The Tocobaga Indians were natives of the Tampa Bay area from around the years 900 to the 1500s.
The Tocobaga people were known to build mounds within their villages. Mounds were large “piles of the earth” layered with shells or stones but also were known to be used as a burial site.
In 1879, just before construction destroyed many traces of earlier civilizations, a newspaper reporter named Sylvanus Tandy Walker created an invaluable record of the Native earthworks. Walker was an amateur naturalist and archaeologist who liked to sleuth out the area in his free time, and his map offered an intriguing study of a soon-to-be-altered landscape.
Walker’s map is now a part of the Smithsonian Museum’s archives. The map offers insight, and guidance to remains of the early life of Floridians and inspires current researchers to earn more about that time.
Original Post From Thomas Hallock/Smithsonian Magazine
Read More Here: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/map-details-florida-disappearing-landscape-180978364/
