DISCOVERING OUR HERITAGE

One of the best kept "secrets" in Florida is that New Smyrna is a reservoir of history encompassing thousands of years. However, the "secret" is known by historians and archaeologists! New Smyrna is also one of the oldest European settled communities in Florida. It is, in fact, documented as the third oldest, founded in 1768 by Dr. Andrew Turnbull during the British Colonial Period. To date, only St. Augustine and Pensacola are recognized as older.


NATIVE PEOPLES The Pre-Columbian history of New Smyrna begins thousands of years ago with the Native Peoples who lived and thrived here as hunters, gatherers, and fishermen. The Timucuan Indians, who had a highly developed, complex social system, were a strong and aristocratic tribe in this area for hundreds of years until Ponce de Leon, the Spanish adventurer, arrived. These handsome Timucuans are most often described as tall and strong. The women wore clothing made of Spanish moss. The male leaders were heavily tattooed and wore their hair in "top knots", smoothed with bear grease. They wore ornaments of feathers, shell, bone and fish bladders. The Timucuans were an imaginative people, also using shell and bone to make items like dippers, axes, scrapers, and spear points. Baskets and fabrics were made of palmetto leaves, pine needles and bear grease, and their medical practices equaled those in the Old World.


Evidence of their lives here is still evident in numerous Indian middens (shell mounds) and burial sites. During the day, the Timucuans collected and hunted small game, fish, and shellfish. Later in the day ,the tribe gathered at places like Turtle Mound and the mound in "Old Fort" Park in New Smyrna to cook, to eat, to socialize, and to conduct ceremonies together. Used as a navigational aide for centuries, Turtle Mound, south of New Smyrna Beach, is now a Florida State Historic Memorial, which covers an estimated two acres and is 50 feet high. Many generations of Timucuans left behind evidence to speak of their lives at Turtle Mound. Sadly within 200 years of Ponce de Leon's landing here in 1513, the strong Timucuan population had vanished. Many were not defeated in battle with the Spanish, but by the plagues of measles, malaria, and smallpox brought by the Europeans. Contact with the Europeans led to the rapid disappearance of the 40,000 Timucuan people and their culture. Some survivors are said to have joined the Seminole tribe; others left with the Spanish.


LA INFLUENCIA DE ESPANA Juan Ponce de Leon came to the Americas in search of land, gold, and fame, but perhaps most of all for the "Fountain of Youth". This rumor, told to Ponce de Leon by Indians, was used to keep him moving away from Indian lands. Ponce de Leon, landing at New Smyrna's Ponce de Leon Inlet in 1513, was seeking his "Fountain of Youth" but instead was met by the fierce Surruque Tribe, a branch of the Timucuans. The Spanish first named Ponce de Leon Inlet, Mosquito Inlet, no doubt because of the infamous mosquitoes in our area. Later, in response to Florida's real estate "boom" of the 1920's, the inlet was renamed Ponce de Leon Inlet in 1927. From ancient times, Ponce de Leon Inlet has remained a significant geographical point.

PIRATES! Some truly fascinating individuals - Civil War blockade runners, Prohibition boat captains, and drug smugglers have frequented Ponce de Leon Inlet! During the 1600's, Ponce de Leon Inlet was possibly a haven for the English pirates, who attacked the Spanish colony of St. Augustine at that time. Sir Francis Drake, a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I, was one such pirate. New Smyrna was described as "a safe port for the English privateers to slip into; here they could, with all ease, lurk for the rich Spanish ships coming from Havana through the Gulf of Florida." In 1682 Spanish Governor Cabrera in St. Augustine reported that the English had killed 10 Indians at Mosquito Inlet and had taken fifteen others as slaves to be used as divers. This was notable because the English used Indians to recover treasure from sunken Spanish Galleons.