PRELBIINARY ARCHEOLOGICAL EXPLORATIONS AT 

 WEEDEN ISLAND, FLORIDA 



By J. WALTER FEWKES 

 chief, bureau of american ethnology 



(With 21 Plates) 

 INTRODUCTION 



The first printed account of any considerable size of the pre- 

 historic shell and earth mounds near St. Petersburg, Florida, known 

 to the author, was written by Mr. S. W. Walker and published in 

 the Smithsonian Report for 1879/ This account considers many shell 

 heaps situated on Hillsborough and Tampa bays, as well as others 

 some distance along the west shore of Florida. Of the many pre- 

 historic mounds that formerly stood on the site of the present city of 

 St. Petersburg, only one (pi. i, fig. i) remains intact at the present 

 time. Fortunately this ancient monument was saved from vandals 

 and occupies a conspicuous position in Hospital Park, but the others, 

 including six of considerable magnitude, have shared the fate of many 

 other Floridian mounds. The great majority have been carried off 

 and used in the construction of roads in the city, for the shells of 

 which they are composed have a commercial value for that purpose. 

 The Bull Frog Creek Mound, one of the most extensive in 1879, is 

 now (1924) entirely obliterated. 



In his studies of Florida shell heaps, Mr. Walker made excavations 

 in some of those on Tampa Bay, where there were several mounds 

 of size, and prepared a map illustrating their distribution. His 

 articles on shell heaps appear to be the most important yet published 

 on that region. Among these the mounds at Papy's Bayou, which are 

 near, perhaps identical with those on Weeden Island, the subject of 

 this paper, are thus described by him : 



These mounds are situated on a narrow peninsula on the north side of Papy's 

 Bayou, on Old Tampa Bay. The place is known as Pillan's Hummock, and 

 has been settled at some time in the past, but I presume the settlers fled before 

 invading hordes of mosquitoes and sand flies. A few tumble down houses in a 

 small clearing, surrounded by straggling orange and lemon trees, will serve 



^ Mr. Walker published several papers on Florida, among which are two 

 articles dealing with antiquities of Tampa Bay; one entitled "Preliminary 

 Explorations Among the Indian Mounds in Southern Florida " and another, 

 " Report on the Shell Heaps of Tampa Bay, Florida." 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 76, No. 13 



