WEST VOLUSIA AND THE ST. JOHNS RIVER
- A 15,000-YEAR LOVE AFFAIR -

     Timucuans lived in large villages, with probably hundreds of residents. Many of the villages were surrounded by protective stockades made of long poles stuck in the ground with sharpened points to discourage invaders. Most of the villagers lived in dome-shaped huts made of wood with palmetto thatched roofs.

     The village chief and his family lived in a long building in the center of the compound. This long house also served as a community meeting hall and church.

     Most of Timucuans wore only aprons of Spanish moss or leather breechcloths. Tribal leaders and their families had elaborate tattoos, made from plant dyes that were poked under the skin with thorns. Chiefs sometimes were tattooed from head to foot.

     The Timucuans called the river II-La-Ka, which roughly translates as chain of lakes. It’s an apt name for a river that repeatedly widens out into lakes. Just in the DeLand area alone, the river connects lakes, Beresford, Dexter, Woodruff and Spring Garden.

     Evidence of Timucuan villages dot the Greater DeLand area. There were at least two large settlements -- one in what is now Blue Springs State Park in Orange City, and the other on Hontoon Island in the river near DeLand. At both of those sites, archeologists have discovered large statues of owls.

     In both cases, the statues were made by burning and scraping the image into six-foot-long logs. Archeologists believe the figures are, in effect, ancient "No Tresspassing" signs. Timucuans believed owls were evil spirits, so the carved figures probably were designed to scare unwanted visitors away from sacred burial mounds.