 Uncover stories of America's past that never made it into the textbooks. WJCT is proud to feature additional local stories from Florida's history. My name is Tom Berry. I'm a volunteer at the Gwana River Research Reserve, and we're out at Shell Bluff on the Tolomata River. Shell Bluff, it's got a very rich archaeological history and goes all the way from three to five thousand years ago, all the way up to pre-European period when the Spanish and then the British were here. The Minorkans have a pretty long history here. This property was part of a British plantation, and when the Minorkans were freed from their indentured servitude in New Smyrna Beach, they came up here and started farming all over the St. Augustine area, and they were granted Spanish land grants in 1804, so we have a documented record of who was here, and this was Juan Andrew's property, 160 acres. The well that's on the property here is locally called the Minorkan well because it was on the property that Juan Andrew had. According to the archaeologists that discovered this and documented it in 1985, they believe that the river has eroded this property between 30 and 50 meters, so this well would not have been right in the salt water that it's in now. It would have been 30 to 50 meters away, so it would have provided fresh water that may have been a little salty, but it was the main fresh water source for the farmer. The present location obviously is being severely eroded. Hurricane Matthew and Hurricane Irma has taken about 5 to 10 feet of land away, and now the well is fully exposed. Attempts were made, at least the study was done in 2010 with all of the appropriate people who would be involved in relocating it. The plan was to relocate it up to where the Education Center is, put it on the side of a hill with a cutaway, and it's important because this goes back documented to probably in the 1802 to 1810 timeframe of a Minorkan farmer who had a Spanish land grant, so it is important. Funding for this program was provided in part by the Last Inker Family Foundation, the Ha Family Foundation, Weaver Family Foundation Fund, through the Community Foundation for Northeast Florida, and the Joy McCann Foundation. Funding for Secrets of the Dead is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you. Thank you.