You can't miss the red tower when at Jupiter Inlet in Florida. But many passers-by are unaware that it sits atop a hill that marked the confluence of two waterways that was the center of 5,000 years of Indian civilization. It would later draw a succession of Spanish, English, Seminole Indians, and American soldiers. When the lighthouse was built in 1860, it became a hub for builders, surveyors, Civil War blockade runners, pioneer farmers and paddlewheel steamboats. A Light in the Wilderness tells how today's coastal strip of over seven million residents began just a few generations ago when bears, panthers and alligators roamed and ruled.

Swashbuckling Pedro Menéndez and his explorers reached South Florida hoping to find gold and silver. They'd also make Christians of docile natives, who would happily mine ore and raise crops for the tables of Europe. Instead, they confronted a fearsome confederation of tribes that had been a nation for longer than Spain itself.

An epic story, true to actual dates and events. But it's told through the life of a Calusa Indian boy, from gathering fibers and berries for his single mother to his crucial role in the court of a cruel despot. It also follows the ambitious Menéndez as he persuades a reluctant Spanish king to finance The Enterprise of Florida, then struggles to sustain a chain of forts along its coasts. And scarcely a day passes without clashes of culture, religion, and weapons between two proud peoples. Yes, there's a winner, but few heroes.

NOTE: La Florida is a revised, paperback edition of the book, The Cross and the Mask, which won the Florida Historical Society's Patrick Smith Award in 2014 for best adult fiction.