Fort Center
 Location within Florida today
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| Location |
Lakeport, Florida, Glades County, Florida,  USA
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| Region | Glades County, Florida |
| Coordinates | 26°57′2.66″N 81°8′10.97″W / 26.9507389°N 81.1363806°W |
| History | |
| Founded | 450 BCE |
| Abandoned | 1700 CE |
| Site notes | |
| Excavation dates | 1930s, 1940s, early 1950s, 1961, 1966-1971 |
| Archaeologists | University of Florida, Colgate University, Florida Atlantic University |
| Responsible body: State of Florida | |
Fort Center is an archaeological site in Glades County, Florida, a few miles northwest of Lake Okeechobee. It was occupied for more than 2,000 years, from 450 BCE until about 1700 CE. The inhabitants of Fort Center may have been cultivating maize centuries before it appeared anywhere else in Florida.
Fort Center is a complex of earthwork mounds, linear embankments, middens, circular ditches, and an artificial pond occupying an area approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) long and 0.5 miles (0.80 km) wide extending east-west along Fisheating Creek, a stream that empties unto Lake Okeechobee. The complex is named after a blockhouse located at the site during the Second Seminole War. No trace remains of the blockhouse, which may have been eroded by the river.
The Fort Center site consists of three environments; a meander belt along the stream consisting of a floodplain swamp and natural levees, wet prairie, and oak-cabbage palm-saw palmetto hammocks. The floodplain and prairie are subject to frequent flooding. The prairie consists of two to four feet of sandy soil on a hardpan, resulting in poor drainage. The stream meander belt cuts below the hardpan.
Pollen evidence shows that the river meander belt and prairie existed in essentially their current condition since human occupation began 2,500 to 3,000 years ago until the 20th century. The area covered by hammocks has increased since sustained occupation ended around 1700. Much of the area around Fort Center was developed as improved pasture during the 20th century. Lake Okeechobee was surrounded by a system of dikes built during the 20th century, except for where Fisheating Creek enters the lake.
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Wikipedia