Other mounds have been leveled to provide roadfill material. Archeological sites such as Turtle Mound are the last remaining vestige of the Timucuan people. By protecting it for the future, we will be able to gain more insight into the way of life of the Timucuan people. There has never been a complete archeological excavation of Turtle Mound. Turtle Mound was estimated to be 75 feet high before it was reduced by shell rock mining in the 19th and 20th centuries. Over many years of this practice, the mound began to take the form of a turtle, giving the feature its name. Early Spanish colonists and subsequent mariners utilized the large mound as a landmark.

(Archaeologists have recently found 1,200-year-old pottery on the site.) In 1605, the Spanish explorer and cartographer, Alvaro Mexia, visited the site and reported natives launching their dugout canoes at the mound's base. It was constructed between 8 CE., however recent radiocarbon testing dates it around 1000 BCE.

Archaeologists believe the Timucua may have used this site as a high-ground refuge during hurricanes. It contains over 35,000 cubic yards of shells. This turtle-shaped mound contains oysters and refuse from the prehistoric Timucuan people, and extends for over 600 feet along the Indian River shoreline. The earliest evidence of man at Cape Canaveral is found in the numerous mounds and middens within its boundaries.

Cape canaveral national seashore beach