DeSoto's Florida Trails
by Donald E. SheppardIn late September of 1539, with a well-fed army supported by captives from three provinces (Paracoxi, Ocale and Vitachuco), DeSoto set out once more toward his planned winter encampment at Apalache. The trip would take two weeks but the men would rest several days along the way. From Vitachuco, it is only ten leagues to Tallahassee, across the St. Marks River. The army stopped to bridge that river near today's Cody on their first night out (Rangel in Clayton:I:226), four leagues from Vitachuco (Inca in Clayton:II:183). The chief of a nearby village, Uzachil, who had sent flute players to amuse the men further back the trail (Elvas and Rangel in Clayton:I:67,264), sent dressed deer for the army's fare while they built a bridge of logs the next day. The army, therefore, named the St. Marks River "The River of the Deer" (ibid.:Elvas:I:69).
After completing the bridge the following day, "The army crossed the river, (and) marched two leagues through a country without timber" (Inca in Clayton:II:184), probably up the St. Marks River's west bank, arriving at a place where they "found large fields of maize, beans and calabashes" (ibid.). They called that large town Hapallayga (Elvas in Clayton:I:70); today it is called Chaires Crossings. It lies at the east end of Lake Lafayette Valley; the railroad runs through the valley today. That night (under a Full Moon), DeSoto rode four more leagues into Uzachil (ibid.; Rangel in Clayton:I:266) and took today's Tallahassee, which lies exactly that distance (Inca in Clayton:I:184) up that fertile valley at its west end. The villagers, however, had fled into the woods (ibid.). The army caught up and captured many of them while pillaging the surrounding fields for the next two days (ibid.:189; Elvas in Clayton:I:70). More captives were shackled around the neck and chained to the others (ibid.). They gathered and carried food for the horses.
The next day, when the army was ordered to advance, some crossed a forest ([Rangel in Clayton:I:266]; but Bourne [in 1904:78] translates Rangel's Spanish word "monte", which he used here, as "mountain" instead of "forest" which is also proper translation. At this place in his narrative, Inca describes "a high point" of earth "three pikes high" [54 feet] where the Indians lived [Inca in Clayton:II:185-186] ). Topography would indicate that both were describing the "mountain" under the Florida State Capitol Building (or one within a mile or so of it, as there are no others in that section of Florida). The village of Uzachil was headquartered there, but the good chief was not to be found . The army spent that night at a pine wood (Rangel in Clayton,I:266), almost five leagues west of today's Capitol Building by following the course of today's railroad and the Old Spanish Trail to Midway, where they camped. The next night they camped at "Agile" (ibid.; Elvas in Clayton:I:70) four-and-a-half leagues up the road, at today's Quincy. That proximity was called Tiphulga Indian Reservation as late as 1827 on a Map of the Western Part of Florida by John L. Williams. One of DeSoto's troops was grabbed in his genitals by an unhappy female captive there; he survived, but just barely (Rangel in Clayton:I:267). The next day, DeSoto, in the vanguard, came to the Apalache Swamp (Elvas, Biedma and Rangel in Clayton:I: 70, 227, 267; Inca in Clayton:II:189), the Apalachicola River, twelve leagues beyond Uzachil's boundary (Inca: ibid.), the Ochlockonee River. Most of the army would camp two leagues from the Apalache Swamp, then catch up and struggle to cross it for the next several days while camping near it (ibid.:189-196,206-207).
The Woodruff dam spans between high banks where DeSoto first sighted the Apalachicola River's mammoth gorge: at today's Chattahoochee. Inca says the banks were half-a-league apart (ibid.:189), as they are today, just below the confluence of the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers. With extensive swamps on either side, the river flows around an island at the outlet of North Mosquito Creek on the east bank of the river less than a league below today's dam. Elvas says (in Clayton:I:70) the river was wider than a cross-bow shot there, as it is today despite the upstream dam. Old Florida trails converged at this crossing place on Florida's original Township Survey and the railroad crosses it there today. Perhaps DeSoto's narrow foot path through the forest in the river's gorge led to that place (Inca in Clayton:II:189). The east bank where DeSoto camped on a plain, and the west bank where he built a stockade, are exactly the same now as they were described then (ibid.; Elvas in Clayton:I:70). It took the army several days to bridge and cross this river. Indian resistance was intense. This mammoth river was the provincial boundary of Apalache (Biedma in Clayton:I:227); the fourth Indian province DeSoto would "invade" in Florida. Once all had crossed, DeSoto's army left the stockade and proceeded two leagues up the west bank to camp at a village called Ivitachuco, which had been set ablaze just prior to their arrival (ibid.; Elvas and Rangel in Clayton:I:71, 267): today's Sneads. Then the army passed through rich fields to Calahuchi Village (ibid.; Inca in Clayton:II:194), camping just north of today's Cypress. The next day, having lost their only good guide, they came to a deep ravine that was difficult to pass two leagues down the road (ibid.:196). They met very heavy resistance from the Apalachens at that ravine, the worst they saw anywhere (ibid.).
That ravine, with banks over eighty feet above Spring Creek today even though it is dammed below, looks exactly the way it was described then (ibid.:196, 241-241). Spring Creek rises from Blue Spring and flows south-westward into the Chipola River. Pioneer maps show the trail from the crossing place on the Apalachicola River passing north of Blue Spring just seven leagues from the river, then the trail continues westward to cross the natural bridge of the Chipola River two leagues from the spring. But DeSoto had lost his only good guide "carrying as guide an old Indian woman who got them lost..." (Rangel in Clayton:I:267). Once the fighting was over and the army had all crossed the ravine, they "marched two leagues more through a country without cultivated fields or settlements" then camped (Inca in Clayton:II:196). They had marched up and over the high east bank "peninsula" of the Chipola River at Spring Creek then camped at today's Florida Caverns State Park. The Chipola River's branches are beside the park and are clearly illustrated on pioneer maps and labeled "natural bridge" along the Old Spanish Trail; the trail Desoto had followed from Tallahassee until got misdirected.
The next morning, when the army resumed its march, by fording the Chipola River's "natural bridge" on the Old Spanish Trail, DeSoto proceeded two leagues in advance with the horsemen and a hundred foot soldiers into the principal village of Apalache: Iviahica (ibid.:196; Elvas and Rangel in Clayton:I:71, 267). All had fled into the woods. Iviahica Village was located just west of today's Marianna, eleven leagues from the Apalachicola River's swamp (Inca in Clayton:II:206-207). DeSoto established his winter headquarters at Iviahica. DeSoto's "monsters" in Florida's "panhandle" would prove to be the Apalache Swamp and the Great Ravine; our "monster in the panhandle" would prove to be the enduring myth that Tallahassee was the location of Iviahica Apalache. Tallahassee was just another stop along DeSoto's way, which explains the small quantity of archaeological evidence of his presence being found there.
Iviahica Apalache's fields are deep, rich, red mineral sediments nestled between rolling, sandy hills and spring-fed streams. Vegetables grow in profusion there (ibid.:197,253-254; Elvas and Rangel in Clayton:I:71-72,268). One look in the fields tells the story of a thousand year occupation. The fields are strewn with fragments of cultures which settled and farmed there from time to time. The black farmers who live on Union Road, which cuts through what used to be Iviahica, are a beautiful, hard working and proud people; most of whose ancestors were born there. The setting is rural Alabama; livestock are pastured on several southern-style plantations. Pigs, chickens, beans, squash, corn and insects are abundant. Churches and small cemeteries dot the forested landscape. A village named Webbville is depicted there on pioneer maps where the Old Spanish Trail bends north into Alabama and the Pensacola Road forks off to the southwest (John L. Williams Map of Florida of 1837).