Tomoka Point

Nocoroco was the Timucuan name for the late prehistoric Native American village located on Tomoka Point. The first European visitor, in 1605, was Spanish soldier Alvaro Mexia, who was on a diplomatic mission to explore and establish peace between the native populations and Spain. Mexia described the houses of Nocoroco as having walls of tree trunks and conical thatched palmetto roofs, and the chief's house was larger, rectangular in shape, and used as a meeting place for the people. Mount Oswald was a rice and indigo plantation built in 1766 by West Indies investor and slave trader Richard Oswald, who was seeking a way to invest the fortune he made by supplying bread to the British armies during the Seven Years war. Oswald received a 20,000 acre land grant in 1764 and established a plantation house, barn, blacksmith shop, stables, a corn house, and slave cabins. In 1784 the plantation was removed to South Carolina when Florida returned to Spanish rule, and indigo plants still grow and thrive in Tomoka.

Ormond Beach, Florida · United States