Ivory Spear Point

• The earliest Indians in America, Paleoindians, lived and hunted in the Florida Panhandle 12,000 years ago. Paleoindians hunted the now extinct mammoth as evidenced by the artifacts that have been found proving the Paleoindians used the mammoth's ivory to make weapons. An ivory spear point was found in Florida that is identical to one found in New Mexico. Many fossil artifacts found in the Florida Panhandle further show that the Paleoindians were contemporaries of now extinct animals of the Ice Age -- Pleistocene animals.
  
  

Bison Antiquus Skull

• Tools and butchered animal bones left by the Paleoindians are found constantly in river bottoms and sinkholes in the Florida Panhandle. Among the artifacts is the skull of a large bison antiquus, which is now extinct. Through the Aucilla River Prehistory Project, almost 40 sites have been discovered in a short stretch of the Aucilla River. Paleoindians often camped in areas where limestone contraptions kept water during arid seasons. Throughout Florida there is evidence of these ancient Indians' activities around limestone-bottomed rivers. Artifacts and ancient debris found in such areas has revealed what the Paleoindians' lives were like.
  
  

Indian Temple Mound

• The Indian Temple Mound in Fort Walton Beach is part of a museum that tells a lot about the Indians that occupied Florida's Panhandle between 800 and 1400. The Indian Temple Mound was a religious and political center during this time and is the only structure of its kind built along the Gulf Coast, according to the City of Fort Walton Beach Heritage Park & Cultural Center. Designated a National Historic Landmark, the mound is estimated to have taken 200,000 baskets of earth to create. It stands 12 feet tall and is 223 feet across. The temple was deserted in the 1500s.
  
  

Ceremonial Pottery

• More than 10,000 stone, clay, bone and shell artifacts of these Indians have been discovered; more that 6,000 are on display at the City of Fort Walton Beach Heritage Park & Cultural Center museums. All of the artifacts were found within a 40-mile radius of the city of Fort Walton Beach. The most important artifacts are a ware human effigy urn, crafted between the years 600 and 800, and a buck burial mound urn, crafted between 600 and 900. Both are representative of the Weeden Island culture.