The history of Dunlawton Plantation has so many strange twists and turns that I could literally not make up what you are about to read. Dunlawton was first established with a land grant of 995 acres from the Spanish Crown to Patrick Dean in 1804. However, when Dean had just started to develop the land in 1818 he was reportedly killed by Seminoles. The land would change hands rather rapidly going from Dean to his uncle, John Bunch, in 1818 and then to John McHardy in 1825 and then sold to Charles Lawton in 1830 before being sold to Sarah Anderson in 1832. It was Sarah Anderson and her two sons who would develop the land into a sugar plantation and mill. As I mentioned in the post about Bulow Plantation, the labor that it took to grow and process sugar was quite literally back-breaking work. It was arduous, constant labor, and places like Dunlawton Plantation would not have been as successful as they were without the work of enslaved people. The fate of Dunlawton Plantation was similar to Bulow Plantation; the conflicts in the Second Seminole War led to a group of Seminoles burning Dunlawton Plantation in 1836. However, while it caused severe, expensive damage it was not the official end of the Plantation. In 1846 John Marshall bought the plantation for $8,000 ($283,639 in 2021) and with the help of 25 enslaved people he got the mill back up and running. But lower demand for sugar soon drove him out of business. Over the next century (approximately) the land would change hands several times to inconsequential people until the 1940s when it was bought by J. Saxton Lloyd who turned the land into “Bongoland."
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| Ruins of the sugar processing building at Dunlawton Plantation. |
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| Kettle run for boiling down sugar. |
Now, this is a series for the Florida Public Archeology Network which means I really should focus on the archeological aspects of Dunlawton Plantation. But I believe I would be doing you a great disservice if I just glossed over the fact that this land was once called “Bongoland” because it is one of the most bonkers and wonderful things I have come across. Dr. Perry Sperber rented the land in the late 1940s and built Bongoland, a park with concrete replicas of dinosaurs and other prehistoric mammals (the Giant Ground Sloth is both my favorite and the most terrifying thing I have ever seen). They also had reconstructed a small native village and had a train that carted children around the grounds. It was named Bongoland in honor of the baboon named Bongo that lived on the grounds. Unfortunately, Bongoland was not successful and would close in 1952, five years after it opened.
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| Giant Ground Sloth! |
Ok, I’ve had my fun, back to the serious topics at hand. The modern-day threats to the ruins of Dunlawton Plantation come in the form of climate change-related events. Dunlawton Plantation is in Port Orange, an area extremely susceptible to damage due to hurricanes and flooding. As storms get worse due to climate change the risk of storm damage to Dunlawton will grow. We are fortunate to have so much documentation about the site as well as archeological knowledge so that if it does withstand major damage archeologists do not lose evidence that could be crucial to understanding the history of Dunlawton Plantation. However, that does not mean we should not put in the effort to protect it.
The ruins of Dunlawton Plantation are important to tell the full story of the past in Port Orange as well as the past of the United States as a whole. Like Bulow Plantation, Dunlawton Plantation stands at an intersection of history. Not only was it a successful industrial and agricultural endeavor in its day but it was also witness to the horrors of slavery as well as the heinous mistreatment of native communities in Florida. The ruins are a direct reminder that the United States did not become what it is today without the sweat and blood of enslaved African and African Americans. It is also a solemn reminder of why we do not have more large native communities across the United States. They were being pushed out of their homes but they resisted tooth and nail and it is essential that we never forget the truth about the treatment of native communities in the United States. By preserving Dunlawton Plantation we are assuring that the stories of those who can no longer speak are never forgotten.
Words and images by Emily Hulet, FPAN intern.
