A burial mound east of Avon Park was opened in 1899
The destruction of mounds for groves, roads and curiosity is well documented across Florida, but no specific instance in Highlands County had been found, and any surviving account was thought likely to be oral only. One is now in print.
The Florida Agriculturist of 5 July 1899 passes on a paragraph from the Avon Park correspondent of the Arcadia News:
The Avon Park correspondent of the Arcadia News, writes: “An Indian mound was discovered by Messrs. Mc- Pabor east of this town last week. They took from the mound a quantity of beads, utensils and other things. There was a great quantity of skulls and other human bones in the mound, showing that many dead had been buried here. It is the intention of the finders to make further explorations. It is evident that at some time a battle was fought near here and the dead buried in that mound.”[fa-1899-07-05]
The Florida Agriculturist, 5 July 1899, page 5: Indian mound opened east of Avon Park by Messrs. Mc- Pabor. Image provided by the University of Florida / Library of Congress, Chronicling America. Public domain.[fa-1899-07-05]
What this is
It is a report of a grave being robbed. It should be recorded and interpreted as that, and not as a discovery, an exploration or a find. Men from the town dug into a burial place, removed the objects buried with the dead, disturbed the remains of a large number of people, and announced that they intended to come back and do more.
The correspondent’s own interpretation — that a battle had been fought nearby and the dead buried together — is a nineteenth-century guess with nothing behind it. Multiple burials in a mound are the ordinary form of interment for the peoples of this region over many centuries; they do not indicate a battle. Beads and “utensils” placed with the dead are grave goods. What the account actually describes is a mortuary mound of the kind the Belle Glade and related cultures built throughout the interior, of the same class as Goodnow Mound.
What it establishes
A mound existed east of Avon Park in 1899. The report gives no closer location than that, and this document deliberately does not speculate about one. Site locations are withheld from public records in Florida because looting is a continuing harm, and nothing in this bundle should make an unprotected site easier to find.
It was substantial. “A great quantity of skulls and other human bones” is a large mortuary deposit, not an isolated burial.
It had grave goods including beads. Beads are the class of object that carries dating and trade information — shell, bone, glass — and glass beads would indicate contact-period material, as the disputed “silver coin beads” claim does at Goodnow Mound.
It was dug by named local men. The printed newspaper page explicitly typesets the names as “Messrs. Mc- Pabor” with a hyphen following the prefix “Mc-”. One individual was a member of the local pioneer community with a Scottish surname (likely McDonald, who was active at Avon Park in the 1890s), and the other was a member of the Pabor family from the neighboring Pabor Lake colony four miles north.
Whatever they took has probably not survived as a documented collection. No Highlands County material of this description has been found in any checked repository.
References
- fa-1899-07-05 — Arcadia News, via The Florida Agriculturist (DeLand, Fla.). The Florida Agriculturist, 5 July 1899, page 5: an Indian mound opened east of Avon Park, from the Avon Park correspondent of the Arcadia News. 5 July 1899. https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn96027724/1899-07-05/ed-1/?sp=5&r=0.15,0.241,0.53,0.322,0
Related
- Report: Indigenous presence on the Lake Wales Ridge
- Belle Glade culture
- Finding: Avon Park’s local history writing is silent on Indigenous presence
- Finding: access barriers around the Highlands County archaeological record
- Report: Avon Park in The Florida Agriculturist, 1890-1910
- Pabor Lake colony
Where this comes from
- Evidence
- single-source — One source. Treat as reported, not established.
- Review
- unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.
- Rights
- society
Sources
- Arcadia News, via The Florida Agriculturist (DeLand, Fla.), The Florida Agriculturist, 5 July 1899, page 5: an Indian mound opened east of Avon Park, from the Avon Park correspondent of the Arcadia News (1899)
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