Samuel Butts Youth Archeological Park

Samuel Butts Youth Archeological Park

750 Bellevue Avenue

For 20 years, Samuel Butts crisscrossed this site collecting artifacts of prehistoric humans and the bones of prehistoric animals. One of Daytona Beach’s leading citizens, educator and an amateur archaeologist, Dr. Butts found projectile points, bone tools and pottery fragments left behind by the Timucua, a Native American tribe, and earlier humans. He also found skeletal remains of a mastodon, which roamed Florida during the Ice Age, according to a April 9, 2021 Daytona Times article.

Realizing its archaeological significance, Dr. Butts registered the site with the Florida Division of Historic Resources in 1994. The park was built and named in his honor in 2004 by the City of Daytona Beach.

Samuel Butts realized another important aspect of the park which bears his name. It is located in Waycross, the southernmost of Daytona Beach’s three historically Black neighborhoods. He requested that the park, which includes a lake and is a habitat and sanctuary for aquatic life and migratory waterfowl, be dedicated to motivating youth to study the environment as well as the area’s prehistory, natural history and cultural history.

Dr. Butts (1944-2021), graduated from Campbell High School, attended Daytona Beach Community College and Bethune-Cookman College, taught at Bethune-Cookman, served in the Vietnam War, worked on and advocated for community redevelopment, was a jazz musician who played the bass guitar on the beachside with different local groups, including Greg Allman of the Allman Brothers Band, and traveled to play gospel music with Black churches.

Timeline

APRIL 10, 1944 - Born in Winter Park, FL

1974-1994 - Found artifacts of prehistoric humans and bones of prehistoric animals

1994 - Site Registered as a Historic Resource

2004 - Park Named in Honor of Samuel Butts

APRIL 4, 2021 - Died at Halifax Hospice Care