Post by L Roebuck on Apr 6, 2007 6:15:13 GMT -5
Mystery of the Briny Breezes caves
BRINY BREEZES — Over the next decade, condo towers are expected to rise where now mobile homes are jammed bumper to hitch.
Once the spot along the Atlantic Ocean was a pasture and strawberry field. Before that, it was open land, populated perhaps by nomadic Seminoles and before them, indigenous peoples.
That last group is gone, wiped out by European encroachment and disease.
But they just might have left something behind.
That caves honeycomb the dunes is no secret. The mystery: their possible contents and location. And, just maybe, the existence of some of Florida's most profound artwork.
The caves, each perhaps no larger than a modest home, were sealed possibly as far back as the 1960s and are on private property, and exact locations are up for debate.
"I've heard everything from buried pirate's treasure to skeletons," Palm Beach County archaeologist Chris Davenport said. "It doesn't help matters that we can't even really nail down where these things are located."
Longtime Gulf Stream Clerk Rita Taylor, who also has been a Briny Breezes resident and official for decades, insists the caves are a nonissue in the ambitious plans of Boca Raton-based Ocean Land Investments to erect condos, time shares, a hotel and shops by 2015 at the site of the Briny Breezes mobile home park. Ocean Land bought the place in January for $510 million, making many residents millionaires, and closes the deal in 2009.
Article
BRINY BREEZES — Over the next decade, condo towers are expected to rise where now mobile homes are jammed bumper to hitch.
Once the spot along the Atlantic Ocean was a pasture and strawberry field. Before that, it was open land, populated perhaps by nomadic Seminoles and before them, indigenous peoples.
That last group is gone, wiped out by European encroachment and disease.
But they just might have left something behind.
That caves honeycomb the dunes is no secret. The mystery: their possible contents and location. And, just maybe, the existence of some of Florida's most profound artwork.
The caves, each perhaps no larger than a modest home, were sealed possibly as far back as the 1960s and are on private property, and exact locations are up for debate.
"I've heard everything from buried pirate's treasure to skeletons," Palm Beach County archaeologist Chris Davenport said. "It doesn't help matters that we can't even really nail down where these things are located."
Longtime Gulf Stream Clerk Rita Taylor, who also has been a Briny Breezes resident and official for decades, insists the caves are a nonissue in the ambitious plans of Boca Raton-based Ocean Land Investments to erect condos, time shares, a hotel and shops by 2015 at the site of the Briny Breezes mobile home park. Ocean Land bought the place in January for $510 million, making many residents millionaires, and closes the deal in 2009.
Article