The Mud Lake Canal is a prehistoric long-distance canoe

canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flow un ...

near Flamingo,

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It is located at Cape Sable, in the Everglades National Park. At , it is the longest of Florida's known prehistoric canals, believed to form a part of a sheltered travel route between the

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and the

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. On September 20, 2006, it was designated a

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and added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

Description

Mud Lake Canal is about in length, and varies in width between roughly . Its dug depth is about , although there are variations due to topography. Portions of the canal are significantly overgrown, but it is typically with plant life that differs from the surrounding area. Its route is crossed five times by the 20th-century Homestead Canal, and by both old and modern alignments of the

Ingraham Highway Ingraham may refer to: People * Andrew Ingraham (1841–1905), philologist and schoolmaster * Chrys Ingraham (born 1947), American sociologist * Duncan Ingraham (1802–1891), officer in the United States Navy and Confederate States Navy * Edward ...

. The canal's northwestern end is at the southwestern outlet of Mud Lake, north-northwest of Flamingo. It runs generally southeasterly, with long straight sections interrupted by bends, mainly on account of the local topography. A major bend sends the canal around the Bear Lake Mounds, another major prehistoric site in the area. It appears to end in a network of streams on the shore of Snake Bight, east of Flamingo. In some places along the canal route are small shell middens. Early white settlers first brought existence of the canal to the attention of Smithsonian archaeologist

Aleš Hrdlička Alois Ferdinand Hrdlička, after 1918 changed to Aleš Hrdlička (; March 30,HRDLICKA, ALES ...

in 1918. In 1921, a botanist discovered and described it, and an engineer working on construction of the Homestead Canal also described it the following year. It has been a subject of recurring archaeological interest since then, most significantly since the area became part of Everglades National Park.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Florida Canals in Florida National Register of Historic Places in Everglades National Park National Historic Landmarks in Florida National Register of Historic Places in Monroe County, Florida Canals on the National Register of Historic Places in Florida

Description

See also

References