I'm Mike towing with the Florida Public
Archaeology Network and
today I'm going to take you on an aerial tour of
Northwest Florida's river systems.
Now, Florida's waterways have played a really
important part in the development and
history of not just Florida as a state
but specifically Northwest Florida as a region.
Before the invention of automobiles
and airplanes and trains,
the main way that people got around, by
moving people's goods and ideas,
was by utilizing these river systems.
Now, Florida has 1,700 rivers
and 41 of those
rivers are designated as outstanding
Florida waterways.
Native Americans were the first people in this
area to use these river systems and
the type of watercraft they use we
call dugout canoes.
Now, in Florida we've found hundreds of these dugout canoes at different sites
along the coast as well as lakes across the entire state.
Going into the early Spanish 
exploration time period,
we know that early Spanish
explorers also were
utilizing these space systems
and river systems.
Mostly what the Spanish were using in the 1500s and the 1600s to explore areas like this,
were basically shallow drafted ships, usually they had
one masts that could have a little sail on it,
but they were mostly
powered by oarsmen.
So they had oars that they could literally row a
boat just like if you were on a canoe today.
These river systems were continually used throughout history.
You see steam ships being developed
later on in the mid 1800s.
Areas like the Apalachicola River were
major hubs of trade not just for Florida,
but the entire Gulf South.
Now, like many river systems the
East River, which is behind me,
actually empties into what's called
the East Bay which is an estuary.
And now, estuaries are where you have fresh water
from river systems, meaning salt
water from the ocean.
They're incredibly important
places for marine life.
In fact 70% of all marine life
spends one part
of a critical stage in its life
development living in estuaries.
So it's really important that
we take care of our estuaries
and we take care of these river systems.
