Month: April 2016

Expedition Team:  Dave Miller, Rosie Miller

Expedition Date:  2016

While in Florida, local newspapers received reports from boaters and fishermen at night over several months of strange lights and dark figures at night near the Chief Tomokie Historic Statue at the old Indian village ruins at the state park. The park was closed at dusk so vehicle access to this remote location by the river was not possible. Albeit lengthy, here’s the fascinating Indian history.

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE:  Chief Tomokie was slain by Oleeta in defense of the Golden Cup. The land was the site of Nocuroco, a Timucua Indian Village. Discovered in a 1605 expedition by Alvaro Mexla, it was the first Indian village south of St. Augustine. The village and nearby farm plantation remained until the 1835-42 Seminole Wars.

THE LEGEND OF TOMOKIE:  The Timucua Indians regarded a nearby spring as mystical. They believed that a messenger from the Great Spirit was sent every evening at dusk to drink of this Water of Life and that dew falling from the Spirit’s wings gave the water curative and restorative qualities. Tomokie, giant chief of his warriors, did not share this belief. He seized the sacred cup, drank from the spring, defiling it. The other Indians were offended and declared war. During battle, every arrow aimed at the Chief failed to hurt him. Oleeta, a beautiful enemy maiden sprang forward, faced Tomokie and pieced his heart with an arrow. She grabbed the sacred cup and was then killed by a poisoned arrow. Her tribe did not rest until Tomokie’s entire tribe was killed.

INVESTIGATION:  The story intrigued us but since we couldn’t access the area at night we did a daytime investigation. We boarded kayaks on the east side of the Halifax River and paddled 1 mile north past many islands across the intercoastal waterway to the Tomoka River. From our kayaks we could see the arm and head of the Chief Tomokie statue from behind through the trees, but no natural landing dock was available to disembark. This debunked the theory that people from boats stopped and came ashore with flashlights to create the “ghost lights” as docking was difficult and the “jungle” to the statue was impenetrable.  We kayaked past the site and upriver. As we turned into a side channel two fishermen told us a manatee had just ascended in front of our kayaks. Cranes and ibises accompanied us down the river.

After the three mile kayak trip, we had delicious fish sandwiches at Crabby Chris’s then drove around to the State Park entrance and down the sandy, heavily forested road to the Chief statue site where the nocturnal light claims were alleged. It was 84 degrees and very humid. Rosie led us down a tight hiking path overgrown on both sides with American Holly, Sparkleberry, Hammock and Pine Trees and Saw Palmetto Plants. It was eerie and silent as the trail winded through the former Nocuroco Village site.

A small area of land opened up and a tombstone loomed ahead. The old, badly eroded engraving on the marker stated that this was the grave of one of the earliest settlers, John Addison, who died on his plantation here on June 29, 1825, at age 61. After obtaining a Spanish land grant of 1,414 acres on the river west bank (beside the Indian Village site), 67 Indian slaves using axe and hoe only, cleared forest and planted cotton and later sugarcane in the rich soil. The plantation was destroyed in the Second Seminole War.

Leaving the grave, the one mile trail led us to a small opening at the river where I found dozens of shells each containing a small fiddler crab or snails. A large snake slithered across the overgrown trail that finally led us to Chief Tomokie’s Historic Statue where the great chief was killed. The large statue towered menacingly above us. It showed some signs of age but was still colorfully painted and majestic (the stature was built in the 1950’s, the last artwork of Fred Marsh). Reports stated that native Americans still secretly worshipped the site. Could it be them or just trespassers whose lights are reported at night. Or was it the spirits of Chief Tomokie & his tribe?

Investigation Team:  Matt Miller, Austin Whitt, Dave Miller

I’m groggy as the anesthetic has not totally wore off yet so I apologize if some of the words are misspelled. I’m logging this adventure on Matt’s laptop from my hospital bed at Kettering Memorial Hospital because they won’t release me until tomorrow. I just had a four hour surgery to re-attach the left ring finger on my left hand. Well, sometimes accidents happen and this adventure took a turn for the worse.

Just north of Heather Hills Subdivision where I live and just north of the neighboring subdivision German Village is a wooded area containing an old Native American Burial Ground. Two decades ago archaeologists from SunWatch Indian Village and Archaeological Park (located 1 mile north of here on West River Road) dug up significant artifacts from the Fort Ancient culture of Hopewell Indians that were buried there hundreds of years ago. The past several months I have had friends and neighbors tell me that they have seen strange green or white lights floating above the trees or in the wooded area of the burial ground. A Police Officer whose house on Munich Avenue in German Village and butts up to the wooded area said he took his dog out last night at 3:00am to go to the potty and witnessed strange green pulsating lights. Being an amateur historian, archaeologist and paranormal investigator I always wanted to hike those woods where the burial ground was. So with recent “sightings” we decided to look for evidence. This evening we took our cameras and lanterns, hopped in Matt’s pickup and took off on the five minute drive. The temperature was 56 degrees, windy and overcast.

As we parked and got out I felt a strong sense of foreboding as the trees swayed in the strong breeze, the wind whispering like a banshee. I should have felt safe since my son Matt is in the Police Academy and bench presses 475 pounds and Austin is an Army Veteran and just as strong as Matt but tonight felt different. The woods seemed menacing and scary. We found a deer trail and hiked ten minutes through the woods. As the darkness descended upon us I heard an owl hoot and several bats flew by.

Matt and Austin stopped and pointed as we saw what looked like small balls of light moving in the trees in the distance. We continued forward cautiously. To the right we saw a green glow and discovered the loose soil on the ground also faintly glowed. We found an old rusty shovel nearby so Matt, then Austin began to dig while I held the lantern. The woods became silent and everything felt eerie. Austin said he felt like he hit something about a foot down in the ground. I began to clear away loose dirt with my hands. As Austin lowered the blade of the shovel he partially turned his head as he heard a noise to his right, saw movement and a green flash of light in his peripheral vision in the woods. I was startled too by the noise and didn’t move my hands fast enough and the blade severed my ring finger. The pain was excrutiating. We quickly wrapped my finger and applied a tourniquet.

We shined the lantern back into the hole and we saw a half exposed skull with a odd green glow. The skull did not look Native American but looked more extra-terrestrial. Suddenly, the skull moved and looked at us. I screamed like a Barbie and almost soiled my pants. Austin yelled and ran off deeper into the woods. Several glowing green balls of light followed him.

We immediately heard a noise behind us and whirled. An entity stood next to a tree. Matt took the shovel to ward off the entity. I picked up my finger off the ground, Matt through the shovel and we sprinted to the truck and raced to the hospital.

Matt is here with me at the hospital. We have not heard from Austin nor know where he is. We are not sure what shadowy entity we saw in the woods during those frantic seconds but luckily we had the camera set on automatic so it continuously took photos. I posted the photos so you be the judge. Oh, by the way, April Fools! Hope we fooled a few of you. Sorry, couldn’t help it as I hadn’t pranked anyone today.