SW0112 History Hunter Steve Carr Sifts Developer’s Dirt Fill Piles to Reveal Okeechobee Battle Artifacts

<p></p> <p>Pace Ringo Starr, confirmation of the site of the Okeechobee Battlefield did not come easy. By 1985, local memory was hazy, having been handed down for several generations from 1837. In addition, hand-drawn maps from various sources contemporary to the battle did not necessarily match each other or the actual geographic features they represented, in whole or in part. Consultants hired by land developers literally dug up dry holes through a subsurface that should have yielded artifacts from the clash. Oh, and the developers didn’t want any pesky outside archaeologists nosing around the property to prove them wrong and hold up, well, land development.</p> <p>Enter Bob Carr and Bill Steele on one end. We’ve podcasted with Bill Steele, who shared his recollections. On the other end was Steve Carr, no relation to Bob. The Lake Worth, Florida-native knew something was amiss. The self-described History Hunter put on his thinking cap to assess the anomaly of the land yielding no artifacts on a site that had to be the battlefield.</p> <p>Steve learned that the overall battlefield, while swampy in 1837, was many decades later covered with up to five-feet of dirt to fill in the swamp and let cattle graze. It is no wonder a shovel test showed no presence, the consultants were not digging deep enough because they did not know to suspect anything so far underneath.</p> <p>When the development began, excavation began and bulldozers soon carved out land fill that reached the level of battle artifacts. Dumped in a pile on public land – and out of legal recourse from the developer – Steve dug into the accumulating landfill hills to release the mountain of artifacts confirming through physical presence that this was indeed the battlefield. The precise context was lost but Steve salvaged the artifacts and since he witnessed the dirt transported from the battlefield, he knew he could associate anything he found with that site.</p> <p> </p> <p></p> <p></p> <p></p> <p>A sample of artifacts on display at the annual reenactmen