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It's Our History, Dig?

Broward's official archaeologist, Scott Lewis, is leading the charge to explore the county's rich past -- which means saving the land from rampant overdevelopment

A A A Comments By Roger Williams Thursday, Mar 23 2000

The New River, rich with life for thousands of years, is the key to that imaginary voice. Deep from channeling but essentially unchanged in its winding course from the west, the river executes a graceful turn a couple of hundred yards west of the market. Dark water shimmers, and Lewis turns his gaze upstream, to the south bank. "Right there where that live oak is," he says, pointing to an embankment. "That could be a site." Passing tourists clad in shorts and sandals glance to see what Lewis has spotted. They see a vacant lot. They do not see, apparently, the slight rise in ground that suggests a high place, created naturally by the sweep of water from the upriver bend, where dirt was swept onto the point Lewis studies.

A couple of Germans stand behind him and try to listen; others board a double-decker riverboat that offers guided tours of the current culture. Those tours include only brief mentions of "history" -- always the history of the Seminole Indian Wars in the 1830s and 1840s, when Maj. William Lauderdale set up camp on the river, and only a brief mention of the name Tequesta.

Sherri Cohen

Beneath Hyde Park Market's aging linoleum, Scott Lewis hopes to find prehistory

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In sight of the boat, Hyde Park Market is doing good business in the late afternoon -- shoppers stream out the sliding doors to heft bags of groceries into their cars. "I figure it this way," Lewis announces, studying the well-fed cavalcade of food gatherers: "People have been doing that for a long time here, we're about to find out."

Contact Roger Williams at his e-mail address: roger.williams@newtimesbpb.com