Nocoroco is the site of a

Timucua The Timucua were a Native American people who lived in Northeast and North Central Florida and southeast Georgia. They were the largest indigenous group in that area and consisted of about 35 chiefdoms, many leading thousands of people. The var ...

n village located on the

Tomoka River The Tomoka River is a north-flowing river in Volusia County, Florida, Volusia County, Florida, United States. It drains an area of about and has a length of .U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe N ...

, in

Tomoka State Park Tomoka State Park is an Florida State Park located along the Tomoka River, three miles (5 km) north of Ormond Beach on North Beach Street. Fauna Among the wildlife of the park are West Indian manatees, alligators, white-tailed deer, gophe ...

. The park is located two or three miles north of

Ormond Beach, Florida Ormond Beach is a city in central Florida in Volusia County. The population was 43,080 at the 2020 census. Ormond Beach lies directly north of Daytona Beach and is a principal city of the Deltona–Daytona Beach–Ormond Beach, FL Metropolitan ...

on North Beach Street.

History

Approximately seven thousand years ago, during the Archaic Period, indigenous people found plentiful fish and shellfish at this site in the shelter of a barrier island to the east. The site was inhabited approximately twelve hundred years ago by the Timucuans, whose descendants were discovered there by Europeans. Alvaro Mexia visited Nocoroco in 1605, just as European acculturation had begun. Mexia's expedition explored down the east coast of Florida at the behest of the Spanish governor. This late St. Johns period site represents one of the last Timucuan strongholds in northeastern Florida. The only traces of these native peoples are the shell

midden A midden (also kitchen midden or shell heap) is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, mollusc shells, potsherds, lithics (especially debitage), and other artifacts and ecofact ...

s, which help modern archaeologists document their lives. The British occupation began in 1763 when Great Britain received Florida from Spain in a trade. The site of the village of Nocoroco was part of a British land-grant called Mt. Oswald, held by Richard Oswald. His plantation grew indigo and rice. After its return to the Spanish in 1783, the area was likely cultivated until many plantations were destroyed near the beginning of the Second Seminole War in 1835.

Site Archeology

The midden at Nocoroco is mainly composed largely of a black earth accumulation, with pockets of shell and a few larger shell accumulations.
Florida Historical Society. ''The Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol. 27, No. 4 (April 1949), p344-345'' The midden differs from most common middens in the region, which are mostly shell. Shell types include ''

Crassostrea virginica The eastern oyster (''Crassostrea virginica'')—also called the Atlantic oyster, American oyster, or East Coast oyster—is a species of true oyster native to eastern North and South America. Other names in local or culinary use include the Wel ...

'', ''

Mercenaria mercenaria The hard clam (''Mercenaria mercenaria''), also known as the round clam, hard-shell (or hard-shelled) clam, or the quahog, is an edible marine bivalve mollusk that is native to the eastern shores of North America and Central America from Prince E ...

'', ''

Tagelus ''Tagelus'' is a genus of saltwater clams, marine bivalve molluscs belonging to the family Solecurtidae. Species * ''Tagelus adansonii'' (Bosc, 1801) * ''Tagelus affinis'' (C. B. Adams, 1852) * ''Tagelus californianus'' (Conrad, 1837) * ''Tagelu ...

plebeius'', '' Arca sp.'', ''

Donax variabilis ''Donax variabilis'', known by the common name coquina, is a species of small edible saltwater clam, a marine bivalve mollusc in the family Donacidae, the bean clams. It is a warm water species which occurs in shallow water on sandy beaches on th ...

'', ''

Geukensia demissa ''Geukensia demissa'' is a species of mussel, a marine (ocean), marine bivalve mollusk in the family Mytilidae, the true mussels. This species is native to the Atlantic coast of North America. The common names for this species include ribbed mus ...

'', ''

Sinistrofulgur perversum ''Sinistrofulgur perversum'', the lightning whelk, is an edible species of very large predatory sea snail or whelk, a marine gastropod mollusc in the family Busyconidae, the busycon whelks. This species has a left-handed or sinistral shell. It e ...

'', and ''

Hexaplex fulvescens ''Hexaplex fulvescens'', the giant eastern murex or giant Atlantic murex or tawny murex, is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Muricidae Muricidae is a large and varied taxonomic family of small to large pre ...

''. Animal bones were not preserved well and typically were quite fragmentary. Among mammals, the most prevalent source of food seems to have been deer, but other types of bones, such as fish, turtle and alligator remains, were all present.

NRHP listing

On May 7, 1973, it was added to the

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

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 ...

as a site significant for its information potential in the area of aboriginal history.

Present day

Today the site of the village of Nocoroco is marked by a large fountain sculpture, called the "Tomokie Fountain", created by

Frederick Dana Marsh Frederick Dana Marsh (1872 – December 20, 1961) was an Americans, American illustrator. Born in 1872 to a prosperous Chicago stockyard merchant, Marsh attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he worked with artists preparin ...

. The fountain is Marsh's artistic interpretation of the legend of Tomokie, whose arrogance in drinking from a sacred spring was paid for with his life and those of all his band. According to information at the site, references to the legend date back more than one hundred years.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places in Florida National Register of Historic Places in Volusia County, Florida Shell middens in Florida Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Florida Ormond Beach, Florida Timucua