06/11/2026
The farthest north sugarcane mill ruins in the United States are found just into South Carolina, in Beaufort County, the Callawassie Sugar Works (pictured). Coincidentally, this is also about the nothern range of our mascot, the gopher tortoise.
Sugarcane grows best in a more tropical environment, but this didn't stop people from attempting its production as far north as the Carolinas. These ruins, as well the ones in our local parks (most prominently Dummit and Bulow) represent an experiment to grow the cash crop in new environments using enslaved labour. While the sugar experiment here was largely ended by the outbreak of war with the Seminole, Callawassie was abandoned after conditions proved unfavorable.
Callawassie, as well as many structures throughout Florida (ex. Kingsley Plantation) were built of tabby. This used oyster shell and other materials to form a concrete. For this tabby, many Indian Middens (archaeological term for an ancient refuse heap or domestic waste dump) were decimated, since they provided a large pile of shell.
In our immediate area, a more ready-made building material was available: coquina. Álvaro Mexía in 1605 described the gravel material in the Tomoka River, and boating along the Tomoka Peninsula at lower tides you can see the rock. The availablity of Coquina quaries here probably spared Tomoka's ancient middens, some of the oldest in the United States. Their preservation in Tomoka State Park allows archaeologists to learn invaluable information about the Native Americans who lived here.
