The neighborhood was built around this place and the most spooky area is barred off from the public. I did get in that area but was only able to take a couple photos due to various reasons while exploring the mound complex. 

Pinellas is a Spanish word meaning Punta Pinal meaning "Point Of Pines" and in 1528 this area was discovered by Narvaez 36 years after Columbus arrived in the Caribbean and 37 years before the founding of Saint Augustine by Menendez. Narvaez was the first European in the area considered a tyrant he had around 600 men with him in search of gold and silver for the king of Spain. These men had swords....cannons on their ships...in a way they were pirates in simple terms. 

When they arrived this site was called Narvaez landing and it turned out that it also was the site of an agricultural tribe that had been here for over a thousand years. Horrible things were done to the villagers....the pillaging of the ceremonial mounds...ransacking of the huts...raping of women....perhaps even murder. They found no treasure here and I am almost pretty sure that the village was wiped out along with anything of value to the explorer's such as food.  Even if they were not wiped out other Spanish Explorer's came to the area like Hernando De Soto who came looking for Treasure as well.

Their are two parts of this mound a private and public section the public one is crawling with hundreds of rats and its not easy to find the mounds unless you know where to go. The shell middens around Jungle Prada date back to around 1000 A.D. but was more in use  from 1300 to 1700 which proves that even after Narvaez left the site was still used.  The private section of the mound has a beautiful series of trails and rock garden. 

 I do not recommend anybody going to this place at night like I did. I will tell you one thing as the founder that the entities here are stronger then almost anywhere I have been very powerful. So do not even attempt it every year we get people who come to our site and try to duplicate what we do and sometimes those that do end up in more trouble then they can handle. The site is what it is its historical but must be also respected. 

The skeletons that were found here suggest that these people ate shellfish cause there teeth were weathered down but no cavities so they did not grow sweet corn. Also syphilis was not uncommon and alot of the bones suggested the older Indians had arthritis and most were very short. 

The Tocobaga Indians lived around this area and they were fishermen harvesting tons of oysters...clams and fish for the village. They would turn thick shells into hammers, chopping tools, net weights, gorgets, beads and plummets.  Their huts were built on the shell middens. Shells was there life as they used them for plates and spoons, trading, and even burial.  When Narvaez and Desoto arrived in this area their was more then 20 temple mounds like Jungle Prada. Out of them all only seven remain today that you can visit. 

Lets talk a little more about the dark rituals that took place perhaps to the normal person they seem dark but for the native American people this was a way of life for hundreds of years. The Tocobaga villages all had a chief...then nobles who met with the chief every morning at the temple for the sipping of Black Drink and the passing of the peace pipe. For some of us Americans we still honor the native American people by toking up those that do not do it could not possibly understand its spiritual connections. 

The commoners in the villages collected shells, crabs, fished, and planted crops. Some of the slaves were Calusa Warriors who were enemies to the Tocobaga Indians. The tribe also had hermaphrodites which were a class of there own. They would make the men slice off there sexual organs strap on mini skirts of moss and make them wear the hair down to there backs like the village women. They would carry the wounded off the battlefield, tend to the sick and perform sexual favors to the warriors who succeeded in battle.  This tribe of Indians was actually rather sexual.

They would also help the shaman prepare the deceased. One of the practices was to the boil the bodies then pick off all the meat...breaking the bones at the joints, bundle them in deer skin and place them on a platform. The Ormond Beach Mound we investigated was the site of this practice. So this was not an uncommon practice.

Burials also were found with urns, full length flat on your back ones, cremations, bodies bent into a fetal position, and bodies covered in oyster shells. Amongst the bodies were many broken pottery shards tosses throughout the mound which is said to release the spirit of the pots to accompany the soul of the deceased to wherever it journeyed to.  Some artifacts were laid out in the shape of a body often called an effigy sacrifice. 

These Indians had an interesting belief that they had three souls which was their image in a pond, the pupil in their eye and their shadow. Its said that two of the souls departed from the body and went into a less divine creature such as an animal or fish. The pupil soul would remain in the body and it was this soul of the deceased that the living would talk to at burial sites when they needed advice such as the chief or shaman who would talk to the spirits.  The mound at Jungle Prada is said to hold a great Indian chief. 

Now let me get into the history of the buildings that are on the Jungle Prada site. It was built by Walter Fuller a developer in 1924 and served as a shopping center for Fuller's Country Club Hotel now the Admiral Farragut Academy. The building is of Spanish Caribbean architecture.  The well which once provided water for the building now is filled with soil and flowers. If you notice I took photos as much of the building as I did the mound site since it does also have historical significance. 

On the backside of the building was the Gangplank nightclub which was St. Petersburg's first nightclub and faced the Boca Ciega Bay. Count Basie and Duke Ellington both played here and Babe Ruth was married here. Even though renovations have taken place the terrazzo flooring can still be seen. 

My whole reason however for this visit is that Al Capone was part owner of the Gangplank Nightclub.  He also owned an airport up the road so he was able to come and go at his leisure. Al Capone owned a house in the area which currently has residents living in it so I was not able to visit the home. Rumor has it that their is an old safe which has not been opened since the demise of the night club but is said to contain business records of Capone and Fuller. Today the name of the place is now Saffron's and they look like they have some good food trust me I snooped a little. I like to eat and I like to eat good! You can view the safe but you have to ask management as its covered by a table cloth. 

Another fact that very few know is during the prohibition era their was a secret underground tunnel leading from the bay to the Jungle Prada site which was used by bootleggers. Today the mall is located where the airport was but years ago it was a booming place for big names to land here and visit the Jungle Resort area. 

So going back to the first paragraph its not the ghost photos that you take its the fact that you were there? Where is there?  The first site of exploration in the new world? The site where a secret tunnel once existed? The site where Al Capone did business? Or one of the darkest historical sites in the country?

© By

Lord Rick

Capone's Nightclub From The 1920's