Be Your Own Indiana Jones

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"It's all about the charcoal. An ancient fire ring has burned nuts, seeds and wood – the charcoal tells a story about food."

Michele Williams, PhD, is a paleoethnobotanist – she studies plant material from archaeological sites. She shares ancient discoveries during an archaeology lecture at Brevard Community College in Melbourne, and we are excited. Who knew what treasures charcoal could hold? I’m starting to feel like Indiana Jones’ Floridian counterpart.

It’s easy to catch the treasure fever, and Florida is a great place to channel your own Indy. Let's leave the classroom and go for it. Grab your fedora and start exploring.

After almost 450 years buried under sand in Pensacola Bay, ships sunk during the storm-tossed Don Tristan de Luna Spanish expedition in 1559 are being uncovered. They were surprisingly close to shore, located in 12 feet of water off Emanuel Point near Historic Pensacola Village.

University of West Florida archaeologists have brought up ballast stones, pots and pans, pottery and even rat skulls. The whole of Pensacola Bay is off limits to artifact collecting, but there are public days for viewing the dive platform and for divers to get an underwater view.

Without getting wet, you can see a treasure trove of de Luna artifacts on display inside T.T. Wentworth, Jr. Florida State Museum in Historic Downtown Pensacola.

Wherever gods were worshiped in prehistoric times, mystery and intrigue linger. Indiana Jones and his sidekicks often found themselves treading on sacred ground. You can do the same at the Indian Temple Mound & Museum in Fort Walton Beach.

Climb to the top. Close your eyes and imagine being a Native American before cell phones, before cars, before anything modern existed. Is this where sacrifices were made? Were you a designated night watcher, scanning the skies for comets? For some answers and more mystery, check out the artifacts at the museum.

A subterranean chamber is definitely on your Indy adventure list. Florida Caverns State Park in Marianna is the only Florida state park that offers cave tours to the public. Check the website for tour times. Some days the caverns are closed to protect this fragile, awesome and ancient resource. 

Candlelight changes everything – an old fort becomes mysterious, shadows become apparitions. You’ll feel just like a Civil War soldier when you take a candlelight tour of Fort Clinch at Fort Clinch State Park in Fernandina Beach. Or perhaps you’ll fancy yourself a peg-legged pirate. Long before the soldiers, there were pirates (agrrrrh!) living on Amelia Island, burying their chests of gold, some say, by candlelight.

Indiana Jones often defies the laws of physics, but who said adventuring had to be hard work? Walk along the wide beaches at Little Talbot Island State Park near Jacksonville. Get sand between your toes. Find sharks' teeth. Pick up seashells. These treasures are easy to find.

Where there’s history, there’s a treasure trove of stories. Take an Ancient City Tour in St. Augustine, the oldest permanently occupied European city in the U.S. Stroll the old streets, climb aboard the trolley tour and stay up late for a ghost tour. See the famous and infamous all gathered together at Potter's Wax Museum.

Silver Springs near Ocala is famous for its glass-bottom boat rides. Glide past the places were Tarzan movies were made, look into the water and see denizens of the deep.

In the latest Indy movie, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," Indy's new sidekick ends up in a tree, takes a quick lesson from some monkeys, then swings through the jungle like a pro. Perhaps, during your own adventure, you'll spy swinging through the trees some of the monkeys that escaped decades ago from an island at Silver Springs.

Hang onto your fedora and take a trail ride at Young's Paso Fino Ranch in Marion County, where you’ll see first-hand the lively spirit and carriage of these Spanish horses.

Remember the red line the airplane traced on a map in all the Indy movies? Chart your own red line with a hot air balloon ride in Orlando or Kissimmee or take off in a World War II fighter trainer at Warbird Adventures in Kissimmee.

It's a jungle out there, but there’s no need for a machete. You can walk through the treetops on a canopy walk at Myakka River State Park in Sarasota (watch a video about it here).

Botanists will tell you the best treasures are discovered in deep glades, so head out on an Everglades Walk. Show up for the Swamp Walk at Fakahatchee Strand State Park in Copeland for a ranger-guided walk.

You never know what you'll see through binoculars or with the naked eye at J.N. "Ding" Darling National Wildlife Refuge on Sanibel Island. Take the five-mile drive or bike through the refuge, but be sure to stop often. Volunteers set up tripods and big telescopes so everyone can have a view of birds and reptiles.

Take your inner Indy under the water. Along an 80-mile stretch underwater in the Florida Keys lies the 1733 Spanish Galleon Trail. Divers can explore all of the underwater sites. A free, 24-page guide is available online.

Plus, Florida has 11 shipwreck preserves. Get information online about any of the state's underwater archaeological preserves and where you can dive to see them.

Visit the Mel Fisher Maritime Museum in Key West. Adopt an artifact, explore the past and be amazed at what underwater artifact hunters have found.

In Coconut Creek, winged treasures of rare beauty flutter by you at Butterfly World. It’s your chance to walk through the rainforest at the Tropical Rainforest Aviary, where butterflies float all around you. Bring your family and a camera.

The Florida Public Archaeology Network wants you to know about Florida's buried and submerged past and has lots of ways to get involved. On their website, click on any of the Florida regions on the map to find out what's happening in that area. Michele Williams, the charcoal hunter from the beginning of my tale, is the director in Fort Lauderdale of the Southeast Region of the Florida Public Archaeology Network.

One example of public programs: "In the Dirt," a free archaeology lecture series given once a month at different Brevard Community College campuses. No matter if you’re a Florida resident or visitor; all wanna-be Indies are welcome.

Whatever the season, let the Indy in you explore the riches of Florida.