Miami was the last of America’s large cities to get going. It was not incorporated until 1896, and seldom visited before that. But once development started, it grew with abandon, and a series of dedicated archaeologists sought to keep ahead of the bulldozers. In earlier times, Miami was home to several thousand Tequesta people and their predecessors dating back some 11,000 years. They occupied a rich locale between the Atlantic Ocean and the swamps of the Everglades. Travel by land was difficult, but the sea and the swamp provided abundant food and other resources.
Since 1978, archaeologist Robert Carr has been exploring and helping to preserve the ancient cultures of greater Miami. He was Dade County’s first staff archaeologist. This volume tells his story and those of his predecessors in their race to recover knowledge in the face of unrelenting developmental pressure. Today, builders in Miami-Dade County must first look for the remains of ancient peoples and allow archaeologists to study them before yielding to the
demand for new condos, but that was not always the case.
Despite all of the development, Miami-Dade County has produced some rather spectacular archaeological finds. The Cutler site, discovered in 1985, revealed a rich midden and a large burials mound. Early European sites have also yielded substantial discoveries about those intrepid, pre-air conditioning settlers.
The most sensational of all was the discovery in 1998 of what is now known as the Miami Circle, located near the mouth of the Miami River on Biscayne Bay. As developers were demolishing an outdated apartment complex, archaeologists discovered a rich midden and then, to their amazement, a large circle cut into the limestone bedrock. A media stampede soon followed, as did absurd speculations about the nature of the site. Finally, science and reason prevailed and the site was identified as a Tequesta center. The State of Florida and Miami-Dade County provided $26.7 million, and the two-acre site was permanently preserved and opened to the public—the most expensive archaeological preservation project in the nation’s history.
Digging Miami tells the exciting story of the many battles to understand and preserve this rich archaeological heritage. In doing so, Carr makes a strong case for historic preservation in a booming urban area. He also makes a strong case for the wisdom of working closely with developers and governmental officials to preserve the past as part of the modern legacy.
