SAFETY HARBOR, Fla. — Researchers believe remnants of an ancient Native American burial mound belonging to the Tocobaga tribe could be underneath picnic shelter No. 9 at Philippe Park in Safety Harbor.
“These were places where people came to bury their dead, and they’d pile up shells, sand, and make a monument to remember their loved ones," said Tom Pluckhahn, a Professor of Anthropology at USF.
Pluckhahn said they can say with reasonable confidence that is the location where the burial mound was.
“An archeologist from the Smithsonian Institution came here in 1931 and excavated the burial mound, and we have photographs of the excavation, and then archeologists from the University of Florida came to the park right when it was becoming a park in 1948, and they marked the location of the burial mound on their map," said Pluckhahn.
He authored a report in 2021, prepared for the Pinellas County Parks and Conservation Resources Department, which at one point discusses shelter No. 9.
Those revelations are on the county’s radar.
“We don’t have any definitive idea of what those anomalies are, but the Parks and Conservation Resources Department is taking every precaution to make sure that this significant site is preserved for future generations," said Monica Drake, the Historical Museum Operations Manager at Heritage Village.
Pinellas County officials said they’ve removed picnic shelter No. 9 from the department’s online reservation system.
“There’s no plan right now to remove shelter 9, but again, we want to get with those stakeholders and talk about what the next best step forward is for the shelter," said Drake.
In addition, county leaders said the playground will be closed after the new one is finished in March.
“I give the county a lot of credit for doing the right thing here," said Pluckhahn. "This is a popular park. It’s always tricky balancing the historic preservation with the tourism and recreation, but they’ve made the right call here.”
