Page 66 - John Anderson

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Current 2011 Map Showing The Lost Causeway Original Location.
A small "Cowpens" settlement for the grazing of cattle was
established a couple miles further up the river, and in the mid-1770's
Oswald established "The Adia" plantation along the Halifax River near
today's boundary between Ormond Beach and Holly Hill. However,
Oswald's most important development after Mount Oswald was his
sugar plantation at the "Swamp Settlement." Sugar was what Oswald
had come to Florida to grow. It was the major cash crop of the
Caribbean and a sure way to make a good profit. By late 1765,
Oswald had sugar planted at Mount Oswald. However, a severe freeze
in January 1766, killed the crop, and Oswald was forced to turn to
growing indigo, another fine cash crop, and rice. Nevertheless, his
dreams of sugar production continued, and with Mount Oswald in
indigo and rice, the Scotsman decided to make another major
investment in a new settlement near a freshwater swamp about 6
Miles south of Mount Oswald, later to be called “The Swamp
Settlement.”
The communities now surrounding “The Lost Causeway” have a long,
rich history that begins approximately 20,000 years ago during the
last Glacial Period and is closely linked to three bodies of water - the
Atlantic Ocean, the Halifax River and the Tomoka River. The Halifax
River is actually an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that thrusts northward
from Ponce de Leon Inlet and splits the land into two sections.

The Tomoka Basin, the source of the Halifax River, is located about
twenty-three miles north of Ponce de Leon Inlet and is fed from the
southwest by the Tomoka River, a freshwater river. The surrounding
lands are located on the Silver Bluff Terrace - an ancient ocean
bottom. Giant ground sloths, saber-toothed tigers, mastodons, and
prehistoric horses once roamed the forests surrounding these waters.
On the east side of the Halifax River is a narrow peninsula
approximately a mile wide commonly referred to as “Barrier Islands”
today.

Getting back to our story, when the two men arrived at the Thompson
Creek bank they decided to swim across, and follow the causeway on
the other side. Watchfully ignoring the danger of alligators and

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