• Dry Tortugas

    Dry Tortugas

    National Park Florida

Submerged Cultural Resources

Submerged Cultural Resource Preservation

Since the 1970s, the submerged cultural resources in the Dry Tortugas have been surveyed by underwater Archaeology survey crews. GIS based, remote sensing and site testing has occurred at known sites.

Most recently, in August of 2009, the Everglades and Dry Tortugas Dive team, along with the Submerged Cultural Resources Unit joined together to conduct archaeological condition assessments on the documented submerged cultural resources sites. The crew located or re-located the known sites and collected digital images and video of the submerged cultural resources. In addition, the crew identified new sites that had not previously been recorded in past surveys.

Many recovered anchors, canons, and other objects are now housed in the South Florida Collections Management Center managed by the Everglades National Park or at the Southeast Archaeological Center (SEAC) in Tallahassee, Florida.

 
 

Did You Know?

Dr. Samuel Mudd

Fort Jefferson served for a time as a remote prison facility.  One of its most famous inmates was none other than Dr. Samuel Mudd, who set the leg of John Wilkes Booth following the assassination of President Lincoln.  Mudd was incarcerated on the Dry Tortugas for only four years, from 1865 to 1869.