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BARTRAM TRAIL EAGLE DINNER CHALLENGE COIN
In late 2020, Bartram Trail District was formed with the merger of Bradford, Clay, and Putnam Counties. The District was named in honor of William Bartram, a naturalist who studied plants and animals. In March 1774, Bartram arrived at Amelia Island and proceeded to a plantation in the Fernandina Beach area where he purchased a sailboat to travel the St. Johns River. Proceeding south up the river he finally reached a Seminole Indian village near present day Palatka. Here he was invited to a watermelon fest.
The District selected the name for its Order of the Arrow chapter, “Potano.” The Potano was a tribe who were a part of the Timucua peoples of northeast Florida. The Potano occupied an area of western Putnam County, Alachua County, and northern Marion County. The Potano were part of what was known as the Alachua Culture.
Going backward in time, you find the ancestors of the Timucua people were mound builders that stretched from Florida to the southeast, northeast, and mid United States. Some in the past identified this as the South Eastern Ceremonial Complex. These people had vast trade networks, had developed agriculture (especially corn, beans, and squash), and religious beliefs, which included a belief in an afterlife.
One of the items recovered from burials in mounds was a popular adornment with these people of a shell gorget. To remember these people, the predecessors of the Native Americans, such as the Timucua, the Potano, the Creek, and the Seminole, one such gorget was selected.
This gorget has been made the reverse side of the Eagle Dinner Challenge Coin. Look at the gorget. Can you find any mistakes on the gorget? Can you guess the mystery of the meaning of the design?
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