Intrigue Along the Inlet: Commerce and Conflict at Bunce’s Pass A two-part series A Fortress Mentality
JAMES A. SCHNUR
Part 1: Fishing on a Militarized Frontier By James A. Schnur
Florida’s fall weather makes this an ideal time to visit Fort De Soto County Park where, after passing the Pinellas Bayway’s last tollbooth, you cross over Bunce’s Pass. This popular destination carries an intriguing history – one involving a man named William Bunce, the fish camp he operated, and a federal military operation that wiped it out 180 years ago.
Captain William Bunce came to Florida shortly after the U.S. took possession of these lands from Spain. This week, we learn about Bunce’s arrival along a militarized frontier and his fishing camps near the mouth of Tampa Bay. Next week, we’ll visit his second camp, the one he created along Bunce’s Pass, before troops from Fort Brooke annihilated it in October 1840.
Pain? Anxiety? Now accepting many Medicare Advantage and Medicaid Waiver Plans
Bunce’s Pass continued on page 16
Reduce Your Premiums! Bundle
Acupuncture may help.
Spain’s tenuous hold on La Florida faced regular threats in the early 1800s due to pressures that began long before the U.S. existed. During the early 1700s, slave-owning colonists in British North America grew impatient with runaway slaves that fled from their lands into Spanish Florida. Unlike the Underground Railroad that aided fugitive slaves before the Civil War, this first path to freedom went south. Spain welcomed these runaways, even establishing a fortress for them – Fort Mose – a little north of St. Augustine. During the War of Jenkins’ Ear, England attacked Fort Mose in 1740 with plans to capture fleeing slaves. England took possession of La Florida in 1763 and Spain grabbed it again in 1783 after helping the patriots to the north secure their independence from Britain in the American Revolution. While this colonial back-andforth took place, another displaced population came into Florida. Beginning in the 1740s and continuing into the early 1800s, some members of the Creek Nation and other Indian tribes escaped to Florida as settlers pushed them from their ancestral lands. These people settled in north Florida and joined the tribe Europeans called “Seminole,� who had lived here for thousands of years.
Qualified Veterans can have treatment covered
Your local agent kowns your local needs. Home • Flood • Condo • Renters • Auto • Commercial
Cate Stacer-Bransfield, RN, AP 15 years experience, Board Certified, with a Masters in Oriental Medicine
5301 Gulfport Blvd.
operating out of Gulfport Chiropractic
(727) 321-9520
bransfield-acupuncture.com
Mike Whitman, Agent
“We work with over 50 companies to get you the best rates!�
theGabber.com | December 10 - December 16, 2020
5308 Gulfport Blvd. S. • Gulfport Located Next to State Farm 727-209-8888 • mike@whitcoinsurance.com
15
