Brevard Museum of History & Natural Science

This morning we drove up to the Brevard Museum of History & Natural Science in Cocoa. Mike's cousin, Lyn & her husband Brian, highly recommended the museum. We paid $5.50 each for senior tickets and received a brochure for a self-guided tour of the museum.

We started out in the By-Gone Beasts Exhibit where we saw displays of giant sloths, mammoths & saber-tooth cats to name just a few.

From Brevard Museum

We then viewed displays of the early inhabitants of Florida and learned about the Spanish influence.

The next exhibits were on the Florida pioneers, the development of the railroad in Florida and who the Florida Crackers were.

From Brevard Museum

Then we reached the exhibit Lyn & Brian had told us about - the Windover Archaeological Exhibit. The exhibit had artifacts from a 7,000 year-old Native American burial ground found in

Brevard County near Titusville, that pre-dates the Egyptian pyramids by 2,000 years.

From Brevard Museum

The burial ground was discovered in 1982 by a backhoe operator. Florida State University was contacted and began excavation in 1984. By 1987 when excavation ended (state funding ceased), 168 skeletons, 41 wooden tools and 87 fiber artifacts (blankets & clothing), plus jewelry and weapons had been found. They even found a 3-year-old girl with a turtle shell toy in her arms.

Windover Pond was returned to its original state when the excavations ended. Only about half of the site was excavated, the rest was left intact.

We finished our tour of the museum with the sea shell exhibit & Florida's Native Animals  & Sea Life.

From Brevard Museum