Shell Cultures to be Explored November 17th

Join the Lower Suwannee National Wildlife Refuge Ranger for a walk across one of the largest ancient mounds on the Gulf. The Ranger-led walk starts at the trailhead sign for Shell Mound. The twenty-eight feet high mound is just one of the archeological sites protected by the National Wildlife Refuge System.

The six thousand year-old Shell Mound site was begun before the great pyramids of Egypt, before the creation of pottery, and before the complex spirituality of the later culture of the Crystal River mound complex, one hour south of the Refuge. Over the 3,000 years of construction, the people living here progressed and developed into what academia calls the Woodland Period culture.

The site, previously a mudflat at the edge of the vast estuary referred to as the Big Bend, probably began as a fish camp over 6,000 years ago. As the ancient anglers hunkered down to eat the many oysters they had gathered, the shells were dropped to the mud beneath their feet. People of the Archaic Period created the land mass referred to as a midden, upon which sits the 5-acre crescent Shell Mound. As the mound grew, so did the intellect and technology of the developing cultures who occupied the mound.

Ceremony, weaponry, clothing, music, and plant resources will be addressed along the trail. Often referred to as the "shell cultures," they developed tools from the same mollusks with which they adorned themselves. Not having to hunt for game, they instead manufactured cordage to make nets, netted fish and shrimp, cracked-open oysters, and dug into lightening whelks for their supper.

If you want to learn more about pre-Florida Indians than you ever did in school, get yourself to the Shell Mound Trailhead on CR 326, just off CR 347. Meet the Ranger at 11:00 AM for the hour program on November 17th.