Preserving Florida History in 3d: a Digital Public History Project Preserving Paleo-Native American Artifacts and Jack West Architecture from Warm Mineral Springs, Florida

This thesis project examines low-cost photogrammetry and 3D walkthrough tours to preserve a collection of artifacts and buildings from Warm Mineral Springs, Florida. The documented objects and structures consist of a small collection of artifacts from Warm Mineral Springs currently held by Florida’s Bureau of Archaeological Research and three buildings designed by noted architect Jack West, a Sarasota School of Architecture member, which suffered extensive damage from a category five hurricane in 2022. Warm Mineral Springs is an archaeologically significant site and is one of the few sites in Florida that demonstrate significant paleo-Native American cultural remains that has also suffered from a history of extensive looting and this thesis uses 3D tools, namely photogrammetry, to democratize its heritage. This thesis also demonstrates the necessity to move quickly in documenting cultural heritage as plans to document the buildings at Warm Mineral Springs were already in motion before Hurricane Ian ravaged the Jack West architecture in 2022 jeopardizing the structural integrity of the buildings and making access to document the interior of the buildings impossible. As such, this thesis and the process of documenting this example of cultural heritage intervenes directly into the increasing danger that climatic events and climate change pose on cultural heritage stewardship and sustainability. The 3D models generated for this project are curated in an online exhibit to contextualize the archaeological and architectural significance. This project intervenes in scholarly debates by creating a digital exhibit that incorporates models created by two different 3D technologies and juxtaposes them within a single exhibit, allowing comparisons between the two methods. This research will not only achieve the goals of public history by making the artifacts and buildings of Warm Mineral Springs more accessible, but it also contributes to debates within public history on democratizing information.