The Ais Indian town of Pentoaya is thought to have been located atop the arc-shaped sand bluffs that surround the western edge of what is now Ballard Park. Pentoaya was an important prehistoric Indian settlement on the east coast of Florida, and was one of ten towns recorded on Alvaro Mexia’s 1605 map of Indian habitation sites. The segment of the Indian River Lagoon that stretches from this site to Floridana Beach was once called Pentoaya Lagoon. Like many Ais villages located along the Indian River Lagoon, the wintertime location of Pentoaya was along a barrier island near present-day Gleason Park in Indian Harbour Beach, while this site probably served as Pentoaya’s primary location during the rest of the year. Artifacts found here date from as early as 2000 BC to as late as AD 1700, and range from fiber-tempered Orange pottery to more recent Malabar II check-stamped pottery. Pentoaya’s location where the Eau Gallie and Indian rivers meet would have contributed to its economic and political importance among the Ais and their ancestors. The main settlement of the Ais Indians – their paramount village – was located at the Kroegel homestead, just south of the city of Sebastian in Indian River County.
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.