They built a 30-foot-tall shrine of shells and sand that could be seen for miles up and down the Crystal River.
“It’s a beacon for other tribes in the area,” Ron Roecker said of the river mounds and temples built by coastal river-dwelling Indians some 1,600 years ago. They also constructed five other mounds in what is now Crystal River Archaeological State Park.
Roecker is the president of Friends of Crystal River State Park.
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On October 14th, if the moon will, it will illuminate what is now known as Temple Mound A, which will serve as a beacon for those attending the park’s first Moon Over the Mounds event of the season, visiting at 7:30, 8 and 8:30 pm Friends sponsored the event.
Volunteer archaeologists and anthropologists from the Gulf Archaeological Institute and the Florida Public Archaeological Network will lead tours that start at the museum and stop at the yard or garbage dump, tomb, and then to the temple heap.
According to Roque, there are two burials – one for upper-class porters and shakers from the former community, and one for everyone else.
The temple mound was originally 182 feet long and 100 feet wide at the base, with an 80-foot ramp leading to it. Before the state took over ownership, the former landowner removed two-thirds of the mound to fill in the swampy area to the east, according to the state park’s website.
Today, 51 steps lead to the summit.
Moon Over the Mounds is about an hour’s hike. The Roecker and Friends group recommends that visitors bring flashlights and insecticide.
When the temperature was in the 70s and the moon wasn’t hiding under the clouds, it was “a very majestic feeling” to reach the top of the temple mound and look out over the river, Roecker said.
He said some tourists reported “a strange feeling or something different in the air” around the tomb. A ranger reported that when she mowed, she felt “like history was all around her, like it was a sacred place,” Roque said.
A $10 donation is requested. Donations include park admission. Crystal River State Archaeological Park is located at 3400 N Crystal River Museum Point. For general information about the park, call 352-795-3817.
