How do you look for a lost a lost city, especially if modern development covers it? I started with all the written material from the earliest Spanish invaders. Then, I went to the modern archaeology books. I listened to yarns from local folks. Armed with all that, I took out some maps of the area.

What was I looking for? I was searching for the ancient city of Tocobaga.

This place, this Tampa Bay, is an amazing place. It’s filled with the stories of the people who lived here before us. Evidence of our really ancient human history extends back at least 12,000 years ago. Maximo Park in south St. Petersburg has almost 12,000 years of continuous human history.

On the Odgen map, first printed in 1879, you can see Maximo Point listed. Through a magnifying glass, it looks like there was a mound there. Following the coastline east and north, we come to downtown St. Petersburg. In 1879, there was no downtown much less a St. Petersburg. Close to a feature named Booker Creek, you can see the ancient citadel of the native people who lived here. The map shows six temple mounds, four of which are surrounded by a berm enclosing about forty acres. Continuing north, to the head of the bay, we can make out a tiny mound next to the writing "Phillipis Pt."

This is the place I was looking for. Archaeologist defined it the Safety Harbor Culture.

In 1527, the Spanish governor of Florida, Pedro Menendez, came here on a very special mission. He came to make peace. He came with the Honored Man of the Calusa, a nation to the south. The Calusa of Charlotte Harbor and the ten-thousand Islands were at war with the people of Tampa Bay. The governor had lost a son in a shipwreck somewhere along Florida's west coast. He hoped that the Tocobaga had found the young man.

The Tocobaga were a large state which extended from the northern fringes of Charlotte Harbor, through Tampa Bay, to just north of Crystal River. Their capital city in 1567 was at the northern end of Tampa Bay.

Menendez slipped in to the bay under the cloak of darkness with six ships under his command. There was no moon. Indians always kept alert guard dogs. Were the dogs restless? The ships were almost noiseless. Did officers caution their crews to be quiet? Was the scent of the Spanish ships being blown toward the east?

I imagine an early riser stumbling out into the gray-violet of the early dawn. There against the horizon, he saw a strange image. Six dark ships lay at anchor, their sails furled, their masts a new dark forest. He raised the alarm.

A city crier rushed from the "Honored Man’s" home, blowing an alarm on his horse conch trumpet. The warning is picked up by other quarters of a sprawling city. A sudden confusion. Families running with what they could carry. Their best escape by water cut off by the Spanish ships, they make for the forest on the high bluffs behind the city. Babies cry in the panic. Youngsters who can make it on their own are caught up in the chaos.

Tampa Bay has been a target for conquistadors in 1528 and again in 1539. Fray Barbastro died somewhere along its shores in 1549. A revenge killing. Anger and fear of the Spanish ran deep in these waters.

But just where was Tocobaga? Maps can be a confusion of information. What I needed was something which would simplify the images, and target the most likely settlement sites. I scanned United States Geological Survey maps into the computer. The five foot contour levels are shaded in a gray scale. In other words for every five feet in height, a slightly lighter gray is used to fill in the contours. The finished map revealed an amazingly detailed black and while image of the landscape. Features stand out. When I finished, I was looking at a fascinating image.

Most people like to have a steady source of fresh water close at hand. Vance Perkey, the Park Ranger at Philippe Park, told me that their may have been two springs close to the mound. One has been channeled and now feeds into the bay underground. The other is merely a wet spot to the west-south-west of the mound. It’s close to the location where, Pinellas pioneer, Odet Philippe’s is believed to have lived.

However, a city worthy of the visit from the Governor of La Florida may have required more water. Bishop Creek is to the north of Philippe Park. To the south are Mullet and Alligator Creek. If there were real population areas, they should be close by these Creeks.

The gray-scale map shows some other very interesting features. The topography of downtown Safety Harbor looks like the spiral of a Lightning whelk. The Tocobaga used the lightning whelk as a sacred vessel for their ritual "black drink." ceremonies. Could a feature as large as an entire downtown been significant to the ancient people? Would they have even noticed its shape. The feature is 25 feet high at its crest, and that’s a significant elevation when there’s a hurricane and most of the landscape is close to sea level. It’s important not to leap to conclusions here.

To the west and southwest are two hills which reach to 50 feet. One crest looks like an upside-down "T" on the U.S.G.S. map. That’s odd. Was it shaped that way recently? Could it be a modern ball field?

All in all, I’ve spotted about 13 interesting landscape features scattered throughout the area of Safety Harbor. Armed with the map, it’s time to go and look at the actual locations. Photographing the area will give a real sense of place. I may be able to pinpoint where modern development has changed the ancient terrain. I invited my wife along to shoot photos of the cityscape.

The photographs gave us everything we’re hoping for. Even with the construction, which appears to have happened from the 1930s through the 60s, there is little of the significant kind of landscaping we tend to do now. This looks good.

With fresh water streams all around it and a spring right on its shore, I’d bet that downtown Safety Harbor is the real city of Tocobaga, close to where Menéndez landed, and the site of a lost Spanish colony. If the lost Spanish colony built their village on the low ground to the north of the main city, it would explain why their food reserves spoiled. I would guess that the Tocobaga city sprawled north to Philippe Park, where the remains of a temple mound are today, and south to the south side of Alligator Lake.

Now it’s time to get help and to think about grants to begin the archaeological search. Finding a lost city is a task that can take long time and requires many heads and hands.