PALMETTO HUT
OF THE EARLY PIONEER SETTLER
The early pioneer settler learned to build his first house from the Indians. It was constructed of wood frame and thatched palmetto fronds scavenged from land clearing and windows were openings, sometimes covered with oiled cloth or paper and wooden shutters for protection. Doors were planked wood and floors were packed dirt. Cooking was done outside over an open fire. You could always tell a newcomer by the green color of his thatched palmetto.
An early settler's palmetto hut.
The replication of the palmetto hut will be an interpretive exhibit depicting the lifestyle of the early pioneer and the beginning of settlement of the Indian River and Brevard County and will exhibit how the same building methods and materials that were utilized by the Native Americans transcended to the early settlers. It will be constructed of native and readily available palmetto on site by volunteers and will be located South of the Ais & Seminole Chickee Indian Encampments and across from the Indian War/Civil War Fort. It will be furnished with primitives as described in text books.
