WINTER-TIME AIS INDIAN TOWN OF PENTOAYA

In 1605 Florida’s Spanish Governor Pedro de Ybarra sent Lt. Alvaro Mexia on a diplomatic mission to the Ais Indians. Mexia recorded his passage from St. Augustine down the coast to the principal Ais Indian town near present-day Vero Beach. At the confluence of Ulumay Lagoon (Banana River Lagoon) and the Great Bay of Ais (Indian River Lagoon) Mexia reported the location of the winter-time Ais Indian Town of Pentoaya. He recorded that the 17th century town of Pentoaya was located directly opposite on the western mainland, near the confluence of the Eau Gallie and the Indian Rivers. The Winter-Time Town of Pentoaya was located between this park and the Banana River Lagoon, to the west. It consisted of a complex of shell middens, mounds and a causeway, which divided the small lake seen from this marker. Little remains of these mounds, as the shells found in them were used as roadbed material early in the 20th century.