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A JACKSONIAN PERIOD SWORD HANDLE FROM SOUTH WALTON COUNTY William H. Wesley For several years preceding his death, William C. Lazarus, founder of the Temple Mound Museum in Fort Walton Beach, Florida was interested in information pertaining to a Jacksonian period fort assumed to have existed on the north side of Choctawhatchee Bay in Walton County, near the mouth of Ala- qua Creek. In 1961 an object was found in this area, consisting mainly of layers of iron oxide and at the time thought to vaguely resemble the grip portion of a flintlock pistol. The find was presented to Mr. Lazarus for comment and sub- sequently was identified through his communication with Smithsonian Institution personnel as a Jacksonian period sword handle. Prior to this time no physical evidence of the existence of this fort had been recorded, and since Mr. Lazarus was planning to request placement of a highway marker referring to the fort' s general location, he was quite impressed with this artifact. A short time later a lead ball, considered to be a musket ball was recovered from the same area along the bay shoreline just east of the mouth of Alaqua Creek. The fort was probably built some time after Jackson first visited Pensa- cola in 1814 and more than likely after 1818 when he was sent to Florida speci- fically to terminate the Indian hostilities along the border between Alabama and the Florida Territory (Morris 1952: 14-17). John L. McKinnon (1968) in History of Walton County (originally published in 1911) refers to the "blockhouse" near the mouth of Big Alaqua in connection with action against the Creek Indians in 1836-37. A blockhouse or redoubt was usually only one of the numerous buildings comprising a fort and served as a small auxiliary defense position. Many frontier forts had several blockhouses scattered around the fort grounds, and they also served as dwellings or store- houses during periods of relative inactivity (Stotz 1970: 45-47). Whether a single blockhouse comprised the total Alaqua fort compound as originally constructed, or was the survivor of what was once a group of buildings, is at this point left to conjecture, but since documentation of this facility is ap- parently scanty it is quite likely that the Alaqua fort was never tremendously impressive. Jackson' s activities in the area are indicated by a McKinnon reference to ".. . the old Jackson military road that ran parallel with the inland waterway... " 45 Florida Anthropologist, vol. 25, no. 1, March 1972
