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i drive right past this site every day.



Every morning for the past week, St. Augustine city archaeologist Carl Halbirt and a handful of volunteers worked in the cold to uncover what may be a very big part of St. Augustine's colonial history.

Halbirt and his team spent the past few days at a dig site on Florida A1A across from the Castillo de San Marcos sifting through the soil between the No Name Bar and Liquor Store and the White Lion Restaurant across from the bayfront.

The property, which was dug up to create a new trolley pull-in station, soon became one of Halbirt's biggest archaeological digs, and may also hold one of his biggest finds.

"I think the postholes and large soil stains we've found so far are potentially associated with an early fortification," Halbirt said. "This could very well be one of the early wooden forts built in St. Augustine before the Castillo de San Marcos."

Halbirt said the postholes' size indicates he and his team may have stumbled upon the corner of a very big structure.

"It looks like something built in the late 1500s to early 1600s."

"There were three wooden forts that were burnt down before the Castillo that we know very little about," he said.

From what Halbirt has studied in the ground so far, the building looks as though it is sitting at a right angle and could extend into what is now the A1A roadway. Although the dig site won't expand farther than what has already been dug up, Halbirt said there is still plenty of information and artifacts to find.

Beside the postholes and soil stains, Halbirt recovered completely intact glass bottles, an ornate candlestick holder, shards of colored pottery, plates and animal remains.

The archaeological team also found trash pits dating from the 19th century, and a large construction well that dips 5 feet deeper than the excavation, Halbirt said.

The new archaeological finds will soon be turned into an exhibit as part of a renovation to the Spanish Quarter, said Dana Ste. Claire, executive director for the Spanish Quarter department.

St. Augustine began construction this week with a vision of a new entryway to the Spanish Quarter and a colonial village-like interactive museum, Ste. Claire said. The original plans included a new boat building project and maritime history museum. But Halbirt's recent findings have changed the plans for the new interactive museum.

"We couldn't ask for a more ideal site to focus on now that we know Carl Halbirt has found something so significant here," Ste. Claire said.

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Cool!  

I have Family in Dade City Florida.  They went out to buy the estate of some dead guy (they sold the antiques).  Anyway, this one house they went to was an old decrepit mansion with broken down columns out front.  Inside one of the columns was a old cutlass...like they used in the pirate movies.

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That IS interesting.  I've been through St. Augustine a time or two (long ago) and I loved it's looks.  The Spanish influence in this country is something I always found beautiful, and it's very apparent in CA where I grew up.  Guess it's like that in FL, at least many parts, eh?  Finding sites like this is always cool.