Key WEST – Archeologists have uncovered the remains of a 19th-century quarantine clinic and cemetery on a submerged island in the Florida Keys.
Online video unveiled by the Dry Tortugas Nationwide Park demonstrates underwater excavations, which began in August 2022, for the duration of a survey of the Fort Jefferson Write-up Cemetery in the vicinity of Yard Vital.
The study was carried out by park cultural resources staff members, the Nationwide Park Service’s Submerged Assets Middle, the Southeast Archeological Centre, and a University of Miami graduate student, the park stated.
Documents reveal dozens of folks may possibly have been buried at the website, the park support explained.
One grave was recognized as that of John Greer, a laborer who died in 1861. Officers said not substantially was acknowledged about Greer, but his grave was prominently marked with a massive slab of greywacke, the very same substance utilised to assemble the 1st ground of Fort Jefferson. Attempts to discover more about Greer and other folks interred on the now-submerged island are continuing.
Fort Jefferson was a army jail for the duration of the American Civil War, and the surrounding islands became a naval outpost, a lighthouse station, naval healthcare facility, quarantine facility, and a internet site for navy education, in accordance to the park’s web-site.
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