Ancient America - Boca Raton, FLorida
N 26° 23.777 W 080° 04.539
17R E 592197 N 2919902
Ancient America was built surrounding a real Indian burial mound. Today, the mound is still visible within the Boca Marina & Yacht Club neighborhood on U.S. 1 near Yamato Road.
Waymark Code: WM7NT9
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 11/15/2009
Views: 18
Although the most famous Boca Raton tourist attraction was Africa USA, Boca Raton did have another attraction. Ancient America, which was open from 1953 until 1958, featured displays of Native American culture and artifacts.
Why build an attraction about Native Americans in the middle of Boca Raton? The answer lies in the special location that the attraction occupied. The 24 acre site was indeed an important Native Florida Indian burial mound and village. It is estimated that the site was occupied from 1,000-2,000 years ago by the Tequesta Indians. Three different Indian tribes occupied ancient Palm Beach County - the Tequesta, the Jeagas and the Ais. None of these tribes exist today as they died of disease brought by the Spaniards or were forced into slavery.
The founder of Ancient America, E.G.(Esmond Gerrard) Barnhill, was a famous early Florida photographer. Born in 1894 in South Carolina, His father taught him photography and by the age of 19 he was running his own photography business in St. Petersburg, where he specialized in scenic views of Florida and published and sold his own hand-colored photos and postcards. He was also interested in Native American culture and collected artifacts throughout the nation.
His Boca Raton attraction was one of many that he ran that dealt with Native American artifacts. The Boca Raton attraction featured a tour of the large Indian burial mound, which was tunneled through. Inside the tunnel, windows were set into the soil to allow the visitor to peer into the burial sites. He also had many items from the Spanish conquest of Florida including ship cannons and anchors.
The attraction never proved to be popular as traffic to Miami was rerouted from U.S. 1 when Florida's Turnpike opened. The land was sold and was undeveloped until the 1980's. The Palm Beach County Commission considered purchasing the property as a historic site, but it was sold to developers who built the Boca Marina Yacht Club development.
A few years later he tried Florida again, opening the Indian Springs Museum on US 1 near Palm Bay. When that one also failed to excite the tourists he packed up and moved to 4611 West Space Coast Parkway (Highway 192) in Kissimmee to be in the thick of tourist traffic headed to Walt Disney World. His Indian World Museum and Trading Post was described by Sehlinger and Finley (in Central Florida Attractions: A Consumer's Guide, Menasha Ridge Press, 1983) as "... a hodgepodge of genuine artifacts, ordinary antiques, and personal keepsakes, put together without regard for interpretation or authentication." E. G. Barnhill died in 1987, at 93 years old, and that museum closed as well.
A portion of the Barnhill mound is visible from the front entrance.
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