A cannon believed to be from the early 18th century was uncovered during work on the Miami Harbor Deepening Project last August. Now, it's being readied to go on display as an artifact of the state.
We don’t know much about this cannon. But there’s a record of salvaged cannons being used as anchors near the Port of Miami.
This one was inadvertently picked up during dredging of the Fisher Island Turning Basin. It was easy to miss in 40 cubic yards of material from the sea floor.
It was taken to an area where the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is using dredge material to create about 17 acres of seagrass. Project manager Laurel Reichold says the mitigation site is north of the Julia Tuttle Causeway.
“The dredge, which was a clamshell – which is like a big bucket – picked it up, put it in the barge. The barge transported it all the way up to the Julia Tuttle site," Reichold says. "It got deposited there, and then when that material was being smoothed out, that’s when it got discovered.”
The discovery halted dredging in the area as the Corps searched, fruitlessly, for more artifacts.
Now the cannon is being restored at the Department of State's conservation lab in Tallahassee. The plan is to eventually share it with the public.
