Ulumay Wildlife Sanctuary

805 Sykes Creek Parkway, Merritt Island

Historic & Orthinological | Ais Indians | Friends of Ulumay | Other Info

Historic & Orthinological Interest

Ulumay Wildlife Sanctuary is a significant natural resource recognized internationally among Audubon birdwatchers. Take a walk along the dike of the lagoon, and at various times throughout the year you could spot a wood stork, white or brown pelican, snowy egret or belted kingfisher, white, tri-color or blue heron, anhinga, or blue wing teal and cinnamon teal ducks. And yes, be cautious of the occasional alligator! [ See Florida Birding Trail ]

The sanctuary property was dedicated to the Board of County Commissioners on June 26, 1970 by the Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund of the State of Florida for public outdoor recreational and parks purposes. The portion of the protected area designated as park lands encompasses Kiwanis Island Park and totals 487.91 acres. However, the 457-acre Ulumay Wildlife Sanctuary portion is the diked wetland north of Audubon Road, bounded on the west by Sykes Creek and on the east by Banana River Drive housing developments. The official entrance is at the juncture of Sykes Creek Boulevard and Audubon Road. Fisherman recognize the entrance as access to the old humpbacked "Troll" bridge. A trail leads from the parking site to a birdwatching tower, with a canoe launch site at the Mosquito Control access road.

Once inside, urban Merritt Island recedes, and the terrain becomes reminiscent of more primitive times. The earliest know written record of this area was made by Alvaro Mexia in 1605. While on a mapping expedition, this young soldier from the St. Augustine garrison came to the area to meet the Ais chief . He drew a rough map of the Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River with Ais language place names of Surruque, Urribia, Urruya, Suyagueche, Potopotoya, Ulumay, Saboboche, Savochequeya, Pentoaya and the Baya Grande de Ays. (Rouse 1951, 1981)

Learn more about the Ais Indians

Only the name Ulumay has survived as the name of the Ulumay Wildlife Refuge on Merritt Island (named by naturalist and local historian Johnnie Johnson). Quoting from Irving Rouse's survey of Indian River Archaeology, Mexia's diary says, "Here is the town of Ulumay, the first one of the province of the Ais. In back and adjacent to this town there are many camps." The Ais Indians remained in the area until their disappearance between 1715 and 1720. The shell mounds which were all that was left of these villages were used in the construction of early Merritt Island roads long before their archaeological significance was recognized. Recognition finally came on December 7, 1993, when the Brevard County Historic Commission presented a plaque to the Board of County Commissioners dedicating Ulumay Wildlife Sanctuary as an Historic Landmark.

The late Johnny Johnson, a long time member of the Brevard Historic Commission, helped record what little was left of these Ais sites while heading a trailblazing effort along the dike in the 1960s. Today, several miles of walking trail are maintained by a joint effort including Brevard Mosquito Control, Brevard County Parks and Recreation, Brevard County Marine Resources and volunteers. Brevard County Parks and Recreation Department maintains the fishing pier and birdwatching tower, while Mosquito Control manages the salt march mosquito.

Considered probably Brevard County's biggest mosquito producing property, the County began managing the mosquito at Ulumay in the 1950's through diking and water control efforts. In the early sixties, a series of horizontal canals were cut to aid mosquito control efforts. Since that time, adventurous paddlers have taken advantage of the linked waterways in canoes and kayaks. In 1992, a Port Authority mitigation project brought restoration to the wetlands. This project required installation of thirty-six culverts through the dikes to reconnect the wetlands to the lagoon system. The installation was done by the Army Corps of Engineers and is associated with the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission's mission to restore the wood stork rookery.

The rookery, otherwise know as a nesting area, was destroyed by the 1985 freeze. The culverts allow juvenile fish to be pumped into the wetlands creating a "fish nursery", which in turn invites the wood stork to rebuild the Ulumay rookery. The biannual pumping cycle is managed by the Brevard County Mosquito Control. The culverts are closed in January 1, at which time water is pumped in and then allowed to go down naturally until about mid-March when the culverts are opened again. This cycle is repeated in October. Most of the canals disappear during the flooded seasons, creating a paddler's dream.

October through March is ideal for more reasons than paddling the waterways, it is also bird season and a more dormant time for alligators and mosquitoes. Times to pay special attention are during the April/May alligator mating season and the June through August mosquito season. Ulumay is open from 7:00 a.m. to dusk. Group tours can be scheduled by calling the Parks and Recreation Department Naturalist at 321-868-1123.

 

Ais Indians

See Access Genealogy -- "Florida Indian Tribes"
From The Indian Tribes of North America by John R. Swanton

Ais. Meaning unknown; there is no basis for Romans' (1775) derivation from the Choctaw word "isi" (deer). Also called:
Jece, form of the name given by Dickenson (1699).

Connections. Circumstantial evidence, particularly resemblance in town names, leads to the conclusion that the Ais language was similar to that of the Calusa and the other south Florida tribes. (See Calusa.) It is believed that it was connected with the Muskhogean stock.

Location. Along Indian River on the east coast of the peninsula.

Villages. The only village mentioned by explorers and geographers bears some form of the tribal name.

History. Fontaneda (1854) speaks of a Biscayan named Pedro who had been held prisoner in Ais, evidently during the sixteenth century, and spoke the Ais language fluently. Shortly after the Spaniards made their first establishments in the peninsula, a war broke out with the Ais, but peace was concluded in 1570. In 1597 Governor Mendez de Canço, who traveled along the entire east coast from the head of the Florida Keys to St. Augustine, reported that the Ais chief had more Indians under him than any other. A little later the Ais killed a Spaniard and two Indians sent to them by Canço for which summary revenge was exacted, and still later a difficulty was created by the escape of two Negro slaves and their marriage with Ais men. Relations between the Floridian government and these Indians were afterward friendly but efforts to missionize them uniformly failed. An intimate picture of their condition in 1699 is given by the Quaker Dickenson (1803), who was shipwrecked on the coast farther south and obliged, with his companions, to travel through their territory. They disappear from history after 1703, but the remnant may have been among those who, according to Romans (1775), passed over to Cuba in 1763, although he speaks of them all as Calusa.

Population. Mooney (1928) estimates the number of Indians on the southeastern coast of Florida in 1650, including this tribe, the Tekesta, Guacata, and Jeaga, to have been 1,000. As noted above, the Ais were the most important of these and undoubtedly the largest. We have no other estimates of population applying to the seventeenth century. In 1726, 88 "Costa" Indians were reported in a mission farther north and these may have been drawn from the southeast coast. In 1728, 52 "Costa" Indians were reported.

Connection in which they have become noted. The Ais were noted as the most important tribe of southeastern Florida, and they were probably responsible for the fact that the watercourse on which they dwelt came to be called Indian River.

From "American Indians Timeline"
timelines.ws

1750        The Ais Indians of Florida were wiped out. In 2004 a site on Hutchinson Island, inhabited by the Ais, revealed 2 thousand year old burials.

 

Ais Tribe
From Wikipedia

The Ais, or Ays were a tribe of Native Americans who inhabited the Atlantic Coast of Florida. They ranged from present day Cape Canaveral to the St. Lucie Inlet, in the present day counties of Brevard, Indian River, St. Lucie and northernmost Martin. They lived in villages and towns along the shores of the great lagoon called Rio de Ais by the Spanish, and now called the Indian River.

Little is known of the origins of the Ais, or of the affinities of their language. The Ais language has been tentatively assigned by some authors to the Muskogean language family, and by others to the Arawakan language family.

Observations on the appearance, diet and customs of the Ais at the end of the 17th Century are found in Jonathan Dickinson's Journal. Dickinson and his party were shipwrecked, and spent several weeks among the Ais in 1696. By Dickinson's account, the chief of the town of Jece, near present day Vero Beach, was paramount to all of the coastal towns from the Jaega town of Jobe (at Jupiter Inlet) in the south to approximately Cape Canaveral in the north (that is, the length of the River of Ais).[1]

The Ais had considerable contact with Europeans by this time. Spain had established some control over the coast, with the Ais regarding the Spanish as comerradoes and non-Spanish Europeans as enemies. A number of Ais men knew a little Spanish, and a patrol of Spanish soldiers from St. Augustine arrived in Jece while the Dickinson party was there. There was one man in Jece who had been taken away on an English ship to work as a diver on a wreck east of Cuba. He got away when the ship put in for water in Cuba, and had made his way back to his home via Havana and St. Augustine. The Ais had many European artifacts from ship wrecks. As there was a group from another English shipwreck in Jece when the Dickinson party reached the town, it may be presumed that European and African survivors of shipwrecks were fairly common along the coast. There was also some trade with St. Augustine. Dickinson reports that one man of Jece had approximately five pounds of ambergris, and that he "boasted that when he went for Augustine with that, he would purchase of the Spaniards a looking-glass, an axe, a knife or two, and three or four mannocoes (which is about five or six pounds) of tobacco."[2]

The Ais did not survive long after Dickinson's sojourn with them. Shortly after 1700 settlers in Carolina started raiding the Ais to capture slaves. By 1743, when the Spanish established a mission among them, the Ais numbers were declining due to slave raids, disease and rum. The Ais were gone from the area by 1760.

 

Note: Observations on the appearance, diet and customs of the Ais at the end of the 17th Century are found in Jonathan Dickinson's Journal.

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Friends of Ulumay—

Our mission is to provide and promote excellent environmental stewardship of Ulumay Wildlife Sanctuary lands, offering improvement of ecosystems and restoration of modified areas, while maintaining a balance between active conservation and passive public recreation.

Please join us — we meet monthly! We are a group of friends and neighbors who have developed an interest in preserving the area of the Ulumay Wildlife Sanctuary.

• PLANT, BIRD & WILDLIFE TOPICS
• HISTORICAL INFORMATION
• ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
• TRAIL MAINTENANCE
• HIKING INFORMATION

 

Our goal is to present a lecture each month on topics
related to our treasured Ulumay in the heart of Merritt Island.

WHEN — The 2nd Monday of each month, 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

WHERE — Community Building—Kiwanis Island Park
     951 Kiwanis Island Park Road, Merritt Island Causeway (SR 520)
     Merritt Island, FL 32952

PLEASE JOIN US!
Information: 321-452-3609

Download and share our Info Card (PDF)

 

 

For more information about Ulumay Wildlife Sanctuary—

• Park Information
• Friends of Ulumay Info Card - PDF
• Large Version Locator Map - PDF
• 7" x 7" Version Locator Map - JPG

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