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Everglades trail surveyed for cultural artifacts

In this Friday, Oct. 17, 2014 photo, National Park Service archeologists sift through sediment collected from the Anhinga Slough while doing a survey in Everglades National Park, Fla. They are looking for artifacts which were first discovered at the site when it was dredged in 1968. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
In this Friday, Oct. 17, 2014 photo, National Park Service archeologists sift through sediment collected from the Anhinga Slough while doing a survey in Everglades National Park, Fla. They are looking for artifacts which were first discovered at the site when it was dredged in 1968. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky) In this Friday, Oct. 17, 2014 photo, National Park Service archeologists sift through sediment collected from the Anhinga Slough while doing a survey in Everglades National Park, Fla. They are looking for artifacts which were first discovered at the site when it was dredged in 1968. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

By Associated Press 1 min read

EVERGLADES NATIONAL PARK, Fla. (AP) – Archaeologists are poking through the muck under a boardwalk in Everglades National Park, looking for evidence of a prehistoric culture.

Work began Friday along a 0.8-mile trail around a shallow pond. National Park Service archaeologists this week are sampling sediment, sucking up mud and water with an aluminum tube and then dumping the contents over a screen.

When the pond was dredged in 1968 after a record drought, a park ranger noticed hundreds of artifacts atop a debris pile. The items were collected and the ranger’s notes were catalogued, but the site never was excavated.

Archaeologists returned to the site because the park service wants to replace part of the wooden boardwalk that allows tourists to experience the landscape without wading through water or stumbling upon alligators.