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 Little Salt Springs - North Port, FL Posted by:  rogueblack
N 27° 04.621 W 082° 13.998
17R E 377715 N 2995564
an archeological and paleontological treasure
Waymark Code: WM3EBX
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 03/23/2008
Views: 61
The marker reads:
The waters of this unusual archeological and paleontological site have yielded preserved human skeletal remains and artifacts dating from 10,000 to 3000 B.C. Animal fossils have also been recovered. Including species of extinct tortoise, sloth, elephant, and bison. Nearby in the pine woods are the remains of an Indian village dating from 4800 to 3200 B.C. Villagers buried their dead in the muck of the adjacent, now flooded, slough and spring basin. The remains in this cemetery are well preserved. The site provides a unique laboratory for the study of early humans and past environments.
According to Wikipedia:
Little Salt Spring is an archaeological and paleontological site in southern Sarasota County, Florida, United States. It is located off U.S. Route 41 in the city of North Port. On July 10,1979, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
Little Salt Spring is a feature of the karst topography of Florida, specifically an example of a sinkhole. The numerous deep vents at the bottom of the sinkhole feed oxygen-depleted ground water into it, producing an anoxic environment below a depth of about three meters. This fosters the preservation of Paleo-Indian and early Archaic artifacts and ecofacts, as well as fossil bones of the extinct megafauna once found in Florida.
Originally it was thought that Little Salt Spring was a shallow freshwater pond, but in the 1950s SCUBA divers discovered that it was a true sinkhole extending downward over two hundred feet, similar to the cenotes of the Yucatán (another karst region).
The site has been owned by the University of Miami since 1982 and is studied by Dr. John Gifford of the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami.
Blue Plaque managing agency: Chief Chi-ee Chapter of Sarasota and Florida State Society Daughter of the American Colonists
Physical Address:
off Price Blvd
Punta Gorda, FL USA
34257
Web Address: [Web Link]
Individual Recognized: Not listed
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Visit Instructions: To log an entry for a "Blue Plaque," please try to include a picture of you next to the plaque!
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