Letchworth-Love Mounds Archaeological State Park, Native American ceremonial site in Jefferson County, Florida.
Letchworth-Love Mounds Archaeological State Park is a 190.11-acre Florida state park in Jefferson County, about six miles west of Monticello. Its Mound 1, a flat-topped platform mound about 49 feet tall, is the tallest prehistoric Native American earthwork in Florida; a ramp climbs its northern side, with low aprons to the east and west and a platform projecting south. At least seven mounds survive around a central plaza.
Built and occupied mainly by the Swift Creek and Weeden Island cultures between roughly AD 200 and 900, with most mound construction in the early Weeden Island period. Excavations in the habitation area uncovered a Woodland-period house radiocarbon-dated to the fifth or sixth century AD. The land stayed in private, largely agricultural ownership until the state bought about 81 acres from Larry R. and Rosa C. Letchworth in 1992 and about 109 acres from Hurley H. Booth in 2005.
The name honours Larry R. and Rosa C. Letchworth, the private owners from whom the state bought the main mound's land in 1992 under the P-2000 and CARL programmes. Earlier writers called the earthwork the "Miccosukee mound" (Mark F. Boyd, 1939) and the "Lake Miccosukee Mound" (Hale G. Smith, 1951). Archaeologists also refer to the site simply as Letchworth.
The park lies about six miles west of Monticello, off U.S. Highway 90 near the southwestern shore of Lake Miccosukee. An interpretive pavilion and an elevated platform overlooking Mound 1 give orientation without climbing the earthwork. Trails cross upland woodland and wetland, so expect uneven ground and wet patches after rain.
Mound 1 is a flat-topped platform mound with a ramp climbing its northern side, low apron-like extensions to the east and west, and a broad platform projecting south. At about 49 feet (15 m), it is the tallest prehistoric Native American earthwork in Florida. The site lies near the geographic center of the Weeden Island culture area, while most of that culture's major ceremonial centers stand at its margins.
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