Fort Center
Fort Center is an archaeological site in Glades County, Florida, United States, 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.
Location within Florida today | |
| Location | Lakeport, Florida, Glades County, Florida, USA |
|---|---|
| Region | Glades County, Florida |
| Coordinates | 26°57′2.66″N 81°8′10.97″W |
| History | |
| Founded | 450 BCE |
| Abandoned | 1700 CE |
| Site notes | |
| Excavation dates | 1930s, 1940s, early 1950s, 1961, 1966-1971 |
| Archaeologists | John Goggin, William H. Sears University of Florida, Colgate University, Florida Atlantic University |
| Responsible body: State of Florida | |
The area around Fisheating Creek was occupied by people of the Belle Glade culture from as early as 1000 BCE.
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 site is named for a US Army fortification, "Fort Center", used during the Seminole Wars.