Lost settlement of doomed 1559 expedition discovered in Florida Panhandle

Al.com ^ | 2/17/2016 | Ap

[Bodleian_Girl]

Amateur archaeologist Tom Garner had time to kill and took a drive along Pensacola Bay in the Florida Panhandle. Spying a newly cleared lot, he poked about, hoping to find artifacts from the city's rich history dating back centuries to the Spanish explorers.

Garner stumbled upon some shards of 16th Spanish pottery.

"There it was, artifacts from the 16th century lying on the ground," said Garner, a history buff whose discovery has made him a celebrity in archaeological circles.

Experts have confirmed the find as the site of the long-lost land settlement of a doomed 1559 Spanish expedition to the Gulf Coast led by Tristan de Luna. The discovery bolsters Pensacola's claim as the first European settlement in the modern-day United States, six years before the Spanish reached St. Augustine on Florida's Atlantic seaboard. The expedition was scuttled by a hurricane in September 1559, shortly after the fleet arrived in Pensacola. Five ships sank.

[eartrumpet]

A range fire burned off the sagebrush once and I went out looking around. The lava outcrops are pretty solid but there are a few bubbles and holes in them. In a nice open spot between lava floes I noticed rings of rocks that had been used to weight down the bottoms of lodges or tipis. I sat down on a lava outcropping to look at them and was right beside a round bottomed quart-sized bubble with another lava the size of an ear of corn stuck in it. I was sitting by someone’s food grinder. That was 20 years ago, now it is covered up again until the next fire.

[Smokin' Joe]

Thanks for that link!

[bert]

FYI....(maybe)

Across the way over at Mayport (Jacksonville Beach) is the National Monument commerating the French Huguenot settlement there. It is Ft Caroline and they have a pretty good visitors center with lots of stuff.

They also have a book by a Florida congressman called "The Three Voyages" that is the journal of Rene Laudonniere who made the trips circa 1586. The book is unusual in that it is a first source, not a secondary account of historians. The book recounts the problems with the efforts and relates the journeys all the way to East Tennessee. They were done in by treachery and Spaniards

it is available on Amazon

[Ditter]

I think we paid about $100 a piece for the coins back years ago. I know they are much much more now. There is a program on TV called Strange Inheritance and a few months ago it featured Mels wife and told all about him and his treasure hunting. What a guy!

[southernindymom]

So true! I can remember finding an fossilized horn in our barn yard when I was a kid. I can remember picking it up and looking at it and then just tossing it back on the ground. I think I was 8 or 9..... now I wish I had it back so I could have someone look at it and tell me how old it was.

[sassy steel magnolia]

Thanks for the info! Will look for it. My amateur interest in genealogy sweetly connects me to my ancestors and my husband’s and always confirms how each of us are connected!

[Bogie]

Happy hunting!

[Bogie]

Anything with a date, or in most cases a partial date, is way up. For example, eight reales 1619, would probably go for somewhere between $4,000 and $8,000. Fisher museum holds the line on prices and will not entertain any low ball offer.

But, what you paid back then, no matter what, is probably five fold in price today.

It seems to me though, that the greatest value lies in what it can do to a child's imagination. The payback on that could be priceless.

[Smokin' Joe]

Thanks! You, too!

[blam]

Prince Madoc

[Bodleian_Girl]

What do you think it was?

[Bodleian_Girl]

Now that took me on an interesting journey! Thanks for the link.

[Ditter]

I can’t see any dates on our 2 coins

[Bogie]

They are still valuable. Spanish did not date their coins , and I may be off a little, until 1608 or so. anyhow, not all of them were dated. The Atocha sunk in 1622 and had many different samples on it from about that time period. You can tell by looking at the style of the cross where it was minted. Atocha had a lot of coins from Bolivia and some from the Mexican mint. If it was dated, and most were not, the date was on the outer rim. It was the responsibility of the assayer to make sure that the weight was correct. If it weighed too much he would cut off a piece from the outside rim of the coin. That usually screwed up the date.

So, most coins were not dated even though some were. And, when one was dated the date was often cut off. That is why the dated ones bring such a high price.When I was at the Fisher Museum store, I saw some genuine one and two reals going for $300 to $600 aprox. (undated)

A replica, made from Atocha silver sells for $200.

I'll send you a link.

[Bogie]

http://melfisher.org/

[morphing libertarian]

It doesn’t say “permanent” does it. I would think both types are worthy of recognition.

[morphing libertarian]

Mormons?

[Bogie]

I think I saw one the other day on Ebay.However, may not be genuine.

Ya got me going now.

[Ditter]

We have 2 that we bought directly from Mel years ago and 2 we bought a couple of years ago. The recent ones are made out of silver from the Atocha. I wish we had bought more from Mel.

[Bogie]

Boy, I know what your saying.

I found some on Ebay but they seem to be in very poor condition. 400 years of salt water can really screw up silver.