Local legend says yes — and the story is just minutes from where you’ll be staying.

Back in 1861, Confederate soldiers set up “Camp Walton” at the base of an ancient Native American mound right in the heart of town, to guard the waterway during the Civil War. Curious, they started digging into the mound… and found skeletons. One soldier, John Love McKinnon, later wrote about it — describing some of the remains as unusually large, “giant”-sized bones, which he believed belonged to warriors.

The soldiers actually displayed what they found — bones and artifacts — in a tent at their camp like a little pop-up museum. But that “museum” burned down when Union troops shelled the camp in 1862, so those specific pieces never survived. Whether “giants” is folklore, exaggeration, or something else entirely… that part of the mystery is still up for debate.

You will also see one of the Walton Guard’s original cannons that was later unearthed during archaeological excavations of the mound — still on display today, sitting almost exactly where it once stood guard over 160 years ago.

The mound itself dates back even further, to around 850 CE, built by the Pensacola culture as a ceremonial and burial site for generations of native leaders. Decades of real excavations since have uncovered thousands of artifacts — pottery, tools, bone and shell pieces — now on display just a few minutes away at the Indian Temple Mound Museum & Heritage Park. You can walk up onto the mound itself, see the reconstructed temple on top, and tour the old schoolhouse and post office museums too.

It’s an easy, affordable stop (adult admission is just $5!) — come see the mound, the cannon, and decide for yourself what’s fact and what’s folklore.

📍 Indian Temple Mound Museum, 139 Miracle Strip Pkwy SE, Fort Walton Beach

https://www.trailoffloridasindianheritage.org/indian-temple-mound-museum/

FWB Pool House is within a 5 minute bike ride to the Indian Temple Mound, Civil War Canon- Heritage Park and Memorial Center of Fort Walton Beach Florida