Elliot Plantation Site

Near the archeological ruins of the Elliot Plantation sugar mill at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Michael Legare, of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, recreates the original wall height of the structure on May 26, 2022. The plantation’s enslaved community built the sugar mill structure, or sugar train, where sugar cane juice would be boiled during processing in graduated copper kettles until the liquid reduced into a thick syrup. The ruins of Elliot Plantation date from the 1760s and represent the largest, earliest, and southernmost British period sugar plantation in the U.S., as well as one of the most intact and best examples of a completely preserved enslaved landscape. The archeological site is managed through interagency cooperation between the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and NASA.

Near the archeological ruins of the Elliot Plantation sugar mill at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Michael Legare, of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, recreates the original wall height of the structure on May 26, 2022. The plantation’s enslaved community built the sugar mill structure, or sugar train, where sugar cane juice would be boiled during processing in graduated copper kettles until the liquid reduced into a thick syrup. The ruins of Elliot Plantation date from the 1760s and represent the largest, earliest, and southernmost British period sugar plantation in the U.S., as well as one of the most intact and best examples of a completely preserved enslaved landscape. The archeological site is managed through interagency cooperation between the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and NASA.

Photographer NASA/Kim Shiflett
Location KSC