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ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — In downtown St. Augustine, at the base of the Bridge of Lions, there is a construction site. Emergency Tent
Someone monitoring the project last week saw something under the ground that caught their eye.
"It was the shape of what they were seeing and of course the wood," Dr. Ian Prawn said. He is a Cultural Resources Coordinator with the Florida Department of Transportation. He is also an archaeologist.
The certain kind and shape of the wood found prompted construction to stop. Archaeologists with SEARCH Inc., who were already on standby, were called in.
Over the last few days, they’ve revealed a wooden boat from the 1800’s.
The boat "has the characteristics of a locally built craft, most likely used in fishing or maybe general carrying trade," said Dr. James Delgado, the Vice President of SEARCH, who was on site Monday.
The vessel is right under the traffic light by the bridge.
"The form of the vessel is low and flat but with a sharper end on it,," Delgado described.
It’s somewhat like a canoe shape. That's not all archaeologists found under the rubble.
"We’ve seen fragments of old ceramics containers, bottles, rusty bits of iron, as well as cuts of bone, possibly from someone’s chops they had for dinner. They may have just scraped the plate into the water," Delgado nodded.
Scientists also found an old leather shoe over the weekend there.
"It looks like we have a left or a right shoe," Delgado noted, "which comes after the Civil War."
The state did not allow press cameras to access the site, and photos of artifacts have not been released yet.
The boat will be fully removed from the mud, but where it and the other artifacts will go is unclear.
During this phase of the construction project, the usually busy intersection of King Street and A1A is closed to traffic. With this discovery, you’d think the intersection will be closed even longer. However, the FDOT Spokesman Hampton Ray said that won't be the case because the agency already built time into the schedule just in case something like this happened.
"This is part of St. Augustine that has been under the surface for a long time and we haven’t seen it," Pawn said.
For Pawn, that leather shoe – not the boat – is what resonates with him.
"It's because that’s something every person has and that we’ve found something like that, it helps us remember these are people who lived here," Pawn said.
Delgado painted the picture of what that spot along the Matanzas River was like when that fishing boat was abandoned.
"If we were back in the 19th century, you would have an open waterfront with sailing craft and steamboats. People would be getting off the boats and going to the market here. It was an active waterfront," said Delgado. "And which circumstances change, but St. Augustine is still here, as it has been for hundreds of years."
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