19th-Century Quarantine Hospital Found Underwater in Florida.

Discovering the Secrets of Dry Tortugas National Park

Archeologists Uncover 19th-Century Quarantine Hospital and Cemetery

The National Park Service (NPS) recently announced the discovery of a 19th-century quarantine hospital and cemetery at a submerged island in Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida. Maritime archeologist Joshua Marano first spotted the unique L-shaped pattern while flying over the Gulf of Mexico near the national park in 2016. Six years later, Marano and a team of archeologists and students conducted a survey of the site, where they found the remains of the hospital and cemetery.

The hospital was built in response to a yellow fever outbreak at Fort Jefferson from 1860 to 1870, which killed dozens of people. Multiple small quarantine hospitals were built on nearby islands to isolate the infected from the rest of the fort’s population, which “likely saved hundreds from a similar fate,” according to the NPS. The discovered hospital was used while the U.S. Marine Hospital Service occupied the fort between 1890 and 1900, treating and isolating patients with yellow fever.

In addition to the quarantine hospital, the team also found a cemetery, known as the Fort Jefferson Post Cemetery, where dozens of people were laid to rest. Many were military personnel and prisoners, in addition to some civilians. The team was able to locate and identify a gravestone while surveying the site. John Greer, who was a worker at the fort, died on November 5, 1861, and was buried at the cemetery. His gravestone was the only one identified by researchers.

“It was surreal,” Marano said of the find. “It’s the equivalent of finding a bell on a shipwreck with the name on it. It’s just something that you absolutely never hear of in underwater archaeology.”

The site of the hospital and cemetery is now federally protected as an archeological site. Archeologists made the discovery in August of last year and have been examining records to identify who John Greer was. According to The Washington Post, Greer worked on the scaffolding of the fort. This, along with a lack of a hospital record prior to his death, could mean that he died a sudden death, Devon Fogarty, an archeology student under Morano who first spotted the gravestone, speculated. No descendants of Greer have been identified or come forward yet, the Post reports.

Dry Tortugas National Park is full of secrets waiting to be uncovered. Who knows what other fascinating finds are waiting to be discovered?