Welcome to the Farewell to Finder’s Fest geo-art, brought to you by the Forest Minions! This series celebrates weird and unusual things throughout the Sunshine State. Please do not go to the posted locations. Rather, solve the challenging quiz found at the bottom of each page, for the final location. For the letterbox caches, please leave the stamp in the cache. They are not trade items. For the discerning traveler, we’ve included the GPS coordinates for these bizarre locations, when we were able to establish them.
Mysterious Miami Circle – Location 25.7694, -80.1899
In 1998, while demolishing an old building in downtown Miami to make way for a new high-rise condominium, a 38-foot-diameter circular pattern of holes was uncovered cut in the limestone bedrock. It was one of the greatest discoveries in Florida archeology, but there was a great big problem, it was sitting on a ten million dollar piece of property that was estimated to be worth twenty times that amount if the two-acre site was developed into a condominium complex. The location is in the center of the city on the south side of the Miami River. Archaeologists from the Miami-Dade County’s Historic Preservation Division examined the weird circle and determined that the holes were used to support posts for a large round council house. The circle was estimated to have been built between 1000 and 2000 years ago by the Tequesta Indians which had died out centuries before the Seminoles migrated to the Florida peninsula.
The Miami Circle was designated the Brickell Point archaeological site. It sits on land once owned by William Brickell, a pioneer who ran an early trading post. William Brickell’s weird mausoleum is nearby; I say weird because it is empty. When Miami began getting too crowded, Brickell’s remains were removed by his descendants and re-interred in a Dade County cemetery.
Here is the super duper, way challenging, really hard trivia question, which, if solved properly, will lead you to the final coordinates:
Question: How many sweat pores can be found on the average person?
A: 1 = N29° 28.339' W81° 46.655'
B: 42 = N29° 28.329' W81° 46.655'
C: 2,500,000 = N29° 28.319' W81° 46.655'