19th century hospital and cemetery found underwater in Florida | World News

Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a 19th-century quarantine hospital and cemetery on a submerged island in Florida’s Dry Tortugas National Park in the Gulf of Mexico.

According to park officials, only one grave has been identified, while historical records indicate that dozens of people — mostly U.S. soldiers stationed at Fort Jefferson — may have been buried at the site in the waters west of Key West, Florida, according to reports this guardian.

A National Park Service statement said the small quarantine hospital was used to treat yellow fever patients at the fort between 1890 and 1900.

“This discovery was made in August 2022 through an investigation conducted by park cultural resources staff with assistance from the National Park Service’s Underwater Resources Center, the Southeast Archaeological Center, and a University of Miami graduate student. Since then , they have been studying historical records to learn more about the site and the individual,” the park service added.

While primarily known for its use as a military prison during the American Civil War, the islands and waters surrounding Fort Jefferson were also used as a naval coal outpost, lighthouse station, naval hospital, quarantine facility, and more generally as a safe haven and military training.

As Fort Jefferson’s population swelled with soldiers, prisoners, slaves, engineers, support personnel, laborers and their families, the risk of deadly infectious disease, especially mosquito-borne yellow fever, increased dramatically. Major disease outbreaks on the island hit those who lived there hard, killing dozens throughout the 1860s and 1870s.