ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A St. Petersburg family is dedicated to preserving a slice of history at Jungle Prada.
The Anderson Family purchased the property back in the 1940s, an effort to preserve and protect at the Tocobaga Indian Mound and the surrounding sacred grounds.
Today, this private site is open for tours. Your tour guide: David Anderson. His grandfather is the one who originally purchased the property.
"My grandfather instilled in my father that there was a lot of value to history and to remembering it and to preserving it for other people," Anderson said. "He never called himself the owner of the property. He called himself the caretaker, or the custodian of the property. Said it belonged to everybody. My father is actually the one, and mother, too, who started Sacred Lands Preservation in 2001 as a nonprofit to help share this place."
There's been a lot of research done on this site. It's been determined that there are no burials here.
The mound was likely used by the Tocobaga for storm surge protection, homes, temples, a ceremonial gathering place, and even trash.
"Well, there were people who lived here in St Petersburg before us, and, in fact, thousands of years before us, and not too much remains that you can actually see and touch from their culture," Anderson said. "But there are a few places that can give you a window into the past, and so I think that my whole family has considered that important to preserve. I wish we knew more about these people, because they lived where we live, and not that much before us."
This is also believed to be the landing site of the Narvaez expedition, which is gaining national attention.
"In addition to being a Tocobaga site, we're also generally recognized as a Spanish landing site of the Narvaez expedition," Anderson said. "Panfilo de Narváez was named the second governor of Florida after Ponce de Leon died. His mission was to come here and start a colony, maybe make a tax base for Spain. But he was interested in gold, so he went north to try to find gold.
He continued, "His journey was fraught. It was a disaster. They tried to build rafts and evacuate to Mexico. They lost track of their ships, and in the end, only four survivors made it all the way to the west coast of Mexico after an eight-year journey."
What's also impressive is what happened during the 2024 hurricanes.
"They knew it was smart to build up. And that's never been more true than this year on this property, everything that the Native Americans built up survived the surge. Didn't not get flooded, but everywhere that they didn't, got flooded by the storm. So we have a lot of damage to the property down by the water, which is a lot of our areas that we use today for public events. So we're putting back together our restrooms, entryway, dock," said Anderson.
Volunteers are working hard to help fix that damage and add plants to the grounds.
If you go on the tour, don't forget to snap a few pictures of the peacocks which have called the property home for decades.
If you'd like to volunteer, visit, or read more of their history, click here.
