Hontoon Island State Park

Evidence shows that inhabitants have been living along the St. Johns River for over 12,000 years. Shell mounds and other artifacts found on Hontoon Island prove that many Native Americans called this place home. Although initially considered part of the Timucua cultural region, the people who lived along the river and on Hontoon Island were the Mayaca. They occupied an area in the upper St. Johns River valley just to the south of Lake George. According to Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda, the Mayaca language was related to that of the Ais, a tribe living along the Atlantic coast of Florida to the southeast of the Mayacas. They were hunter-fisher-gatherers, and were not known to practice agriculture to any significant extent, unlike their neighbors to the north, the Utina or Agua Dulce (Freshwater) Timucua. (In general, agriculture had not been adopted by tribes living south of the Timucua at the time of first contact with European people.) The Mayaca shared a ceramics tradition (the St. Johns culture) with the Freshwater Timucua, rather than the Ais (the Indian River culture).*

A tribe of hunter-fisher-gatherers, situating themselves along the river allowed them to have plentiful access to fish, freshwater snails that were a staple and other marine creatures as a source of food.  Artifacts and remnants of the Mayaca can still be seen on the island. A large shell midden can be found along the shore, along with fragments of pottery and wood carvings. A shell midden is a mound of shells, bones and other debris discarded by the early inhabitants of the area. Created over time, a midden contains many layers of debris. This layered site is a preserved record of the people who once lived here.

Spanish Franciscan friars first visited the Mayaca late in the 16th century. The chief of the Mayaca had been converted to Christianity by 1597, but a mission, San Salvador de Mayaca, was not established until later. It is not proven whether it was located on the island or along the river, and it not mentioned in Spanish records for most of the 17th century. Missionary activity resumed again by 1680, at Anacape (San Antonio de Anacape) and Mayaca. By this time, Chachises (or Salchiches), Malaos (or Malicas) had become part of the population in Mayaca province, while refugee Yamassee Indians had become the majority of the population. By the 1690s missions had been established at Concepción de Atoyquime, San Joseph de Jororo and in Atisimmi, in what had become the Mayaca-Jororo Province, and some Spanish ranches operated in the area.*
 
Disturbances in 1696 and 1697 led to the murders of a friar and some Indian converts. Peace was restored, but in 1708 raids by Indians allied with the English in the Province of Carolina drove part of the Mayaca to seek refuge around St. Augustine. Others of the Mayaca moved south to the eastern side of Lake Okeechobee, which was named "Lake Mayaca" on maps in the 1820s (Port Mayaca, on the eastern shore of Lake Okeechobee, is a remnant of that name). In 1738 and 1739 a series of battles between the Mayaca living at Lake Okeechobee and their allies the Jororo and Bomto (or Bonita) on one side and the Calusa, Pojoy and Amacapiras on the other side, together with a raid by the Uchise on the Pojoy, resulted in some 300 deaths. Some Mayaca were still living near Lake Okeechobee in 1743.*

After the Second Seminole War, settlers formed homesteads along the St. Johns River. Their survival depended on fishing and hunting wild game, along with raising cattle and growing crops like citrus, sugar cane, corn, cotton and sweet potatoes. A former soldier named William Hunton acquired the property and established a homestead on the island in the 1860s. The island originally got its name from Hunton and over time, was changed to Hontoon Island. It was established as a Florida State Park in the 1970s.
 
Located on the St. Johns River, six miles west of DeLand off State Road 44, the park welcomes visitors to enjoy nature, recreation and history. Evidence of Native American habitation over thousands of years can be witnessed as visitors hike through the park. Walk through the impressive visitor center to learn more about the many inhabitants and uses of Hontoon Island over the years. The island is accessible only by private boat or park ferry, which operates daily from 8 a.m. to one hour before sunset. Paddling, fishing, hiking, biking and camping are popular activities. Canoe, kayak and bicycle rentals are available from the island store. Picnic areas include tables, grills and a playground.

On exhibit in the park is a replica of the largest wooden effigy ever recovered from a North American archaeological site. Mayacan artists made it with tools of shark's teeth, stone and shell. Its age is estimated at 700-800 years. In June 1955, St. Johns riverfront landowner, Victor Roepke, was dredging along his section of river when he unearthed the 12 foot sculpture. Archaeologist Ripley P. Bullen, and others from the Florida Museum of Natural History hauled the carving to Gainesville for study. It never returned to Hontoon Island. Oddly, that restored original Mayacan effigy now stands on display in the Timucuan Preserve Visitor Center at Fort Caroline National Memorial in Jacksonville.

Similar effigies of an otter and a pelican were also found on and near the island. What they represent is unknown, however owls were prominent figures in the myths and religion of pre-Columbian Florida peoples. Some explanations claim it’s a clan emblem, religious object, or territorial boundary marker.

In an article by By Ronald Williamson in 2004, Craig Morris, a ranger at Fort Caroline, said, "It's probably the most talked about piece in the visitors center. The mural incorporates the carving into a charnel house scene because it's believed to have been a supernatural creature watching over generations of ancestral bones at Hontoon Island. This is not a totem. It has human eyes, as well as round bird eyes. It has five claws; owls have four. It's a symbol of a human turning itself into an owl. Or an owl turning into a human."