Canoeing the Dead River to a an Ancient Florida Indian Mound Complex

This journey down the Dead River was delightful and challenging. We paddled upstream through humid subtropical forest. As we navigated the river and swamp, we saw a variety of animals including little blue heron, coots, red shoulder hawks, egret, manatee, and black bear. The river was slow moving, but the current was a little stronger than normal due to recent rains and flooding. We navigated from the river to a tributary and had to push our way through thick hydro vegetation, primarily water lettuce. Once we completed the difficult and strenuous paddle through the overgrown hydro vegetation, we reached our target destination. Disembarking our watercraft, we hiked through a fairly open terrain and walked the whole island's circumference. We saw large mound formations consisting of sand, limestone and chalk deposits. There were a few areas littered with aquatic snail. A positive identification was made that these large formations were indeed built up by the Florida Indians when we saw scattered potsherds and animal bone refuse. Most of the potsherds had the characteristics of plain type, but we also saw incised type potsherds. Most of the animal bones looked to be either tortoise or turtle. It was--overall---a fantastic day and adventure.