About 12,000 years ago Paleo-Indians lived in Florida,[1] but fewer than 100 sites have been found.[2]Although it is not known for certain whether any permanent settlements from that period were in the present city limits of Gainesville, archaeological evidence of human presence exists. More: History of Gainesville, Florida - Wikipedia
Great read, Jaggernauts! It is amazing that archeologists continue to discover more ancient artifacts from Native peoples as well as tombs in Egypt. Yeah, the Spanish weren't that friendly to the Native Seminole folk. And after Browns' Harper Ferry event the local folks got, shall we say... 'concerned' and joined the confederacy. For those of you that have visited the Fort in St. Augustine, I remember reading that they shipped Native Americans (formerly called Indians) from all over the west and held them captive, and subsequently imprisoned them at the fort- I think most became slaves. But all of that was light-hearted fun compared to Stalin's Gulags, in an effort to ramp up that good ole Utopian Marxist regime. The combined death tolls in the current Ukraine war are truly minuscule compared to what happened back then. Sorry, jumped to a different continent for a sec. But...Gainesville's history is unique. Some of you probably dug for sharks teeth in Hogtown Creek. I think there are 60 million year old specimens there. Go Gators.
I found many large sharks teeth in that creek in the late 60s and early 70s. I should have saved them as well as baseball cards that we used to clothes pin to bike spokes to make noise!
Couple of comments: G-Ville / Florida was also home to a native species of HORSE, albeit smaller than modern horses. I used to "dig" with UF sponsered groups at sites outside of G-Ville. The "Coast-Line" was much closer back in the horse days. Want an excellent read about Indiginous Americans"? Manns 1491 and 1493 (before and after Columbus). pretty shocking stuff in those books. Mann's thesis about Indian populations seem justified. He believed thier may have been 10X more Indians in the Americas pre 1492. Forget about the Holocaust of 1939 - 45. The death Europeans brought to the Americans make those numbers look inconsequential.
So, high school seniors that are interested in archeology, are really big, and can run really fast, please make inquiries to: William Napier, 121 Gale Lemerand Drive, Gainesville, FL
One of the great causes of death to Indians was the flu bugs, etc. that the Europeans had with immunity. One of the most interesting reads is Lewis & Clark Journal. One tribe enslaved members of another tribe etc. The group reached the Pacific and got very sick on the salmon that the Nez Prence (sic) tribe ate. No way we should "forget about the Holocaust of 1939-45." Their descendants live today. Their art and other belongings are still missing. Their memory should not be forgotten. Ever. Evil wrought May 12, 1948, thankfully.
Well, I'm grateful for any thread at this juncture. If it's vaguely associated with Gainesville or the Gators or Hogtown...let it rip. Obviously, when footsball ramps up more- the focus in that direction won't be denied and or diluted. Actually, the thread count has been a bit light as of late. Sure hope we have the folks in place to up our winning percentages this year. Go Gators.
So, who was at practice this week and has the goods? Oh, wait. No one. That’s not a thing anymore. So we wait for the official version. Written by those whose jobs depend on being very non informative. Yay. Thanks for the info juggernautz.
I went back and read my posts from then. In the basketball forum, even 12,000 years ago, we thought Greg Oden looked too old to play college ball at Ohio State.
There were lots of sharks teeth at Devil’s Millhopper too. In those days we could climb and explore everywhere. A kids paradise.
It won’t be long before Florida history won’t be taught in Florida. Some will say “it paints colonialists in a bad light and makes descendants of Spanish people/where kids feel badly. Preserve this thread for posterity
The coastline of Florida 12,000 years ago was similar in shape of today's coastline. The length is about the same but the width of the peninsula is way wider. The Gulf of Mexico was smaller too. So small that the the indigenous people of central and Cuba had a very short canoe ride to the Sunshine State. Archeologist are finding all sorts of relics (trading items like shells, bone, whatever) from New England down to south Florida. These items suggest that there was trading going on from Central America up to Canada many thousands of years ago.
