1. El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, The Florida of the Inca, trans. John Grier Varner and Jeannette Johnson Varner (Austin: U of Texas P, 1980). The title comes from an unofficial historical marker (ca. 1970) at Weeki Wachee Springs, Florida. This essay was written in the tranquil University of Oslo library. I am indebted to Jessica Haars, Jim Udenberg, and Lara Udenberg for their extended hospitality during my stay in Norway. Paul and Lucy Jones helped me coordinate archeological and modern-day topographical maps. Jerald T. Milanich and Brent Weisman generously allowed me access to their materials on modern-day reconstructions of the De Soto trail. Julie Armstrong tolerated several swamp trips and read the essay. Tim Sweet and James Kessenides offered useful suggestions for revision.
2. Jeffrey M. Mitchem and Brent R. Weisman, “The Cove of the Withlacoochee: A First Look at the Archeology of an Interior Florida Wetland,” The Florida Anthropologist 39:1–2 (March–June 1986): 4–8.
3. Jerald T. Milanich and Charles Hudson, Hernando de Soto and the Indians of Florida (Gainesville: UP of Florida and the Florida Museum of Natural History, 1993), 101–06; Mitchem and Weisman, 15.
4. Rodrigo Rangel, “Account of the Northern Conquest and Discovery of Hernando de Soto,” The De Soto Chronicles: The Expedition of Hernando de Soto to North America in 1539–1543, ed. Lawrence A. Clayton, Vernon James Knight, Jr., and Edward C. Moore (Tuscaloosa: U of Alabama P, 1993), 1:261.
5. The discoveries in the Cove of the Withlacoochee, and conclusions that followed, set into motion a formidable publicity campaign engineered by archeologists and historians at the University of Florida, who lobbied at the state and national levels for a De Soto trail, and who met fierce resistance from proponents at the now excluded regions. As lead archeologist Jerald T. Milanich explained to the press (in a typical letter, also forwarded to then Governor Bob Graham and Senator George Kirkpatrick), De Soto “makes good copy” (Milanich to Norm Swetman [Citrus County Chronicle] , February 7, 1985); the Charlotte Harbor contingent went so far as to hire a publicity firm to commemorate a “possible” landing at the now disproven site (Bette Seigerman to Milanich, August 22, 1985).