed for once, and he lost all. He named his child William Lincoln, and it brought upon him such suspicion that he had to make his escape. There was certainly in our camp an average tone of propriety which wall visitors noticed and which was not created, but only preserved by discipline. I was struck, not merely by the courtesy of the men, but also by a certain sober decency of language. If a man had to report to me any disagreeable fact, for instance, he was sure to do it with gravity and decorum, and not blurt it out in an offensive way. And it certainly was a significant fact that the ladies of our camp, when we were so fortunate as to have guests, — the young wives, especially of the adjunct and quartermaster, — used to go among the tents when the men were off duty, in order to hear their big pupils read and spell, without the slightest annoyance. I do not mean direct annoyance or insult, for no man who valued his life would have ventured than in the presence of others, but I mean the annoyance of accidentally seeing or hearing improprieties not intended for them. They both declared that they would not have moved about with anything like the same freedom in any white camp they had ever entered, and it always roused their indignation’s to hear the Negro race called brutal or depraved.”
* The men of the First South Carolina Regiment risked their lives for the freedom of African Americans. They fought valiantly and took pride in their daily drills
and camp. Even when insulted by Congress when it broke it’s contact with them by reducing their pay scale from thirteen dollars to ten then to seven dollars a month, they continued to see it as a matter of pride to continue. Some of these men had families to support and also had to endure the taunts of other blacks who refused to enlist from fear of being cheated. Only blacks who could prove that they had been free on April 19, 1861 could receive full pay. When Higginson chose to tell the truth about his men’s status, instead of falsifying the records like some, they and their families suffered for it. He wrote numerous letters to the Editors of the Evening Post , New York Tribune , New York Times and trying rally support to rectify the injustice. On January 22, 1864 he wrote, “Mr. Senator Doolittle argued... that white soldiers should feceive higher pay than black ones, because the families of the latter were often supported by Government. What an astounding statement of fact this is! In the white regiment in which I was formerly an officer (the Massachusetts Fifty first) nine tenths of the soldiers’ families, in addition to the pay and bounties, drew regularly their “State aid.” Among my black soldiers, with half pay and no bounty, not a family receives any aid. Is there no end to the injustice we heap upon this unfortunate people?”
Higginson also wrote in a scathing letter to the New York Tribune on Jan. 22, 1864:
“There is nothing mean or mercenary about these men in general. Convince them that the Government actually needs their money and they would serve it barefooted and on half-rations, and without a dollar — for a time. But, unfortunately, they see white soldiers beside them, whom they know to be in no way their superiors for any military service, receiving hundreds of dollars for
JUNETEENTH Celebrate Freedom from Slavery in Your Community.
reading of the wrongs done by government toward the colored soldiers as am I of writing about them. this is my only excuse for intruding on your columns again. By order of the War department, dated August 1, 1864, it is at length ruled that the colored soldiers shall be paid the full pay of soldiers from the date of enlistment, provided they were free in April 19, 1861, not otherwise; and this distinction is to be noted on the pay-rolls. In other words, if one half of a company escaped from slavery on April 18, 1861, they are to be paid thirteen dollars per month and allowed three dollars and a half for clothing. If the other half delayed two days, they receive seven dollars per month and are allowed three dollars per month for precisely the same articles of clothing. If one of the former class is made first sergeant, his pay put up to twenty-one dollars per month; but if he escaped two days later, his pay is still estimated at seven dollars. The ground taken by [Congressman] Stevens was that the country might honorably save a few dollars by docking the promised pay of those colored soldiers whom the war had made free. But the Government should have thought of this before it made the contract with these men and received their services for it. In other words, a freedman (since April 19, 1861) has no rights which a white man is bound to respect. He is incapable of making a contract. No man is bound by a contract made with him. Any employer, following the example of the United States Government, may make with him a written agreement, receive his services and then withhold the wages. He has no motive to honest industry, or to honesty of any kind. He is virtually a slave, and nothing else, to the end of time.” •
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22ND UNDERWATER ARCHAEOLOGY - Join the Pier Aquarium for fun and educational activities 10 a.m. to Noon at Spa Beach & Education Station. $1 fee.
31ST MEMORIAL DAY: Catchin’ Critters Knee Deep - With nets
and buckets in hand, we will discover the marine life that lives in Tampa Bay. 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Spa Beach and Education Station. $1 fee. Last Week in May: WEEDON ISLAND EXHIBIT EXTRAVAGANZA! Showcase of Weedon Island, a preserve and natural treasure right here in Tampa Bay! On second floor of The Pier. Donations.
JUNE 12TH WEEDON ISLAND’S BIRDS OF PREY
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Safety Harbor Museum of Regional History
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“Whadja Bring Me?” Florida Sights & Souvenirs Exhibit Opens May 30, 1999
CAMPS FOR KIDS: Hands on History & Discovery Camp June 7-18 One Session Only 9a.m. - Noon
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DUNEDIN HISTORICAL SOCIETY Andrews Memorial Chapel c. 1888 National Register of Historical Places An early Florida Victorian Church available for
Weddings, Concerts and Tours Dunedin Historical Museum Railroad Station c. 1922 341 Main Street, Dunedin Exhibits related to Dunedin and Florida History
MUSEUM PROGRAMS 1890’s Vintage Baseball Games at Otten Field, Dunedin
DUNEDIN CENTENNIAL EXHIBIT June 1 - October 28, 1999
Museum Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 10 am - 4 pm (727) 7361176
Sheila Benjamin, Denise Spear, Brad Spear, Tim Burke, at the opening of the Curse of the Black Legend Exhibit at the St.Petersburg Museum of History. Denise Spear, a park ranger at DeSoto National Memorial, Bradenton, portrays Francesca de Hinstrosa, a woman who was discovered diguised as a man, only when her pregnacy began to show. Heavy with child, she was unable to escape a flaming building set on fire during the battle of Chicaza.
Women Who Set Sail for New Spain By Elizabeth Neily
There are few Floridian’s who have not heard the stories of Ponce de Leon’s search for the ellusive Fountain of Youth. Some are familiar with the stories of DeSoto’s tramp through the Southeast. Fewer still are familiar with the stories of the desperate trek of the Panifilo de Narvaez Expedition. All elementatry school children learn that Pedro Menendez founded St. Augustine in 1565, yet how many have heard of the stories of the women who accompanied those early expeditions to colonize Florida. We tend to forget that women are an essential element in the founding of a colony. Women are the homemakers, the childbearers, and it is they who give a colony its roots. Women left behind their families and friends to follow their husbands to a strange hostile land. Women braved the perils of a sea voyage in unsafe ships only to become mere footnotes in our history books. “On the seventeenth day of the month of June of1527, Governor Pánifilo de Narváez departed from the port of San Lúcar de Barrameda by Your Majesty’s authority and orders, to conquer and govern the provinces which lie on the mainland from the River of Palms to Cape Florida.” On that very first expedition to found a new colony in Florida, no less than 10 women accompanied their husbands. With them they brought only the bare essentials— the clothing on their backs, perhaps a pot for cooking, and maybe some bed linens. Everything else they would have to acquire in the new land. Approximately 600 men, women, and slaves were crowded on to five tiny caravels. The holds of the ships were packed with horses and war dogs for the cabelleros and with food and supplies for the voyage. Everyone was cramped onto the deck day and night. There were no sleeping quarters, no toilets, no shelter from the sun nor the rain. One of the crew might prepare food for the entire company over a little iron fireplace on deck. Fresh food was scarce. The daily fare would probably have consisted of a soup of salt pork or fish and ship’s biscuits known as “hardtack”. To quench their thirst - watered-down wine stored in cermaic jars. Perhaps they had some citrus fruit or dates or raisins for variety. That first expedition took three months to cross the Atlantic. Imagine how uncomfortable it would have been. Imagine the unwashed bodies, the filthy clothing, the rats and vermine crawling over you while you slept. Imagine the stench from the hold as the horses began to die. (Horses were put into slings to prevent their legs from being broken on the high seas. We now know that in order for a horse’s heart to pump, it must move its feet). Imagine the seasick
conquistordors leaning over the sides. This was no luxury cruise. One hundred and forty men deserted the expedition as soon as it reached Santa Domingo “because of the proposals and promises made to them by they people of that land.” Why would any woman in her right mind even consider such a venture? We must remember that women in 16th century Spain had little to no property rights . Her prospects were limited to either marrying, becoming a nun or remaining a spinster under the care of her parents. She was most often married off to whomever her father thought fit, property and postition being more highly regarded than compatibility and love. In The Account , Alvar Nuñez de Cabeza de Vaca, the company’s treasurer, grimly recorded the following incident. “We left the three ships — because the other one had already been lost on the breakers — which remained at great risk, with little food and up to one hundred persons on board, among them ten married women. One of them had told the Governor many things that happened on the voyage before they had happened. When he wanted to enter the land, she told him not to, bevcause she believed that none of thoise who went with him would leave that land. She believed that if anyone should get out, God would perform very great miracles for him, but she believed that few or none would escape. The Governor then answered her that he and all those who were penetrating the country with hom were going to fight and conquer many very strange lands and peoples. He said that he was very sure that in conquereing them many would die, but that the survivors would be fortunate and would be very rich, since her had heard that there were many riches in that land. It seems that the woman in question had visited a fortuneteller while in Castile, who had accurately predicted that the expedition would be doomed if it did not settle at the place where it landed. Cabeza de Vaca went on to explain “that everyone there clearly heard to that woman tell the other women, whose husbands were going inland and exposing themselves toi such great danger, that they should not count on their returning and ought to look for someone else to marry as she intended to do. She did so, and she and the other women married and cohabitated with the men who remained on the ships.” From our 20th century viewpoint we may judge these women as heartless, selfserving individuals but in 16th Century Europe, it would have been an absolutely necessity for them to be married just in order for them to fed. A widow lost all See Women page14.
LEARNING FROM THE PAST Prehistory Comes Alive at Paynes Prairie
by Hermann Trappman Understanding our prehistory can have a profound effect on a person’s appreciation of the world and his relationship to it. Folks exploring the subject, reach far back into the very roots of Florida’s and America’s first people. They open up a unique window on this fabulous countryside. It’s a wonder greater than the Grand Canyon, as moving as the most profound experience, and it expands with each new discovery. Prehistory is absolutely entangled with environmental ideas and feelings. As Florida expanded into a widening glacial landscape, bays, lakes and even rivers dried up. Finally Florida was about twice as large as it is to day. Northwest winds from the frozen ice fields would have swept south during the winters. The ancient people may have known temperatures as cold as -13° below freezing Fahrenheit. The glaciation ended about 12,000 years ago. Once the glaciers began breaking down, the oceans came flooding back. In the first thousand years, the sea level rose almost 79 feet. At each stage our ancient people were confronted with shifting environments and the animals who inhabited them. To understand the wonder of those ancient people you have to reconstruct their world. The Knap-In at Paynes Prairie collects those ideas together. Folks arrive from Virginia, Nebraska, Texas, and from all over Florida. They come together to share a sense of discovery. James Dunbar, Archaeological Field Supervisor from Tallahassee, gave a thought provoking presentation about that ancient world of mammoths and the people who hunted them. visitors leaned forward as he described new finds on the Aucilla River in north Florida. He spun images of mastodons climbing down the worn banks of a dried out river system to get at the water in the ponds which remained. Excavations have even found mastodon dung left behind. The dung formed a peaty layer which seems almost fresh. From the dung, scientists can learn the kinds of vegetation available for the mastodons to eat. Bone remains from the mastodons tells a story of seasonal migration to Florida. It is easy to imagine that they were winter visitors. For some of the folks attending the Knap-In, their awakening came as kids when they discovered their first artifacts. Yet, they wanted something more, they yearned for that understanding which comes from being part of the process. Many turned to replicating artifacts to learn the skills of the ancient people. Stone blades of gem-like beauty exhibit technical skill and an intelligent eye for the material. In kaleidoscopic colors, rocks reflect the sunlight. When you see the result of the exhibited craftsmanship, it is obvious that enterprise must result. The product of a lifetime study is caringly laid out in wooden cases. It has become artwork for sale, a way to subsidize the passion. Folks arrive with pick-ups and trailers filled with rock — the stuff of future sculptings. Many come just to share their sense of discovery. Tucked beneath the shade of tall pines, Terry Powell demonstrates our ancient people’s use of shell tools. A whelk, over a foot long, has a handle driven through it. Terry demonstrates it’s use as an ax. Chips from a medium sized oak log fly with determined certainty. With an adz, the blade made out of a shell, he quickly cuts the bark off another log. The crowd stares in fascination hardly able to believe how well these ancient shell tools work. “And they’re just out there in the water,” he notes. “It was their resourcefulness,” referring to the ancients, “which made the
world around them so handy.” Tom Downes, a police officer from Tampa, exhibited tools fashioned from deer bone, beautifully fashioned stone points, and gourds with ancient motifs carefully painted and cut into them. One gourd had interlocking lizards around its mouth. the lizards are rendered with a natural harmony which made you want to touch them. “The gourd’s surface offers so many opportunities to express yourself,” he points out
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generosity to students of times-gone-by has helped put practical experience behind artifacts. I had made a few crude points throughout the year. I handed them to Bill. “Well, you’ve done real good,” he encouraged. “It’s time you took the next step. Hold your hand like this,” he gestured. “Tuck a piece of leather in there so ya don’t cut yourself. Now hold the point kind-a-like this. You’ll discover what’s comfortable for you.” Bill has the openness of spirit which encourages personal growth. John Allen was Bill’s student. I remember him as a young man with a raw desire to learn the art of flint-knapping. I see him now as a man grown into himself, filled with the certainty of personal discovery. The student and the teacher are a perfect match. “Here,” John hands me a
chunk of flint, “turn it around in your hands and look for the high spots.” I point one out. “That’s right,” he says. “Now you’ve got to grind the edge nearest to it.” I grind it with another stone. He looks at it. “Now,” he hands me a tool designed to strike flint, “hit it gently but follow through. Try to imagine striking something just beyond the stone.” My hand misses the stone completely. “That’s right,” John smiles, “Take a few practice swings.” I try again. This time there is a sharp crack. A beautiful flake of flint falls away. I look up into eyes filled with encouragement. John Allen’s skill has matured now, and he is taking his place as an artist. •
Tom Downs, Tampa police officer, demonstrates flint knapping. His design work on goards caught the spectators attention. texture and relief, “That’ it’s captured my enthusiasm.” His energy is contagious. The visitors he is talks to are riveted. Michael Stuckey demonstrated pit firing - the same method used by our ancient people to make clay pottery. His work models ancient design elements into modern expression. Pat Zimmer exhibited the craft of pine needle baskets. The folks who carved stone blades are some of the best craftsmen in the eastern United States. Claud VanOrder and Mark Bracken are renowned for their talent. With a twinkle in his eye, Claud offered us a formula for some ancient glue. “It’s pine pitch and deer tallow,” amusement played at the corner of his lips. “And if some other
Claud VanOrder demonstrates his artistery in stone. stuff falls in, it only helps,” he teased. The last ingredient was charcoal. He made us guess. “Come on over and I’ll give ya some pointers,” Bill Hicks offered. Bill’s smile warms the atmosphere around him. His
Michael Stuckey demonstrated the ancient method of firing pottery. His artwork blends ancient designs with modern enthusiasm. The Knap-In at Paynes Prairie has grown into a wonderful variety of experiences.
Paynes Prairie State Preserve is an 18,000-acre preserve located on U.S. 441, just south of Gainesville and north of Micanopy. In 1774 noted naturalist William Bartram wrote about this unique area. More Info: (352)466-3397
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determined his tread. Their ink-spilled shadows spread toward the east behind them. The cows are intent on feeding. Calves, squealing with pleasure, play a game of tag between the great forest of their parents legs. The bull forms a huge silhouette against the last glow in the west. A pair of night hawks sweep by on silent wings. There are many grasslands animals we haven’t seen, but is was a fairly good day for Florida at the height of the Illinoian Glaciation about 285,000 years ago. In the forest shaded valley’s, cradling crystalline rivers, there is a totally different variety of animals. Their fossil remains can weave us very different glimpses into the stories of Florida’s ancient past.
This bull mammoth, Based on the Aucilla River mammoth now housed in the Florida Museum of Natural History, wanders across a grasslands just south of Present Tampa Bay. The trees in the Background are the pine border to nearing an ancient river. Numerous fragments of mammoth teeth have been found on each side of the Bay.
SCENES FROM THE PAST
bees and wasps. They were all their in that ancient story. Your attention may be dawn to the eastern edge of a distant tree-line by the “uh-uh” croaks of crows. Just visible, a herd of a dozen tawny deer steps out from the blue forest shadows and begins to graze. Their tails flick back and forth by Hermann Trappman chasing flies away. A herd or horses drifts slowly across the distant field to the south. Their dust Florida is so much a place of change. leaves the horizon tinged with yellow. So Its transformations can be rapid and sweepfar it would be hard to determine that you ing. In the late sixties and early seventies, are looking at an ancient landscape. So lets the Tampa Bay area was finishing a feverdrop some extinct fauna into it. ish phase of waterfront development. New Behind the horses is a darker mass. the real-estate was being dredged up out of the last of the horses seems to trot out of its Bay. Folks who had once had waterfront way. As the shape nears we begin to make property in the late fifties, found the shoreout individual animals. They are bison, but line extended and new housing crowding bison with a difference. Their horns are far their once beautiful waterfront view. For greater than modern buffalo. The animals home-owners who ended up on a canal or are larger too. Their grunts and low honkworse, dredging was decidedly unpleasant. ing groans blend into the sound of a mob. For the eel grass environments filled with The cows have calved on the prairies of colorful seahorses, orange and red starfish, Florida, and now as the summer is coming and rich oyster beds it spelled disaster. But, on, and the grassland is drying up, they will for folks looking for Florida’s prehistory, look for new pasture to the northwest. As dredging offered an incredible vision. they near, the sounds become recognizable. Fossils boiled out of the dredging The calves ball and their mothers assure almost everywhere its voracious teeth them with a low groan. touched down. The approaches to the Suddenly, as quiet as smoke, two Terra Ceia and the Skyway bridges were golden lions appear behind us. Their strewn with horse, bison, and fragments eyes intently studying the herd. A third, of mammoth teeth. The new Port Manafirst stretching and yawning, trots over to tee was simply covered by fossil shark join them. The big cat snorts the dust out teeth, the endocasts of ancient shellfish, of its nose and scents the air. It sits with and the remains of early horse, rhino, and its companions. One of them picks out a fragments of gomphotherium (an ancient movement along the tree-line. The deer elephant-like critter). have gone, but there is a massive dark A walk across a dozen sites along the shadow gliding in and out of the shadows bay was like a stroll through the pages of and the palmettos. this landscape’s ancient book. Another lion catches the movement. You might say, that fossils are the stuff Their glances become nervous and soon that dreams of ancient environments are they stand and trot off toward the west on made up of. What was the world like when a path intersecting the herd. They’re not those animals lived here? The dreams of hunting, instead they are avoiding the great fossils can offer us intense stories. dark muscular shape prowling the edge of Most animals have a habitat which the forest. they are comfortable living in. When you Although we can’t make it out, we find a fossilized horse tooth, you can feel instinctively know it’s a short faced fairly certain that pasture occurred nearby. bear. The biggest bear which ever lived. Today when you consider pasture, what It pauses, pawing something toward its other animals come to mind? If you imagmuzzle, then continues its search. The ine a distant pine, check out its branches lions have disappeared into the cloud of for a hawk. From the hawks high outpost, acrid dust as the herd of buffalo passed. it searches for mice, rats, and even snakes. The bear sniffs the air and wanders north. The grasslands would have been alive with About a hundred yards in front of the bear the songs of crickets. Butterflies drifted something moves. Its hard to make it out. from bouquets of flowers colored by the The bear’s head turns right and left. It season. The air around the flowers would doesn’t seem to see the movement. The have been filled with the hum of solitary animal in front of the bear appears dome
shaped. There are giant tortoises out here. The bear shuffles toward it. The critter turns away from us. It has a strong bony looking tail. It’s not a tortoise. In a rush, the bear is upon it. Sand fountains up. It’s impossible to see anything through the cloud of dust. Thumping crashing sounds are punctuated by grunts and low snarls. Finally we can see the bear. It sits on its haunches with one great paw on the dome-like shell. The strange animal is half buried. The bear looks toward the ragged remainder of the herd of buffalo moving away. It rises and lopes off toward the north. Now we can take a look at this strange creature protected by its thick shell. The armor is made up of interlocking almost flower-like bony patterns. Fine hair sticks up from the joints. It’s definitely not a Tortoise. The creature rocks slightly side to side. A short, bony, armored head appears. It’s a glyptodon, similar to a giant armadillo, but with rigid shell-like armor. Almost as quiet as the settling dust, a pride of saber-tooth cats pad by. They’re trailing the herd for any opportunities. Stealthy and very watchful, they have no desire to stumble into the lions or the bear. In the rust tinted fading evening light, a herd of mammoth breaks out of the trees and strolls out onto the grassland. It is a herd of cows and calves. An old male attends them. How noble his mass. How
This is a top view of an upper bison tooth. This fossil tooth was found at Sunset Beach in Pinellas County.
Glyptodon scute (shell fragment) found at Bayway Isles in south Pinellas County.
Top view of an upper horse tooth found at Port Manatee, Manatee Co.
Similar to a giant armadillo, the glyptodon’s armor formed a solid rigid shell covering its back and flanks. Fragments of glyptodon shell has been found all around the Tampa Bay area and inland.
Gamble Plantation Confederate Memorial’s 39th Annual Open House
by Hermann Trappman
While snow storms swept northern-
ers inside for warmth, the March, Sunday afternoon was clear and sunny in central Florida. A steady stream of cars poured into Gamble Plantation. Civil War Florida opened its doors and people flooded in. The grounds of Gamble plantation was overflowing with enthusiastic visitors as well as fascinating demonstrators. George Nowicki had recently moved down from New York State with his family. They came out to discover Florida’s heritage. “Where we come from is loaded with history,” George said, “and we’re very familiar with it. We just moved down a few months ago. It’s natural that we should explore the history here.” Long, tall Louie Pluta, dressed in denim overhauls, talked about the old days on the farm. A lightning rod became the topic of a different lecture. “Do you know why a tree may explode when its struck by lightning,” he ask the audience crowded around him? “Electricity,” came an answer. “Fire,” came another. “What is one of our most powerful resources,” Louie looked at the inquisitive faces surrounding him? The guy who had shouted electricity stuck to his answer. “Atomic power provides the heat to produce steam,” Louie punctuated the idea with a long index finger. “The steam builds up to push a piston. Sometimes when lightning hits a tree, traveling into its core, it causes the moisture inside the tree to violently expand. Wham! The tree explodes in half.” Louie enjoyed his audience and they obviously enjoyed him. Bab Boger worked at a large quilting frame. Her skilled fingers danced over the carefully designed patterns. The needle disappeared into the fabric only to quickly appear again. “I love to sew,” she smiled up at the onlookers. “When my husbands grandmother passed away, I was given a
trunk full of unfinished quilts. Her name was Mary Anne Hoffer and she came from Ireland. She didn’t like electricity and never used a machine. She sewed everything by hand. I feel the same way, there is something very special about a hand sewn quilt.” Kathy Hammond sat before a spinning wheel which appeared to be Civil War period, but on her lap was a much smaller spinning machine. “This machine is from India,” she said. “It was designed by Mahatma Gandhi. He believed that the people of India should be self sufficient.” As she talked, the little spinning machine whirred away, drawing a wad of cotton fiber into thread and quickly winding it on a spindle. “It’d take a long time to make a dress that way, “ a visitor commented. A woman, dressed in 1860 house wife fashion, leaned into the shade of the tent. “Have you ever heard the Civil War song, The Home Spun Dress,” she asked? With the Union blockade so effective, women actually had to resort to making fabric for their dresses. Someone remembered Scarlet O’Hara using the curtains to make her ball-gown. Susan Eppes, living in Tallahassee during the War Between the States, describes how the women of the manor had to ask their slave women to teach them how to spin and weave. For the people watching the thread pull out of an undefined mass, the story of the Gamble Plantation spun into the fabric of a greater drama. Here the young Nation struggled with its own difficulties. Here on this plantation slaves worked their lives away for the profit of the wealthy, the owner. Young men left this place to die with thousands of others on battlefields to the north. What was the war really about: slavery, economy, states rights? After the war to free slaves, the country turned its eyes west to attempt genocide of the original Americans. I don’t think that a people who fought for racial freedom could say, “The only good Indian is a dead Indian.”
9
In the north the sweat mills would offer far lower living conditions than slavery. The coal mines, steel mills, and factories were forced to offer almost fair wages. Henry Ford’s radical notion, to pay workers enough to enable them to buy their own product, was an amazing new thought. No, I don’t believe that the Civil War was fought to free anybody. African Americans are still fighting for equality. Standing there in the warm Florida sun, the symbols of a by-gone era drifting by, I wondered about the issues and if they were really resolved in our present. A recent TV interview with the developer of the Citrus Mall contained the slavery of our ideas. “There wasn’t any-
thing here but dirt,” he gestured. For him. Mother Earth is just dirt. The people who flock to the mall are folks like you and I. Will future generations judge us as the people who squandered the resources of our planet and left their time hard? It’s not easy to change a cherished belief, or an economy, or what we find pleasure in. History is the story, our story, and like us it’s filled with the drama of change. Only through memory can we grow and develop healthy goals. We cannot pass judgment on the past or we shall be ensnared by our modern prejudice, instead we can open our minds and our hearts to understanding. The Gamble Plantation’s Open House opened many doors.
Gabrielle Nowicki, age 9, is offered a taste of sugar cane by Missie Carey. Gabrielle recently moved down from New York with her family.
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Mac Perry Black Conquistador
Visitors crowd the entrance to the Gamble Mansion State Historical site. Most of the folks I talked to were from northern states.
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Chief Micanopy Head Chief of the Seminole Nation 1835-1842
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10
A Woman’s World in 16th Century Spain by Elizabeth Neily
The influence of the expeditions to the America’s had a profound effect on the standard of living in 16th and 17th centuries Spain and upon the culture that had been soprofoundly influenced by the Moors since the 8th Century. Thehouses were square, with a central patio embellished with flowers and vines, and sometimes freshened by a fountain. All the rooms on the ground floor opened on to the patio, and if there was another story it would have a continuous balcony to which all the upper rooms had access. In other parts of Spain most houses had an entrancehall or zag24~n,a low room with an earth or paved floor which had no light except that from the doorway. It was there that people of modest means spent the better part of the day, for the alcoves which opened on to the zagudn were completely dark and served only for sleeping. In the richer bourgeois houses this vestibule was tiled and furnished with pieces of fine furniture. In one corner a staircase led to a floor containing living- and reception-rooms, which were not often used during the cold weather; for it was the general custom throughout most of Spain to spend the hottest months in the ground-floor rooms, which were kept cool by frequent sprinklings of water on the flagstones. The walls of the zagudn, like those of the other rooms, were usually whitewashed, with the lower part covered with rush or esparto matting ‘to prevent,’ says Madame d’Aulnoy, ‘the chill of the walls from incommoding those who lean against them’. The first floor consisted of an antechamber at the top of the stairs where the servants received the guests; then came the suite of estrados (drawing-rooms), placed one after the other, the number of which was related more to the number in the family than to its social status. Religious pictures, mirrors, and tapestries adorned the walls; the floors were flagged or tiled and covered with carpets to lessen the cold in the winter months. The houses of very rich people had a state salon (estrado de cumplimiento) for ceremonial receptions. Usually it occupied the middle of the apartment and its windows opened on to a balcony of forged iron, the angles of which were decorated with balls of copper. It was in this room
that the splendours of the master of the house were displayed: pictures (nearly all with religious themes); heavy, carved, wooden chests; delicate chests of drawers sometimes inlaid with mother-of-pearl and ivory; sideboards and what-nots crammed with plates and dishes of silver or silvergilt. Very often this salon was divided into two by a wooden screen. On one side there might be a dais covered with velvet, taffeta, or silk, and strewn with cushions on which sat - or rather squatted in Moorish fashion - the mistress of the house, her daughters, and their guests. The space on the other side of the screen was reserved for the men, who sat on chairs or stools. Heating was provided by large metal braziers mounted on wooden stands in which were burnt olive stones, which gave off very little odor; the lighting came from oil lamps or candelabra of copper or silver. According to one contemporariy writer: ‘The most ordinary housewife is not content with a single salon furnished with Turkish carpets and cushions of velvet. She must have three, each more elegant than the other; the braziers and the what-nots must be of silver; the carpets, canopies, and pictures will not do unless they are imported from Flanders, from the Indies, or from Italy . . . He who sees his neighbour displaying such a treasure, not considering himself inferior but often superior to him, wishes to do the same, regardless of his income and runs himself into debt and ruins himself: all this because it is the thing to do, no matter the means employed.’ This public room contrasted dramatically the other parts of the house or apartment, which were reserved for the family’s private life. They were often extremely uncomfortable and despite the fact that glass windows were becoming increasingly popular in the seventeenth century, many rooms still saw the light of day only through windows whose panes were made of paper or oiled parchment. There were no ‘privies’; and chamber-pots, nicknamed ‘servants’, were kept in a corner of the room or under the bed until nightfall, when their contents could be emptied into the streets, whence a nauseating stench drifted
back into the house. The number of servants one could employ was another symbol of status. Sometimes the rich had so many laves that they were forced to rent one or more neighboring houses just to house their servants. A woman might have one or more slaves as escorts, dressed in flamboyant Moorish fashions. The laws of Spain prohibited proivate citizens and even innkeepers from hoarding food. Each day it was necessary to go to market to buy that day’s supply of food. Meals very simple, except on religious holidays or when honoring a disguished guest. Then the sky was the limit for the sumptous menu. When, in 1605, the Lord High Admiral of England came to Spain, the banquet which was set before him consisted of 1,200 dishes of meat and fish, without counting the desserts, the whole in such abundance that passers-by were allowed to crowd in to help themselves as they pleased. Meat was prepared in a stew or marinated with all sorts of spices such as pimento, garlic and saffron. One dish constisted thin slices of chicken gently simmered in a sauce made of milk, sugar and rice flour. During Lent they would eat fish and eggs. Those of modest income ate lamb or kid while the poor ate beans, artichokes, cheese onions and olives. Desserts mainly consisted of fresh fruit like grapes pomegranets and oranges. Fruit pies, eggyolks preserved in sugar and various kinds of almond cakes were popular. ‘They are surprisingly abstemlous as regards wine,’ remarks the Countess d’Aulnoy. ‘The women never drink it, and the men use so little that half a setier (about a quarter of a litre) is enough for a day. One could not out- rage them more than to accuse them of being drunk.’ On the other hand, there was a great demand for iced drinks - orange juice, strawberry water, and orgeat - which, thanks to the establishment of ‘snow-pits’, it was now possible to prepare in the summer months. But the Spanish drink ~’?ar excellence was chocolate, which, originating from America, had become extremely popular among
all classes because of its very reasonable price. People drank it not only at breakfast, but on every occasion throughout the day, swilling it down (for it was very thick) with a glass of water. In the majority of houses, both bourgeois and aristocratic, there was no diningroom. Dishes were served on little tables in the ordinary living-room. In Castille, and especially in Andalusia, where theMoorish influence remained most strong, only the men sat on chairs when they ate; the women and children squatted by the side of the table, supported by cushions. Lunch was quickly dispatched and, after the siesta, which was obligatory even in winter, the head of the family usually left the house to concern himself with business or pleasure, for the greater part of a man’s social life, as in most Mediterranean countries, was spent outside the family circle. Women were confined to their homes most of the time leaving only to go to the church. But it seems that even the most cloistered lady when given an opportunity could let her hair down. ‘Husbands who want their wives to behave are such tyrants that they treat their wives almost as slaves, fearing that reasonable freedom would emancipate them from all the rules of modesty, which are scarcely understood and badly observed by the fair sex,’ wrote Brunel, a French traveller in Spain during the time. The proper Spanish women stayed at home, looking after the children, or occupying themselves with little jobs of sewing or embroidering or, more rarely, reading some pious book or some romantic work. Visits by lady friends sometimes relieved the monotony of this existence. Squatting on the dais and the carpet, the women talked of trifling matters, of the latest fashions, and of amorous intrigues, always sipping the inevitable chocolate or chewing bits of bucaro, a special kind of potter’s clay with an aromatic flavour, which was imported from the Spanish Indies. Madame d’Aulnoy tells us that Spanish women were so fond of it that often their confessors merely imposed on them the penance of abstinence from it for a whole day.
Actin’ Wild and Crazy in the Streets!
by Elizabeth Neily
Glory Weyman, portrays a crossbowman in the parade.
Menendez Birthday Festival Parade St Augustine February 1999
Like the religious festivals of old, this parade brought out costumed reenactors, as well as the clergy. In Seville in 1575 - the municipal authorities organized competitions and gave prizes for the best floats, decorations, and dances. Fortunately no-one in this crowd of on-lookers knew of the tradition of throwing rotten eggs and oranges at the masqueraders.
Dancing seemed to be the national passion. Cervantes wrote in one of his plays ‘He is not a Spaniard who does not dance as he emerges from his mother’s womb.’ People danced everywhere, and everyone danced. At court and in aristocratic society, dances were measured and formal. In paradea, professional men and women dancers performed various kinds of allegorical ballet on movable stages. Sometimes the dance crossed the threshold of the churches, and before the High Altar the danse des six was performed . But the dances of the gentry were very different from those of the common people, which were lively and sometimes frenzied, and danced to the throbbing of guitars, to tambourines, and to the snapping and clicking of fingers leading a contemporary moralist to ask: “What decency remains in a woman who in these diabolical exercises abandons all seemliness and restraint, who in her antics reveals her breast, her feet, and those other parts which both nature and art require to remain concealed? And what are we to say o£ those provocative glances, the way of turning her head and tossing her hair, of the twirling dancing, and the grimaces which are typical of the saraband, the polvillo, and other dances?’ Mascarades was another common form of entertainment from princes to paupers. The festival of Corpus Christie See Actin’ … page 12
FLORIDA GULFCOAST RAILROAD MUSEUM by Hermann Trappman
For a truly hands on experience, the Florida Gulfcoast Railroad Museum is the real feel of an idea that opened the Florida frontier. The Second Seminole War had left Florida dotted with forts. The period following, watched the growth of port towns. On the eve of the Civil War, Florida was poised to begin its love afair with the railroad. The desperate struggle to the north left Florida sinking in an ocean of poverty. The adventure of the locomotive stalled. When Hamelton Disston bought up huge tracts, the dream of a state connected by rail was revived. Everything was manual labor in those days. forests were cut down to provide wooden ties. Men made the bed and laid the ties, muscled the rails off a flat cars and carried them to the next link on the line. Sledgehammers pounded the huge spikes into place and the men moved on. Crews sweated under the Florida sun to lay as much rail as possible. They were rough men who worked hard, fought hard, and moved with the expanding frontier. Steam engines huffed and puffed into little frontier villages. Railroad tycoon Henry Flagler built the Flagler Hotel in downtown Tampa. The major landmark then, it is almost a symbol of the city. St. Petersburg, was a railhead. Its first hotel, the Detroit, was built by the railroad. St. Petersburg was named by Peter Demens, the developer of the Orange Belt Railroad. He named it for his home town in Russia. Trains brought winter visitors south and carried fruit and produce north. They opened up a landscape crossed mostly by a few horse trails. On the East coast, Plant drove his crews up the long coast and bridged the Keys. It was amazing. The railroad brought people south to Palm Beach, Ft.Lauderdale, and Maimi. The Florida Gulfcoast Railroad Museum brings the feel of the Railroad back to life. Only open on weekends, the train uses tracks owned by the Seaboard Airline. Three engines work the three coaches. The ride lasts almost an hour. It’s a personal thing, life’s pace seems to slow down, time to share with new friends made on the spot. James and Veta Marshall from Lake Wales sat in the seats just across the isle. Since their daughter has married and struck out on her own, the marshalls have traveled all over the State. For Veta, its her first train ride. Her husband remembers his last train ride when he was 14 years. It bridged the distances between his family. He remembers the sanwhiches they packed along. Veta’s wonderful smile hides behind
a shy hand. Her eyes sparkle at the thought that they are out on a date. The Marshalls have been married 23 years. She talks about working in a honey factory. Farm fields click by. Cows standing in a pasture chew their cud and watch us pass. Lots of kids. Parents and grand parents share the memories of train rides which took them to new jobs, new places, or a return home. It’s an all volunteers organization. The small fare helps keep this American vision alive.
A JOURNEY INTO A TIME GONE BY
11
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by Gene Strattmann Our excursion starts out and ends in the town of Parrish across the highway from the original Parrish train station which burned down several years ago. At one time Parrish was growing and prosperous community with a couple of grocery stores, restaurants, dry goods store, hotels, barber shop and doctors offices. The railroad offered direct access to markets for locally grown fruit and vegetables. With twice daily service people could travel down to Bradenton, Sarasota or Venice in the morning and return in the afternoon. Our excursion takes you north to a place called Willow, once a regular stop on the railroad and once the location of a large logging mill that spread out into woods to harvest long leaf yellow pine and cypress. Willow was a company owned town and had a company store, houses for the workers and a saloon. The town was provided electricity by the same Corliss steam engine that powered the mill. The lumber ran out in the early 1930’s and the town was abandoned. The only evidence of the once thriving town is the concrete foundation of the sawmill on the west side of our tracks. As we ramble along this pioneer railroad line the engineer sounds the whistle with two long blasts, a short blast and then another long blast as the train approaches and crosses Dickey Road the only grade crossing on our trip. The Dickey Road area has been the scene of several train robberies and attacks by the Confederate Army, but not to worry we have never lost a passenger yet!! Enroute to Willow the train slows as we pass through a cypress swamp that seems strangely located in the Florida prairie. This area has been named Nichols Station by members of the railroad in memory of one our founders Charlie Nichols who thought the swamp area was the most beautiful spot along our line. In railroad terminology a station is defined as any place designated on the time table by name, it doesn’t necessary mean that there is a depot at the location. Once the train arrives at Willow, the engine uncouples from one end of the train and comes down the siding to recouple on the other end of the train to take us back to Parrish again. The entire train crew are volunteer members of the museum. All memebrs start out as car hosts and as they desire they can advance by training toward different job levels, working their way up to Trainman, Conductor, Fireman and even Engineer. The train runs every weekend of the year with the exception of Christmas weekend so that our volunteers may spend time with their families. The train runs rain or shine on Saturday and Sunday. The times are Saturday at 11: AM / 1: PM / 3: PM (January to April) and 11: AM / 1: PM (May to December) Sunday trains run 1: PM & 3: PM all year. Ticket Fares: $8.00 Adult, $5.00 Child From Interstate 75, take Exit 43, State Road 301 to Parrish, look for the sign.
EVERY 1ST FRIDAY GALLERY WALK
Gulfport Spring Art Festival
Easter Saturday, April, 3 • 10am -5pm
GULFPORT HISTORICAL SOCIETY 5301 28th Ave. So • Gulfport • 33707 HOURS M-TH 11am to 9pm Fri & Sat. 11am to 11pm
6:00 pm - 9:30 pm
Sponsored by Gulfport Arts Council City of Gulfport Museum Hours Monday - Friday 2:00 - 4:00 Saturday 10- 12
(727) 327-0505
Winner!! Voted Best Cuban Food In 3rd Annual “Best of the Beaches” Contest
Traditional Hand Prepared Cuban Favorites Including:
Chicken Picata • Picadillo-Palomilla Steak • Roast Pork Chicken & Yellow Rice • Cuban Sandwiches • Shrimp Ajillo Shrimp Boracho • Grilled and Fried Fish ving Ser s for • Black Beans and Rice Salads a l ! l s e Pin 00 day And Many Freshly Prepared Desserts r7 ove
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All Entrees Include White Rice, Black Beans, Plantains & Cuban Bread
Beer/Wine/ Sangria Catering/Private Parties Totally Smoke free Se Habla Espanol Upstairs Dining in our locally sponsored Art Gallery
Navis, Alex, Cyndi, and Kyle pose with Gene Strattman for a memory at the Florida Gulfcoast Railroad Museum.
Actin’ continued from page 11 was the most popular religious festival. The king and his court would lead a torch parade through the streets in gold and silver fancy dress. Withthem came the paper mache puppets in the shape of giants and dwarfs with enourmus heads. Then came the tarasque—a feroicious looking dragon on wheels covered in scales, with gaping maw with three tongues and rows of pointed teeth—which was intended to scare the little children. People in costumes, some as animals wound their way through the streets, singing and dancing and playing practical jokes. Just like today, reenactors played out the battles of the Moors against the Christians, and sometimes whole towns became involved. Long before the day of the combat, the people would create the scenery, make costumes and rehearse the different episodes of the battles. Estebanillo Gonzalez, passing through a hamlet in Aragon, writes: ‘We found two companies of farmlabourers, one dressed as Moors with crossbows, the other as Christians, with firearms. They had built in the middle of the place a castle of wood, of medium height and size, where the Moors were to be. The next day, just as the procession appeared, the company of Christians would launch a general assault, and, after triumphing over the Moors, would lead them captive and in chains along all the streets, firing their arquebuses as a sign of victory. Bull-fighting was associated with the most solemn ceremonies and it was not unusual to see one succeed the other on the same day. The passion for the bull-
fight was widespread and was shared by all social classes. The Papacy, which had forbidden the clergy to attend bull-fights in 1572, at least on holy days, was obliged, some years later, to reverse its decision at the express wish of the king of Spain and because little notice had been taken of the prohibition. The fact is that the corrida- to which the Spanish code of the Partidas, drawn up in the thirteenth century. devoted several articles - had become the ‘national sport’. The king, the local authorities, the guilds, and the aristocracy all organized bull-fights; they figured in all the great festivals, both sacred and secular. There were no bull-rings (plazas de toros) specially built for the purpose (the first was built in the eighteenth century), and the spectacle was generally staged in the main square of a town, the entrances of which were blocked up, and stands were erected for the public. Yet another popular diversion was the theater. At least five wagons were required to set up some of the autos by Calderon. In addition, flat wagons were joined together to serve as a continuous platform, often more than twenty yards in length, on which werc erected more and more elaborate sets. These were often several tiers, representing the heavens, the earth, and the underworld; and contrivances, often improvised, made it possible to have certain quick changes the appearance of celestial spirits, scenes from the underworld, tempests, etc. •
Hispaniola (hîs˝pen-yo´le), 29,530 sq mi (76,483 sq km), subtropical island with abundant rainfall, in the WEST INDIES. It is divided between HAITI (W) and the DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. The island was discovered in 1492 by Columbus and has at times been known as Española and Saint-Domingue. 1493 - Christopher Columbus builds a fort on the island of Hispaniola using wreckage from the Santa Maria, he leaves 44 men at Fort La Navidad, he sets sail for home January 4 in the Niña, is joined 2 days later by Martín Pinzón in the Pinta, but is afterwards separated from Pinzónby a storm. He reaches Lisbon March 4 after having been delayed for 6 days by the Portuguese governor of the Azores, and arrives at Palos March 15. 1500 - Because of disreputable conditions in Hispaniola, Christopher columbus was replaced as governor in 1500 and returned to Spain in chains. 1501 - Spanish settlers at Santo Domingo introduce African slaves into Hispaniolathe first importation of blacks to the New World. 1502 - Some 2,500 new colonists arrive at Hispaniola. Ferdinand of Aragon installs Nicholas de Ovando as governor of the new colony. 1503 - The Spanish governor of Hispaniola Nicolas de Ovando receives royal authorization to relieve a labor shortage in the colony by importing African slaves. 1508 - The native population of Hispaniola in the Caribbean falls to 60,000, down from 200,000 to 300,000 in 1492. 1511 - Colonists in Hispaniola hear the Dominican friar Antonio de Montesinos preach a sermon against the enslavement of Indians. 1512 - Spanish colonists import black slaves into Hispaniola’s western settlement to replace Indian slaves who have died in great numbers from disease and from being worked to death in the Spaniards’ quest for gold. 1514 - Hispaniola has 17 chartered Spanish towns; the island’s native population falls to 14,000, down from 60,000 in 1508 1516 - The first sugar grown in the New World to reach Europe is presented to
Spain’s Carlos I by Hispaniola’s inspector of gold mines, who gives the king six loaves. Spanish missionary Fra Tomas de Berlanga introduces wheat, oats, and bananas into the Santo Domingo colony on Hispaniola. 1517 - Spanish priest Bartolome de Las Casas, 43, protests enslavement of Indians in the New World. Originally a Spanish planter in Hispaniola, he has been the first man to be ordained in the Western Hemisphere, has turned his efforts to serve the interests of the oppressed natives, and has voyaged back to Spain to plead the case of the Indians to Carlos I. 1522 - Hispaniola has a large-scale slave rebellion that will be followed in the next 31 years by at least 10 such uprisings in the Spanish possession 1532 - The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V establishes residence at Madrid and pays for improvements to the imperial palace with taxes on Caribbean sugar. 1533 - Hispaniola’s slaves stage another uprising which the conquistadors suppress with great bloodshed. 1548 - Hispaniola’s native population falls to 500 or less, down from 14,000 in 1514. 1562 - English navigator John Hawkins, 30, hijacks a Portuguese ship carrying African slaves to Brazil, trades 300 slaves at Hispaniola for ginger, pearls, and sugar, and makes a huge profit. His enterprise marks the beginning of English participation in the slave trade. 1586 - Sir Francis Drake surprises the heavily fortified city of San Domingo on Hispaniola January 1 and forces its Spanish governor to pay a heavy ransom. He captures Cartagena on the Spanish Main in February, first plundering and then ransoming the city. He burns San Agostin (St. Augustine), Florida, June 7.
This story was prepared from Daily Life in Spain in the Golden Age, Marcelin Defourneaux, 1979.
HISPANIOLA: The Legacy of Columbus
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Survival and Success Florida’s Unconquered Seminoles Open now through May 1999
Learn the incredible story of survival and success of the Seminole people, florida;s oldest living Native culture, presented in their own words, with historic artifacts, photographs, documents and clothing. Beginning in May, 1999
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BOOK REVIEWS ST. PETERSBURG AND THE FLORIDA DREAM 1888 –1950 by Raymond Arsenault Un. of Florida Press ISBN 0-8130-1667-3 Paperback $24.95
This is a soft cover edition of the 1988 centennial book. Dr. Arsenault brings an thoughtful intelligence to the overview of St. Petersburg’s history. He sees this as a human story with all its potential and difficulties. St. Petersburg and the Florida Dream offers the reader an important and diverse analyses of this city. “By 1907 there were several St. Petersburg’s, as in most early twentiethcentury American communities, middleand upper-class women, blacks, workingclass whites, businessmen and real estate promoters, tourists and winter residents– each of these groups constituted a distinct subcommunity. Even though such groups obviously had adjoining and sometimes overlapping interests, boundaries of space, culture, and economics frequently kept them apart. As local life became increasingly complex and stratified, distinctions of class, race and gender took on new meanings. This complexity was the source of much confusion and disorder, as patterns of interaction that previously had been entrusted to custom and tradition were turned over to the institutions of law and order.” The inhabitants who early settled the area, saw St. Petersburg as homeground. For them the area not only held a quaint charm but offered a resource base of fish, fruit, and tourism. They realized an uncertain balance with its natural charm and opportunity. Many of the early families exhibited a nurturing joy for this area. For some developers, St. Petersburg held the possibility of a growing bank account. The land, its natural beauty and its resources, was up for sale. “As the decade drew to a close, St. Petersburg’s furture looked bright. Sensing that it was on the verge of spiriling growth, the business community was full of ambitious plans and economic projections… One of the many local entrepreneurs willing to gamble on the furture was W. D. McAdoo, the owner of the northern half of Long Key. The property’s previous owner, H. Walter Fuller, had developed grandiose plans for the island and had been on the verge of constructing a bridge to the mainland when his empire collapsed in 1918. Although Fuller’s forced withdrawal from the bridge project nullified a hundredthousand-dollar county bond issue–the county had agreed to split the combined cost of the bridge and a brick road running the length of the island–McAdoo decided to build the bridge on his own. Known as the Pass-a-Grill Bridge, McAdoo’s rickety wooden span was opened to the public on February 4, 1919.” For the workers, especially its black workers, St. Petersburg had a mean spirited indifference at best. “Encouraged by statewide Jim Crow laws, the city’s transplanted Northern-
Lighthouse Books ABAA
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ers often mimicked Southern white supremacists. Indeed, it was sometimes the Northerners who pushed the hardest for segregation. In many cases, of course, more than mimicry was involved. Unaccustomed to a biracial society that entailed personal contact between blacks and whites, many northerners welcomed the restrictive barriers of Jim Crow.” “Most of St. Petersburg’s working women were black and poor. Employed as laundresses and maids, they shouldered much of the domestic burden in the more affluent sections of the white community. Many black families could not have survived without the income generated by female domestic work.” Mr. Arsenault reaches out to the real history makers of this city. He embraces those whose efforts built and bonded individual people into a community. “Despite its ethnic and religious homogeneity, St. Petersburg was a divided city–racially, regionally, and sexually–a community whose internal life was more complicated than outer appearance would suggest. Without the contributions of women, blacks, and Florida Crackers–the three groups who did most of the hard labor that sustained the city’s growth–St. Petersburg would have remained an unheralded village. And yet, with the exception of a few privileged upper-middle-class white women, these unsung heroes and heroines of the Florida dream were not allowed to participate in the city’s public life.” History is the study of how things came to be the way they are. Its your story. Raymond Arsenault offers you insights into this Florida city, its benefits and its problems. The real gift that Mr. Arsenault brings us is a perspective of the attitudes which built the foundation of this community. As a good historian, he develops a story of relationships and possibilities. If you are a resident of St. Petersburg, someone considering relocation, or a business hoping to work out of a sunny clime, this book offers a vision of the attitudes and patterns of this community. It will offer insight into recent events and to future prospects.•
AMIDST A STORM OF BULLETS The Diary of Lt. Henry Prince
tile wilderness of pinelands and swamps, countless unknown soldier’s met their untimely fate. The Diary of Lt. Henry Prince surfaced in October, 1978 to reveal more secrets on that dusty old trail to Florida’s past. In the preface to the book, Frank Laumer, who has dedicated much of his life to writing about this time in Florida’s history reveals that his discovery of the Prince diary was as interesting a story as the diary itself. Of his excitement at his first thunbing through the yellowed pages he wrote: “Here was no dry, indifferent account of nameless places, men, battles reckoned only by whether they were won or lost. Here was life, color, detail,.... Henry Prince had been a participant in, as well as an interested observer of the events through which the land of the Seminoles had been taken from them, blacks returned to slavery, thousands of lives lost, Florida set on the road that would transform it from a battleground into a nations’s playground.” Since its discovery, Laumer, his family and and friends have spent years painstakingly transribing the manuscript first by hand, then by typewritter and finally inputting it into a computer file. He researched Prince’s back-gound, discovering his roots on Moose Island off the coast of Maine and how he had managed to be appointed to West Point. The manuscript was then carefully annotated and finally offered to lovers of Florida history as a record of events and people involved in a prolonged and brutal war. Amid the horror of watching his men and fellow officers die on the battlefield and of illness (“The wagons are crowed with the sick and broken down”), a small passage stands out as a poignant scene from those times. While in Fort Brooke (Tampa), Prince writes of the Indian removal on April 11, 1836. “The friendly Indians embarked for the West — with evident reluctance — one made a farewell speech to his hereditary home. One who was not on board at eve-
ning said he would not go — the squaws laughed at us for not having succeeded against our foe. the most affecting thing of all is the disconsolate affliction of their dogs. when all the indians had gone on board they collected on the shore of the bay & all together, set a most pitiful cry.” Prince also gives glimpses into the discomforts of military life on the frontier when he writes on “May 1st. No sleep last night on a/c of the fleas & wet blankets. I went out of my tent took off my clothes rag by rag & shook then thoroughly. the moon was in eclipse at the time! No sooner had I donned the articles of my toilet again than the rascals were taken by a stampede & rode up & down the hollow of my back & legs of my trousers in the most tearing style! Long heavy rainstorm.” and then on the 2nd he wrote: “Slept out of my tent on a bench. Anyplace being more comfortable than a soaking wet flea hole.” The diary leaves the impression that Henry Prince was a complex man contending with bungling generals, extremes in weather, swinging from periods of stifling boredom to complete chaos. He has all the prejudices of white society yet he has the pathos of a man who has seens death linger in the camps.•
Dali Museum
Haslam’s
Edited by Frank Laumer University of Tampa Press ISBN 1-879852-59-4 Hardcover $14.05 The Seminole Wars occured during a period when the country was trying to expand its stronghold on the continent. Seminole Indians were in the heat of the battle to keep their homeland out of the hands of encroaching white settlers. Into this struggle came young officers straight out of West Point, to lead American troops into the longest, bloodiest and costliest war in American history. Fighting in the hos-
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BRIDGER’S RUN CRACKER WESTERN
by Jon Wilson Pineapple Press ISBN 1-56164-174-X hardcover $14.05 paperback $8.95
When a handsome, cocky New York kid, Tom Bridger, comes seeking adventure and fortune (and a long lost uncle) in Florida he certainly bit off a huge mouthful served up with a heap of Southern grits. This latest in the “Cracker Western” genre opens with the hero flailing about in Jacksonville harbor when his ship hits a sandbar, fighting it out on seedy frontier streets, ducking bullets on the Oklawaha River and escaping a kidnapping on a train to Ocala. Bridger literally stumbles into Tampa, after his employer, by the name of Sam Satin, has arranged for him to race the stage coach all the way to Tampa from Brooksville to prove that the Jon Wilson has captured the rough and tumble side of19th century Florida. Behind the genteel resort hotels catering to the northern tourists, Wilson paints a subculture of gamblers, real-estate speculators, thugs and assorted hustlers. He also meets the love of his life, Regal Miss Lilly, in the wilds of a Florida swamp. “The woman leaned the gun against
a wall, and Briger saw it was a .44 caliber Winchester, a powerful rifle suitable for hunting. He watched her go to a cupboard and take down two or three knives. “Maybe the shot woke you,” she said. “Bobcat. been after my animals. I waited for it all last night, got him just before dawn. Dang thing. skin it down and we’ll throw ot in that stewpot.” she noded at a kettle suspended over the hearth, where a pile of embers glowed red. Bridger saw that she was tall, likely not much shorter than hem asnbd stronglooking, built just a shade more stolidly than what he would call slender. she had black hair, falling below her shoulders but held in place by two combs. She wore a skirt that looked made of some animal hide and it reached just below the tops of her boots, also crafted from hide. she had on an ochre-colored long-sleeved shirt made of some lighter material, and bridger noticed a pendant lying over her bosom. He decided to use his best manners.”
Wilson’s career as a news editor for the St. Petersburg Times, shows — some of the scenes drawn right out of period newpaper accounts and travel journals. The book even includes a Historical Notes chapter at the back to give readers more detail on subjects refered to in the text. Along the way the hero meets families and events surrounding the struggle for the railhead to Tampa and Point Pinellas. Wilson takes care to disclaim any real association to the plots to steal land from homesteaders and hardbitten fishing families along the coast. Intricately woven into this story of a young man coming into his manhood are the real very problems facing both settlers and developers. Tom Bridger’s adventure culminates in a boxing match at the Point of Pines with Bongo Jones, the Key West slasher which turns into a riot and ends with a surprize. Although Wilson did not intend this story to be comedy or entirely factual, I still had to gleeful giggle a bit at this peek into the more unseemly side of our heritage. Read this book and you will not see the string of cities from Jacksonville to St. Petersburg in quite the same light again. Women…continued from page 6 her rights to even mere survival without her family or her husband to support her. Moreover, in order for them to take new husbands a priest would have had to first declared them widows in order to conduct the conducted the marriage ceremony. Although Cabeza de Vaca does not come right out and say it, the Church must have the sanction the marriages because polygamy was considered sacrilege by the Spanish
UNCONQUERED PEOPLE
Florida’s Seminole and Miccosukee Indians by Brent Richards Weisman
Unconquered People is a historical overview of the Seminole people. It recommends itself to every enthusiast of Native American and Florida history with its chapter on locations to visit. Maps and descriptions of site locations makes this book a must to have on any travels in this State. Unconquered People will help bring history alive for your family. The book consolidates volumes between its 170 pages filled with photographs and maps. In the past, national policy was developed without an understanding of Native American heritage. The America of European origin was in cultural opposition with this landscape and the people who had their roots in this soil. Weisman writes: “The world of the Seminole Indians was the world of the mothers and grandmothers. From birth in the mother’s clan camp to the childhood and adolescence under the watchful eyes of aunts and uncles, through adulthood and its responsibilities back to the camp, the life of the Seminole was deeply connected to an extended family related through the mother’s lineage. Every Seminole was born into the mother’s clan, a system known as matrilineal to anthropologists. This means that rights, responsibilities, and obligations were passed down through the mother’s line. Clan membership was the single most important way in which an individual related to the rest of society. Persons always knew where they stood; they were members of the Bear, Panther, Wind, or Snake clan, and as such they understood how they must behave with regard to other clan members and what their rolls as clan members were in a society composed of many clans.” Native American issues are still haunt-
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ing our modern landscape. The holocaust developed on these shores as foreigners practiced genocide against the original people. Forced removal and concentration camps were an American theme long before they were practiced in Europe. “On September 9, Coacoochee (Wildcat) was seized in Jesup’s camp under a flag of truce. Osceola was captured in a similar ploy on October 27. Micanopy and his retinue were seized on December 14. Micanopy shipped west, Osceola died in prison at Fort Moultrie, and Wildcat escaped to join with Abiaka’s band to fight again. Still, Jesup had struck a strong but ignoble blow against the Seminole leadership. By the time he stepped down as commander in may 1838, 1.978 Seminoles had been deported, another four hundred or so killed…” “By April 1842 only three hundred Seminoles remained. Over the seven years of the war, 4,420 Seminoles had been captured and deported to Indian Territory.” The issues are still waiting for America. Will we recognize the unique differences which make up its peoples? “The Indians known historically as the Seminoles are today divided into two federally recognized tribes, the Seminole Tribe of Florida with more than two thousand members, and the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida with about six hundred members. A third group, known as the Independents, numbers about one hundred and share the history and culture of the Seminoles and Miccosukees but have chosen not to enroll in those tribes. The Seminole Tribe is governed by a council of elected representatives from the three largest reservations and a tribal chairman and has a separate corporate board of directors who manage the many business interests of the tribe. The Miccosukee Tribe has a similar division of power between a tribal council, consisting of an elected chairman and all members of the tribe over the age of eighteen, and an elected business council who oversees the tribes corporate ventures. Both tribes are federally recognized, the Seminoles since 1957, the Miccosukees
THE NATIONAL CEMETERY THAT ISN’T The new stones were erected at the by Robert Hawk site of the old cemetery. On February 22, In the summer of 1927, while walk193 l, the new national cemetery was ing through the woods near the St. Johns officially dedicated. The site had been River west of St. Augustine, Robert cleaned and prepared politicians, vetRansom, a local resident, discovered a erans, church groups and even the Boy number of old, weathered. wooden grave Scouts participated During the dedication markers, each named for an American ceremony songs were sung, speeches soldier who died during the Second given and prayers offered And then Seminole War, 1835‑1842. Surprised by everyone went home. But the cemetery his discovery and shocked by the condiremained in the woods, isolated from the tion of what should have been an honnormal trails and roads in the area. Time ored and well-tended national cemetery, passed. The Depression was followed by he decided to try to correct this apparent World War II. Trees and bushes grew and historical oversight. once more covered the site. The cemetery He researched army records in Washington and discovered there had been an was lost once more. army hospital and patrol station located But in l 949, William Mosley, owner at Fort Picolata next to where he had disof a nearby riverside fishing camp, while covered the grave markers. These official walking through the woods, discovered records indicated between 46 and 51 solthe neglected and abandoned little national diers had died at the Picolata hospital and cemetery. Once more the veterans, civic been buried there. Ransom then petitioned groups and Boy Scouts came out to clean his congressman and, in 1931, Congress the site. Once more politicians and other passed a bill authorizing the purchase, citizens came and re‑dedicated the cemengraving, transportation and placement etery with prayers, songs and speeches. of official granite veterans tombstones for And then they went away But the site each of the soldiers identified in the records remained isolated n the u cods and was as having died and been interred at Picolata. soon forgotten, neglected and overgrown and “lost” yet again. Inquistion. Twice more in the years since then, Very little else is known of these first in 1965 and again in 1977, the small and conquistadora’s. As far as we know they made it back to Spain. There has been no isolated national cemetery has come to records found as to who they were. They public attention and been re‑cleaned and remain nameless footnotes in our history re‑dedicated with full ceremonies on both books. Let’s ponder the fate of that handoccasions. That’s very nice, indeed admiful of brave women who sailed across a rable and deeply patriotic but somewhat great ocean hoping to build a new life for misdirected. There has been no one actuthemselves and their children in a strange ally buried in the Picolata cemetery since and hostile land.
since 1962, which means, ostensibly as least, that the federal government recognizes them as sovereign nations and must therefore deal with the Seminoles and Miccosukees on a nation-to-nation basis.” “However, Indian sovereignty in actual practice is complex, certainly conditional, and continually subject to renegotiation as municipal, state, and federal governments react to the Indians’ attempt to act as autonomous nations. It was one thing to recognize Indian sovereignty when they were just “selling trinkets by the side of the road” (to quote Tribal Chairman James Billie in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel on June 1, 1986), quite another when the Indians are seeking authority to run casino gambling, raffles, horse and dog racing, jai alai, and other forms of gaming. The stakes are very high for both sides. Bingo and gaming can bring the Seminoles and the Miccosukees out of the past and provide an economic foundation for a diversity of business enterprises. By the 1980s, up to 65 percent of the Seminole tribal budget was derived from bingo proceeds and the sale of tax-free cigarettes. But should the Indians be allowed to offer casino gambling and other forms of gaming that the state deems illegal and prohibited under current state law?” “U. S. Congress began considering the “termination” of the Indians from… support in the 1950s, thinking that it was time that the Indians made their way into mainstream society… The Seminoles quickly found themselves faced with the reality of forced assimilation into a culture not their own, a process that, ill economic consequences aside, would surely destroy the fabric of their tribal identity. Worse, the Seminoles were virtually without a voice in the process.” Mr. Weisman’s Unconquered People will leave you with much more than education on the issues. It will open your heart to the powerful story of the Seminole people in this state and a possible future that includes their wonderful uniqueness. Mr. Weisman opens the door to a real interactive opportunity. • 1842. When Mr. Ransom did his research in 1927, the army had misplaced a crucial bit of information. While it was true the soldiers identified in the records had died and been buried at Picolata, their remains had been removed in 1849 and re‑interred he >1 special war monument at the small post cemetery located on the property of the territorial military headquarters, the St. Francis Barracks, in St. Augustine. Indeed, several of the individuals from the Picolata group were even given new individual grave markers in the St. Augustine national cemetery. People still visit the cemetery in the woods at Picolata. The granite headstones from 193 l are still there, most of them at least. Patriotic groups still clean and otherwise tare for the site even though most local people are now aware no one is buried there. The cemetery is frequently “re‑discovered” by people who don’t know the truly story. I would suppose, until the headstones are removed, it will be re‑discovered many more times In the future while remaining, as it has been now for seventy years, the “national cemetery that isn’t .”•
The grave’s a fine and private place, But none, I think, do there embrace. Andrew Marvell (1621-78), English poet. To His Coy Mistress
Death is a shadow that always follows the body. —English Proverb (14th century).
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Guided nature and heritage walks on the extraordinary trails of Honeymoon and Caladesi Islands located off Dunedin and Clearwater. Contact: It’s Our Nature,Inc. for schedule and prices at 727-441-2599, out of state - toll free at 888-535-7448. Visit the web site at www. itsournature.com.
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Grandmother Mangrove, tales of prehistoric people • Maria Velasquez, conquistadora on Panifilo de Narvaez Expedition, 1528 • Marion Payne Quay, 1890’s gator-huntin’ tourist. • Memaw LeBeau, cow-hunters and life on the Florida frontier. • Kit Watkins, war correspondent stories of the Spanish American War in Tampa Bay and Cuba, 1898. Schools • Camps • Museums • Groups Call Elizabeth Neily, (727) 321-7845.
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COLD TIMES
by Hermann Trappman Sometime around 12,000 years before present the Wisconsin Glaciation began to break down. Melt water gushed down the Mississippi covering its wide flood plain. Massive amounts of cold fresh water flooded into the Gulf of Mexico. The oceans began to sweep back, covering 79 feet of Florida in 1000 years. Suddenly the climates began a reversal. The earth and all its inhabitants experienced a sharp cooling trend. Northerly and north western winds piled up dunes in northern Europe. Evidence from America shows a sudden shift away from a mixed northern forest toward conifers. It may have brought temperatures down to 13° below zero in Florida.
Could it be that some of Florida’s dune relics come from that time? The period known as the Younger Dryas seems to have started a little after 11,000 years ago and it may have lasted until as late as 9,500. For the peoples of North America the Younger Dryas must have come as a shock. For modern scientists it is almost as amazing. No one has explained its cause or its rapid ending. Its conclusion coincides with the last days of the big animals like mammoths, mastodons, giant sloths, glyptodons and others. The paleo period in North America was coming to its conclusion. The Younger Dryas is named after an artic-subalpine plant Dryas octopetala, one of the characteristic elements of the Late-glacial flora in Europe.
16
COOKING by John Shaffer The Spanish word for earthen (clay) ware is cazuela. The cazuelas were used in cooking, as opposed to earthen or clayware used in talbe settings.They were usually broad round or oval and came in many sizes from individual to very large. The Spanish preferred cooking in cazuelas for the same reasons you will probably like them.
The Do’s
• Appropriate for 16th and 17th Spanish cooking. • Retains the heat long after the cazuela has been removed from the fire. • Provides a move even cooking temperature than metal pans. • It is very easy to brown, not burn, foods. So if your receipe calls for cooking until a crust forms on the bottom as in a rice or potato dish you will be very plesed with the results. • Messy casseroles and “over done” foods clean up easily. Usually all it takes is soaking for 10 to 15 minutes and the stubborn stuff can easily be scraped away. • No need to treat the surface with kid gloves, so go ahead and use those metal utensils, even a knife to cut the meat right in the pan. • Cook and serve in the same dish. It looks so delicious on the table but beware of the soot on the bottom. • Remove the dish from the heat abvout 3-5 minutes sooner than you would a metal pan. Remember that clay does not lose its heat as fast as metal so the food keeps right on cookin’ for several minutes. • SEASON your clay dish well prior to using it. Like cast iron, this is a cooking vessel that requires your tender loving care. It should be seasoned when new as well as after prolonged storage. See intructions on seasoning to follow.
The Don’ts
Clay is very susceptible to extreme changes in temperature. There are several things you should not do. • Never pour cold liquid into a hot pan or hot liquid into a cold pan. this is a sure fire way to break a cazuela. Not good when your guests are hungry. • Always warm the pan near the open fire before placing on a bed of HOT coals. Especially in winter or cold weather. • Don’t cook ovewr an open flame. Always use hot coals. A flame produces an erratic heat and can cause your favorite cazuela to crack. • Don’t place the pot too far above the bed of coals. this can cause a draft, espicially in winter when a cold wind blows. You will need to regulate the temperature by moving the dish higher or lowere in relationship to the coals but this this should be done carefully, keeping it as close to the coals as practical. Right in the coals is OK, but ple-e-e-ase remember, preheat the dish first. • When cleaning up your dish, rember NO exptreme changes in temperature, Don’t wash in real hot water then rince in cold. • Never pull the dish off the coals onto cold ground. When I am ready to remove the dish, I place hot bricks on to the table (or ground) and place it on these. You can also use a dry cloth to sit it on, but remember the less air on the bottom of the pan the slower it will cool (this could be an advantage) and thus the longer the food will continue to cook after it has been removed.
IN
CLAY
• Don’t use a wet rag to remove the pot from the fire. aside from being a burn hazard, this can also cause cracking. • When removing the cazuela from a hot oven (as a Dutch oven) remove the oven from the heat firtst, then crack the lid and let the oven cool down a bit, then remove the lid for several minutes before finally removing the dish. • Special note about winter weather: washing in real hot water then turning the cazuela up to dry in the wind is sometimes just enough to cause cracking. Also, removing it from the fire and placing a hot pot on a cold or wet trivet or one which allows the wind to blow under it may also be detrimental. • Finally DON’T BE DISCOURAGED! This may sound tricky but it really isn’t. Just use common sense and work with nature and you can enjoy cooking in your cazuela for a long time. I know. I love mine.
3 Ways to Season Cazuelas
Traditional Spanish (Old World) Method. Rub the unglazed outsides with a cut clove of garlic. Then rub the unglazed surface with olive oil.so that the oil penetratres the clay. Place about 1/4 inch of olive oil inside the dish and place it in a moderately hot oven (about 300º ) for about 20 minutes. This can also be done by placing the cazuela inside a Dutch Oven over a bed of coals. If your cazuela is too bid for a Dutch Oven you may want to try the ol’ timmey method. Ol’ Timmey Method Preheat the pot by placing it close to an open fire or bed of coals. Fill the cazuela half full of water, add 1/2 cup of vinegar, (any old vinegar will do). Place on a rack above the coals (or on a modern stove top) and slowly bring to a boil. continue to boil until it has completely evaporated. Note: if you do this on a stove top, it would be wise to use a metallic mesh cover over the burner to more evenly distribute the heat. The Modern Method: as easy as 1,2,3,4 1. Soak the pan in water for about 2 hours. 2. Fill the pan about half full of water. Place on the center rack of modern oven. 3. Crank up the heat to about 350º. Heat for about 2 hours. Turn off heat. 4.Open oven door. Remove the cazuela when it can be touched with out burning yourself. This is probalby the easiet way, but I prefer the Shaffer Method. Oh, I forgot to tell you about the Shaffer Method? Ok it combines all three methods. I like to cover all the bases. I always was an over acheiver. 1. Rub the surface with garlic and oil as in the Traditional Method. 2. Fill with water and vinegar as in the Ol’ Timmey Method. 4. Bake in the oven as in the Modern Method. Feel free to come up with your own variations. The idea is to penetrate the dry pores of the clay before use. It really doesn’t matter if it is oil, water or vinegar.
A SIMPLE PAELLA
6 cups chicken broth 8 oz of sundried tomatoes (chopped) 1 clove garlic 9 minced 10 peppercorns (ground) 1 bay leaf 1/8 tsp. paprika **** 1 lb. pork chops
1 large chicken boneless and sliced ***** 1 large sweet onion chopped 1 large green, red, yellow bell pepper chopped 1 lb. fresh or frozen peas 1 lb. fresh or frozen string beans 5-10 saffron stamens (ground) 1/4 c. short grain rice Salt to Taste 1/2 cup olive oil Place in a sauce pan, the first 7 ingredients. Heat over low heat until other ingredients are prepared. Place the olive oil in the paella pan. Sauté the
meat until lightly browned. Add the vegetables and sauté until clear. Add rice and stir until it begins to brown. After removing bay leaf add to the broth to the pan. Add saffron and cilantro. Cook until the rice is tender.
PICKLED FISH ~
MACKEREL, MULLET,SHAD OR EEL
by E. Neily
This is an ancient receipe that I love from my native Nova Scotia. Tenderizes bones fish and cuts the fat in fish that tend to be greasy. It makes a delicious salad or appetizer. And it can be baked in your cazuela in your oven or over a fire. 2 pounds of fish cut into1 inch slices (across the bone not filleted) 1 large onion thinly sliced 1 cup cider vinegar 1 tablespoon pickling spice 1/2 cup brown sugar Grease inside of cazuela generously with olive oil. place Fish pieces in pan. Sprinkle pickling spice and brown sugar over and around fish. Pour cider vinegar over fish. Clear a spot in the hot coals to place covered cazuela. Take care not to place it directly on the coals After it has warmed up a while push the coals in around it. Bake for 45 minutes. (or in a 3500 oven.) Serve on a bed of Romaine lettuce with sliced tomatoes and green peppers, ripe olives with a thick slice of homestyle bread.
From Ed Reiter’s
CAMP COOKBOOK
FIELD MICE CASSEROLE
This receipe was found in an early 1800 cookbook. 5 Fat Field Mice* 1 Cup Macaroni 1 small onion sliced 1 pint of chopped tomatoes 1-gill cracker crumbs Butter size of pullet egg Boil macaroni 10 minutes or till tender. Fry mice long enough to dry out excess fat. Grease a casserole. Place half the macaroni in the casserole. Add onion slices, tomatoes and mice. Cover with remaining macaroni. Combine cracker crumbs and butter. Sprinkle on top of casserole. Bake in a medium oven 30 minute (at 325 for 30 minutes) or until mice are cooked. * In cold or rainy weather when field mice are hard to find, you can substitute 1 pound of sausages.
~Ah-huh. We’ll hear more from Ed in future issues.
What’s for DESSERT? by E. Neily
The Moors brought exoctic delights to mainland Spain when they overran the Visigoths in 711 a.d. Their court at Córdoba grew in wealth and splendor despite what many history books have taught us. The Moors were reknowned navigators and traders. They introduced ornate silk weaving and sericulture, cotton, sugar and rice. After a long and bloody history, Ferninand and Isabella drove the the Moors from their last stronghold of Grenada in 1492. Moorish culture was not so easily routed. One of their desserts, Rice Pudding, became a favorite all over the world.It is really not all that difficult to make and can be dressed up to make a scrumptous dessert.
ARRIZO CON LECHE
1/2 cup raisins 1/2 cup short grain rice 1 inch strip lime or lemon peel 1 cup water 2 cups milk 1 cup granulated sugar 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 inch cinnamon stick 2 egg yolks, well beaten 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter 1/2 cup toasted sliced almonds Fresh orange segments Put the raisins into a small bowl. cover with warm water and set aside to soak. Bring rice to a slow boil in pan with lime
or lemon peel and water then lower the heat. Simmer for about 20. minutes or until all the water is absorbed. Remove the peel from the rice and discarded it. Add milk, sugar, salt and cinnamon and cook, stirring over a very low heat until all the milk had been absorbed. DO NOT cover the pan. Discard the cinnamon stick. Add egg yolks and butter and cook stirring constantly until all the butter has melted and the pudding is rich and creamy. Cook a few minutes longer. Pour rice into a bowl and cool. Serve with the orange segments and toasted almonds.
Conquistadors as the Food
Tim Burke of Calderon Company is fond of reminding us that life could be more than hazardous on the “Conquistador Trail” Over the past few years since he started publishing his own 16th Century newletter, he has dug up a number of quotes about conquerors who did not fare well and ended up as the bill of fare. For instance: 1559 - Corzula painted a gruesome picture of “the Indians of Florida.” The natives’ record of cruelty indicated, he says, that castaways on this hostile shore would never ve safe until the natives were conquered. “Each day there are shipwrecks there; ships run aground; they are becalmed; and the peopleare killed by the Indians and eaten” He sites examples… ArnoldIII, J. Barto and Robert Weddle.The nautical Archaeology of Padre Island; The Spanish Shipwrecks of 1554. Archaeology Press, New York 1978) p. 38. Then according to Vespucci in La Lettera, Lettra delle isole novamente trovate or four Voyages, a mariner ws cut up and roasted. In Cabeza de Vaca’s The Account, he entitled Chapter 14, How Four Christians Departed., during the Narvaéz Expedition. In it he wrote about “five Christians who had taken shelter on the coast became so desparatethat they ate one another one by one until there was only one left, who survived because the others were not there to eat him. Their names were Sierra, Diego Lopéz, Corral, Palacios, Gonzalo Ruiz. The Indians were so shocked that they would have killed the men had they seen them begin to do this, and we would all have been in great difficulty.” Tranlation by Martin Favata and Jose´Fernández. Some of these may have been exaggerations or even proraganda or even true. Whatever, they certainly make interesting histoical tidbits for our consumption.•