Beneath the Water, A Window to History

LAKE OKEECHOBEE, Fla., Sept. 13, 2007 — -- It was Boots Boyer who discovered the hidden treasures of Lake Okeechobee, which is not surprising. Few people know the lake as well as he does — he's lived there all his life.

Boyer was out on his airboat surveying the gators and the swamplands when he made some startling discoveries. He looked down at the muddy soil revealed by the receding lake waters and saw pottery shards, crafted stone pendants and an arrowhead.

Boyer alerted county and state archaeologists. Ryan Wheeler, Florida's chief archaeologist, gets excited when he talks about the findings.

"This is a big deal. Before Boots contacted us this year, we knew of about three or four archeological sites out here and now we know about 33," Wheeler said.

The only way to get to the remote corners of this exotic landscape is by airboat. With Boyer at the helm and Wheeler as the guide, an ABC crew set out in the stifling heat and humidity of a Florida summer day, escorted by flocks of magnificent birds. It was a 30-mile trip through marshes and swamps to locations the crew promised not to reveal; Boyer calls it "the thickest, roughest terrain there is out there."

In Florida they like to boast that Lake Okeechobee is the second-largest inland lake in the continental United States, after Lake Michigan. But that doesn't tell the whole story. The lake is certainly vast, but unlike Lake Michigan, Okeechobee is shallow at the best of times.

Today in many places it is just a few inches deep. In some areas the shore has receded more than a mile. The lake is the backup drinking reservoir for the millions of people who live in South Florida. Its level is carefully regulated by South Florida Water Management, which let too much water out in anticipation of a heavy hurricane season last year. Instead of hurricanes, there has been a long drought and this summer the lake hit its lowest level on record.

As Boyer steered his airboat toward land, the crew leapt into the shallow waters and walked to the rocky shore.

"There are a lot of artifacts that are just lying around on the surface," said Wheeler.

Boyer leaned over and picked up a small shell pendant from the water, and handed it to Wheeler. Wheeler looked at it.

"This is made out of a welk shell," he said. "And that's a beautiful example. It's nice and shiny."

Wheeler is certain that these objects belonged to an indigenous people who lived on the lake 500 to 1,000 years ago.

Since the 1930s, historians have known that there was an indigenous population living on these shores long before the Europeans arrived in Florida.

"What they did not know until now is how extensive the settlements were and how much those people traded and traveled," said Wheeler. "Some of these trinkets and treasures are fashioned from seashell and stone that came from hundreds of miles away."