Tuesday, January 13, 2026 6:30 PM EST
Attend IN-PERSON (North Port Library, 13800 Tamiami Trail, North Port, FL 34287) or join us via ZOOM (Meeting ID: 818 8487 5930 Passcode: 472140)
THE EAGLE NEST SITE (8MA132), MANATEE COUNTY
Elizabeth Horvath
In 1978, B. Calvin Jones identified the Eagle Nest Midden (8MA132) during his survey of the I-75 corridor. He noted that it was a small village midden mound, constructed of primarily small marsh clam shells, with an extent of approximately a quarter of an acre. At that time, the site was undisturbed, but he noted that “development will probably threaten the site after I-75 is built.” Jones considered the site potentially eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) because it was an intact midden which could yield important information about subsistence activities at the time of its construction.
In 2005, Archaeological Consultants, Inc. (ACI) conducted Phase III mitigative excavations of the site prior to its destruction. Development for residential construction ultimately claimed the site. There were two small midden deposits which dated from different times during the Manasota/Weeden Island periods (sometime between ca. 2500 and 900 years ago), and which had had different site activities. This presentation will discuss the similarities of and differences between these two small middens.
Beth Horvath is a Registered Professional Archaeologist who grew up around Cleveland, Ohio. After graduating from Cleveland State University, she moved south to obtain her M.A. in Anthropology from the University of South Florida, with an emphasis in cultural resource management. During that tenure, she spent a Spring and Summer working in California and Alaska. In 1987, she began working for the National Park Service‘s (NPS) Southeast Archeological Center as the leader of the Compliance Section of their Investigation and Evaluation Branch, working all over the southeast, including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. In 1995, she began working for Archaeological Consultants, Inc., at their Tallahassee office, and has been there ever since. Beth enjoys volunteering her time to repair houses for low-income people to enable them to live safely in their homes. She has been the President of the Wakulla County Historical Commission and board member of the Florida Anthropological Society, as well as a member of the Florida Archaeological Council, the Southeastern Archaeological Conference, and the Arkansas Archaeological Society.