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.

Hidden Treasures

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."

Wheeler showed the crew some stones from the water, called "flints" or "churts."

"These are really interesting," he said. "They don't look very exciting. But to an archaeologist, this is really probably one of the most exciting things that I saw out here. … They came from the Peace River area, which is several hundred miles from here. And they have only been found at two other archaeological sites at the state."

When you wade through the sweltering, bug-infested swamps — home to alligators and deadly snakes — you begin to appreciate the hardship endured by the people who navigated this terrain by foot and canoe 1,000 years ago. Boyer leaned down and picked up what he says is a piece of deer bone. Wheeler pronounced it as the tip of a weaving tool.

So just who were the indigenous people who owned these objects?

The Paddle Boat Era

"Historically we know that they were called the Mayami and the Serope," said Wheeler. "Those are two of the tribal names that were associated with this area. Their ancestors probably moved into this area 5,000 years ago, which is about the time that the lake formed along with the Everglades."

Not all of the artifacts revealed by the low water are as old, but they too are intriguing. A hundred years ago there was a thriving tourism industry on Lake Okeechobee, centered on the abundance of freshwater fish. There are no ships on these waters today, but Boyer showed us an old paddle boat smokestack.

"This is the smokestack from one of the big paddle-wheel steamboats that used to run around the lake," Wheeler said.

The deadly Okeechobee hurricane in 1928 destroyed most of the paddle boats and the tourism business in the area, and drastically reshaped Lake Okeechobee. It also killed about 2,000 people. As a result, President Hoover ordered the construction of a massive berm around the lake, known as the Hoover dyke. It protects surrounding communities and raises the level of the reservoir.

A History Lesson, All in One Place

Hunting for hidden treasure can be a dangerous endeavor, so Boyer takes a shotgun with him on these trips because of a previous encounter with an alligator.

"The last time I was here I had a, about a 12-foot gator stand up on me when we were fixing to go," he said. "He was a big old boy — he weighed, probably weighed 800 to 1,000 pounds. I don't feel like getting toted off today."

We weren't confronted by Boyer's "Big Old Boy," but we did see gators everywhere. In one pond we counted 41, but they weren't what we were looking for.

Several hundred yards inland Boyer revealed another of his discoveries: the remains of a catfish boat from about 1904, a rusting, single-cylinder engine and the boat's rotting frame.

"I want to say the '28 hurricane is what knocked this boat out," Boyer said.

Boyer showed us the lake's high water mark on a nearby Pond Apple tree: It was way above our heads. It is easy to see why this boat spent most of the 20th century underwater. Underneath the boat, a new discovery: pottery.

"The historic site and the historic watercraft is on top of the prehistoric site," said Wheeler, marveling at the layers of history. "They made this sand-tempered pottery for several thousand years. They started making it about 2,500 years ago."

Waiting for the Next Drought

Time for exploration is running out. The lake hit its lowest level on record in June. Since then, its water has risen almost a foot.

"This is wetter than it was last week when we were out here," said Wheeler.

These random surveys are yielding clues, but to get a more complete picture of the peoples who lived here, archaeologists will have to conduct a more formal dig. Locating a broader selection of artifacts would help them put more precise dates on these settlements.

Wheeler thinks the answers lie in the treasures and trinkets and trash preserved in the mud of the lake bed.

"Just with a few one or two meter square units you could learn, you know, a lot, especially if you could find the wet site deposits where you have wood and seeds and things like that preserved," he said.

Wheeler believes that they might have to wait until the next drought.

"A lot has been done this go-round," he said. "Florida experiences a drought every seven to 10 years, on average, either statewide or regionally so it probably would not be unexpected if we had another one. "

As the waters slowly rise, layers of history are being submerged once again. When that next drought comes, archaeologist will know exactly where to go to learn more about the people who plied these waters so many years ago.