Fort Center
Fisheating Creek Fort Center
Woodland Glades 450 BCE–1700 CE·Belle Glade (Calusa/Glades)·🇺🇸 Florida, Glades County, United States
About
About Fort Center
Unique Belle Glade / Glades woodland mound-canal center (450 BCE–1700 CE) beside Fisheating Creek swamp: oval mortuary pond (human burials with charnel house), 1200 m causeway, mounds A/B with charnel structures, ditch-canal system and raised garden ridges. Wooden platform and 114 carved wooden animal effigies submerged in pond, unlike anywhere in eastern North America — wetland adaptation without maize until late, relying on fish, coontie and pond apple.
Why it mattersOnly North American mortuary pond with submerged wood sculpture; demonstrates non-maize trichophyt hunter-gatherer complexity.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Meaning of 114 wood effigies (panther, birds) in pond
- 02Hydraulic system purpose — transport vs gardens
Theories
- 01Ancestor pond as watery portal to afterlife
- 02Causeway as social processional way mimicking Teotihuacan?
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.450 BCE (earthworks); peak 200–800 CE
- Period
- Woodland Glades 450 BCE–1700 CE
- Culture
- Belle Glade (Calusa/Glades)
- Builders
- Belle Glade/Calusa
- Purpose
- Mortuary pond, charnel house and hydraulic garden center
- Abandoned
- c.1700 CE (post-contact depopulation)
- Rediscovered
- 1920s A. H. Phinney; excavated Sears 1950s, Luer late 20th c.
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
450 BCE
Mound A initial construction
500 CE
Peak mortuary pond use with wooden effigies
On the ground
Structures & features
26.9639° N · 81.3581° W · 7 m · 2 mapped features
Mortuary Pond and Charnel Platform
pondOval pond with submerged wood effigies and burial platform
26.9642° N · 81.3585° WMound B and Causeway
causeway6 m mound linked by 1200 m linear causeway to pond
26.9630° N · 81.3570° W