Draft:Santa Cruz de Cachipile

Santa Cruz de Cachipile (ca. 1625 - ca. 1657) was a Spanish mission located in the drainage basin of the Altamaha River. From 1998 to 2001, an excavation was done by archaeological field school students from Valdosta State University at the presumed site of the mission, 12 miles south of Valdosta, Georgia.

History
Santa Cruz de Cachipile was an Utinan mission located seventy leagues (around 242 miles) from St. Augustine. The mission was located somewhere in the southern Altamaha drainage, and was at least there from 1655 to 1657.

In 1567, Governor Diego de Rebolledo visited three Spanish Florida provinces and multiple missions.

In 1990, John Tate Lanning mentioned the mission in "Summary Guide to Spanish Florida Missions and Visitas With Churches in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries". However, not much was thought about the mission other than its presumed site and approximate year of creation, likely because of limited historical documents about the mission or excavations to the site.

From 1998 to 2001, volunteers and archaeological field school students from Valdosta State University excavated a large, contact period Native American village, believed to be the location of Mission Santa Cruz de Cachipile. A one day remote sensing project was conducted in July, 2004.

The excavation was initiated when Marvin Smith, Professor of Anthropology at Valdosta State University, observed Spanish artifacts in Valdosta. One of the artifacts was an olive jar. Shards of the jar were found in the bed of a lake when it drained into a sinkhole.

Working on the site eventually led to the discovery of mission period artifacts in a plowed field behind a house. The owner of the house allowed access to her property for further archaeological investigations.