The golden treasure of king calos

[Killedseth]

Just wondering if anyone might be even a little familiar with these stories. I have few stories and a few names one location.

 

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[ARC]

King Calos ? ? ?

You mean "Chief" "Carlos" ?

Chief of the Calusa ?

If so yes... I am familiar.

 

[Killedseth]

Same person as far as I know.

 

[Killedseth]

Ok how about escalente de fontaneda

 

[: Michael-Robert.]

Nice pictures. Can you give me the back story of these stones and Chief Calusa ( Calos).

 

[Backwoodsbob]

Where was that found? Nice!!!

 

[signal]

Just wondering if anyone might be even a little familiar with these stories. I have few stories and a few names one location.

not sure about his treasure, but maybe near Mound Key where he was based at.

 

[signal]

Scattered reports give a picture of the Calos as asavage and wily band of Indians and
... they were noted among the tribes for their golden wealth which they had accumulated from numerous wrecks cast away upon the keys in pas-sage from the south and... they were regarded as veritable pirates, plundering and killing without mercy the crews of all vessels, excepting the Spanish,
so unfortunate as to be stranded in their neighbor-hood."

Above excerpt from:

The Everglades before Reclamation
Author(s): J. E. Dovell
Source: The Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol. 26, No. 1 (Jul., 1947), pp. 1-43Published by: Florida Historical Society
Stable URL: JSTOR: An Error Occurred Setting Your User Cookie
Accessed: 28-07-2015 02:55 UTC

 

[signal]

Sounds impressive:

The king of Calos, whom a Spaniard described as the “ goodliest and the tallest Indian of the country, a mighty man, a warrior, and having many subjects under his obedience,” not only saved the Europeans from their wreck, but, by diligent and indefatigable perseverance, rescued most of the treasure that was in the vessel; the Wealth which had been gleaned with unsparing cruelties from the bowels of the earth in Peru and Mexico. The treasures thus obtained by King Calos, were represented to be of almost limitless value. “ He had great store of golde and silver, so farre forth that, in a certaine village, he had a pit full thereof, which was at the least as high as a man, and as large as a tunne.” According to our Spaniards, it might be easy, “ with an hundred shot,” to obtain all this spoil; to say nothing of the scattered treasures which might be gleaned from the common people of the country.

Excerpt from:

The Lily and the Totem or, The Huguenots in Florida.
William Gilmore Simms

 

[Killedseth]

Signal thank you for that it was informative.
Backwoodsbob it's a shell map carved by escalente de fontaneda, during his 17 years in captivity. Pic from an odd 70's book A Cracker History of Lake Okeechobee

 

[ToddD]

This is relevant to my interests..
Where is this Mound Key? I have so little free time to hunt and I'm looking for the most enjoyable / interesting / productive spots possible.

 

[ToddD]

Mound Key: Take Calusa Blueway to archaeological island | Florida Rambler

Looks like a cool place. Is the land protected? I'd assume so. Water hunt might be fun.

 

[signal]

There is much written on Mound Key. Its partially private owned and I believe partially state owned. Some have been arrested for allegedly digging there. The history of the place is quite interesting, as it was a prominent place in Florida history, being the head seat of the Calusa Chief.

That's the thing about historical sites........the best ones, where you would want to detect, are 99% of the time off limits.

 

[Killedseth]

The site I'm referring to is I believe to be around fort center off fisheating creek to the west of lake Okeechobee. I'm finding more and more stories of gold and wealth that all seem to end in the same area

 

[signal]

Killedseth,

I have detected that Fort area many times. When the lake is low......there are locations not far out of Ft. Center which were trading posts.........not really sure I recall any stories of gold near Center. There was a lot of travel the indians would make from Mound Key, to Okeechobee, and then to around the Cape Canaveral area......that was a regular trail for them, that is documented.