Archaeologists breathe life into old Turnbull Colony

Two hundred years after its remaining 700 settlers abandoned their riverside homes and marched north to St. Augustine, the Turnbull Colony largely remains a mystery.

The British colony's coquina and tabby buildings and riverside stone wharf had crumbled or were destroyed during the First Seminole War in 1817-1818 and the cities of New Smyrna Beach and Edgewater were built over the ruins of the past.

Little physical evidence remained, except for several hand-dug irrigation canals and artifacts local archeologists uncovered, to shed light on what life was really like for the mostly Minorcan, Greek and Italian colonists trying to carve a new life out of the swampy Florida wilderness.