Sam Jones Old Town

In his diary, James E. Ingraham states that one of the Hendry brothers told him that Jack Robeson had determined the location of Sam Jones Old Town was two miles north of Fort Shackleford. Sam Jones, also known as Abiaki or Aripeka, was a medicine man and a leader of the Seminoles who participated in all three of the Seminole Wars. After the last war, he lived in multiple locations in and near the Everglades. The exact site of the "Sam Jones Old Town" mentioned in the Expedition text is difficult to determine because some sources identify multiple locations associated with Sam Jones. According to some sources, including maps from the mid- and late-1800s, the ruins of Sam Jones Old Town were northeast of present-day Big Cypress Reservation, possibly about 14 miles south of Lake Okeechobee.

Sources:

• The Seminoles of Florida, by James W. Covington, 1993
• "Sam Jones Trail: An Academic Perspective," by David Brownell, Seminole Tribe of Florida Historic Preservation Office, The Seminole Tribune, December 31, 2014
• "A New Collier County Map," by John M. Goggin, The Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol. 26, No. 4, 1948
• "Ruins of Sam Jones Old Town (Site of)," based on 1874 Survey by T.S. Stearns, Wikimapia.org
• Military Map - The Peninsula of Florida South of Tampa Bay, Lieut. J. C. Ives, 1856
• Seminole and Miccosukee Tribes of Southern Florida, by Patsy West, 2012
• The Seminole Indians of Florida, by Clay MacCauley, 1887
• Red Patriots: The Story of the Seminoles, by Charles H. Coe, 1898
• Various photos of Little Billy, National Museum of the American Indian

References in the Texts:

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• March 19, Saturday

For other topics referenced in the Expedition texts, please refer to the Index to Subjects and Names.
1892 Everglades Exploration Expedition : Three Digital Texts, 2015