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Presentations for Jupiter centennial highlight 5,000 years of habitation and local archaeological sites
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Summary
Town presentations for Jupiter’s 100th anniversary summarized prehistoric shell middens, trade networks, and local historic sites; presenters encouraged tribal participation and noted ongoing investigations upstream.
This year marks the town of Jupiter’s 100th anniversary and a public panel on the town’s history outlined evidence that people have lived in the Jupiter area for at least 5,000 years, presenters said.
Speakers at the centennial presentation described the area’s prehistoric and historic sites, including large shell middens at Du Bois Park and the Jupiter Lighthouse grounds, and called for continued preservation and inclusion of Indigenous voices in local interpretation.
Joe Mankowski, identified in the program as the town’s archaeologist and president and founder of Advanced Archaeology, said “This year of 2025 marks 100 years of the town of Jupiter’s history and offers a time to reflect on the development of the town through its efforts and achievements as a community of people from historic times up to the present day.” He framed that reflection by describing two prehistoric cultural periods visible in local deposits: a Late Archaic period (roughly 3000 to 750 BC) and a later East Okeechobee period (about 750 BC to AD 1750), noting changes in pottery technology and social organization across those periods.
Mankowski identified four prominent shell-midden locations discussed during the presentation: the Du Bois (Jupiter Inlet 1) mound, described historically as about 20 to 30 feet high and 600 feet long before early 20th-century reduction; the Jupiter Inlet 2 mound at the lighthouse; the Sunny Sands (Sperry) mound, shown as about 20 feet in its earlier photographic record; and a Sawfish Bay Park site whose midden has been reduced to approximately 3 feet of remaining deposit. He described middens as composed largely of oyster and clam shell, pottery fragments and animal bone, including deer, fish, turtle and shark remains, and explained that midden deposits raised habitable ground above the shoreline.
Josh Liller, historian and collections manager for the Loxahatchee River Historical Society and Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse and Museum, placed the prehistoric record in a broader local history that includes early European contact, steamboat and railroad-era settlement, the 19th- and 20th-century life-saving and lighthouse services, and later preservation efforts. Liller said the Loxahatchee River Historical Society “has been around for over 50 years” and described the society’s role in interpreting the river‑centered history of the area.
Panelists showed recovered artifacts including fiber-tempered and sand-tempered pottery (some examples dating to 3000 BC and later forms such as St. John’s check-stamp pottery around AD 1000), shell net weights, shell and greenstone celt (axe) fragments indicative of trade, and projectile points such as a Marion Point point described as roughly 5,000 years old. Mankowski noted that some greenstone materials are nonlocal and likely arrived through exchange networks extending beyond Florida.
During a question-and-answer period, Miccosukee tribal member Betty Asiola explained contemporary and ancestral practices for reducing insect exposure — “we periodically, we call it smoking out our camps” — and urged event organizers to involve both Miccosukee and Seminole representatives in future programs so tribal peoples can tell their own histories. Audience participants asked about human remains; Mankowski replied that fragmented human remains have been found on some sites but that historic and modern development has scattered or destroyed many burial contexts.
Presenters also discussed ongoing and upstream work: county archaeologists and investigators are documenting additional sites in Riverbend Park and the Waxahachie Slough, and presenters cautioned about publicizing detailed dig locations to avoid looting. The event closed with a note about a follow-up program in the series on local natural history to be held later in February.
For visitors: the Du Bois House and some small local exhibits are open on limited days and are operated by county parks volunteers and local docents; specifics on public hours were described as limited and were not exhaustively listed during the presentation.
