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Welcome to Sams House on Pine Island. The Pine Island Conservation area consists of 1000 acres on Merritt Island. This special area encompasses pine flatwoods, cabbage palm hammocks, hardwood hammocks, mangrove forests, and salt marshes. An archeological study of Pine Island has identified two historic houses, a prehistoric Native American village, and a fossil site. The two historic homes were built by the Sams family, one of the earliest settlers on Merritt Island. These homes have now been restored. Dishes, bottle fragment, square nails and animal bones have been found around the homes dating back from the 1880s. Photo by Vince Lamb.
The area referred to as Sams site has artifacts from the Middle Archaic Period (5,000-4,000 BC) through the Malabar period (500BC-AD 1565). The Archaic period is the generalized name given to hunter gatherer societies on the American continents from approximately 8000 to 2000 years BC. The Indian River Lagoon area is generally known as the Malabar Culture and has it's own unique language, religion and social organization. The Malabar Period is divided into sub periods based on changes in their ceramic wares. Prehistoric items found here include potsherds, flakes of stone from making tools, a coquina grinding stone and a spear point. This particular site is unusual because there are no shell middens. The mound to the south of Sams house is a scared Native American Indian burial site. Photo by Vince Lamb.
Sams Creek Fossil Site is located north of the Sams Site area and is one of the first fossil sites found on Merritt Island. Sams Creek Canal was excavated in the 1960s and the dredge material was dumped in the adjacent marsh in an attempt to fill in the wetland and create more farmland. The marshes are being restored by removing the spoil piles. Many fossils have been discovered in the dredged up material. Fossil remains include Giant Ground sloth, Mastodon, Giant Land Tortoise, Camel, Glyptodont, Horse, Mammoth, Giant Armadillo, Peccary and Tapir. A pin made from a fossil bone fragment was also found at the archaeological site near Sams House.
Picture taken from the Indian River Anthropological Society website.
Florida is a fossil-hunter's paradise but no dinosaur bones are found here because Florida was underwater at the time they lived. Changes in sea levels have had a profound effect on both Florida's geology and ecology. When sea levels were lower, a land bridge between North and South America allowed a mass migration of plants and animals between the two continents. During the last ice age, Florida had almost three times as much land area. It was also much drier during the last ice age and dominated by savanna-like conditions that supported a diverse group of Pleistocene megafauna which are large terrestrial animals like the mastodons and giant armadillos. Near the end of the last ice age, Paleoindians arrived in Florida and archeological evidence indicates they hunted many of the megafuna species. As the ice age ended, sea levels rose and Florida lost much of its land mass. The climate became much wetter, habitats changed and the mastodons, mammoths and other megafuna died out.
A fossil is any remains, impression, or trace of a living thing of a former geologic age.
To get credit for this earthcache, you need to find at least three different types of fossilized objects. You can search the outdoor displays and pictures as well as the indoor visitor center.
Earthcache requirements:
1.)In an email to the cache owner, identify three different types of fossilized objects that you discovered at Sams House and give the approximate size of each item.
2.)Optional: Upload a creative photo of yourself or your group with the Giant Ground Sloth. Use photo editing, props or good ole geocaching ingenuity to represent your own personal style.
3.)Log your Found It on the cache page but please do not share which particular fossilized objects you identified to the cache owner.
Boring photo taken by efrodo (I know you can do much better than this)
References:
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/geology/geologictopics/fossil.htm
https://www.facebook.com/samshousepineisland?sk=info
http://nbbd.com/npr/archaeology-iras/pineisland.html
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/uw208
http://paleoenterprises.com /moreinfo.htm