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2018 Election Road Trip
Tallahassee Is Known For Its History. What About Its Prehistory?
Resume![Andy Hemmings, left, and Tom Harmon, with the Aucilla Research Institute, during an excavation at Wakulla Springs State Park south of Tallahassee, Fla. (Mark Wallheiser for Here & Now)](https://wordpress.wbur.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/1025_florida-archeology01-1000x667.jpg)
This story was reported during our election road trip to states across the country ahead of the 2018 midterms. Check out all of our election coverage.
Tallahassee, Florida, is the state's capital, a city settled by British and Spanish colonists and eventually fugitive slaves as Florida moved toward statehood. But what happened before?
Archaeological sites just outside the Tallahassee city limits include Jackson Mounds Archaeological State Park, where a series of Native American burial mounds tower above a serene state park, and Wakulla Springs State Park, where artifacts dating back 15,000 years are being painstakingly removed from an active pit dig. Wakulla also boasts a mastodon, which will be excavated from the spring next month.
Here & Now's Robin Young pays a visit to learn more.
More Photos
![Here & Now's Robin Young and Karyn Miller-Medzon interview archaeologist Barbara Clark at the Lake Jackson Mounds Archaeological State Park in Tallahassee. (Mark Wallheiser for Here & Now)](https://media.wbur.org/wp/2018/10/1025_florida-archeology02-1000x698.jpg)
![Here & Now's Robin Young, second from right, and Karyn Miller-Medzon conduct interviews during an excavation at Wakulla Springs State Park, south of Tallahassee. (Mark Wallheiser for Here & Now)](https://media.wbur.org/wp/2018/10/1025_florida-archeology03-1000x681.jpg)
This segment aired on October 25, 2018.