Exploring Fort Caroline National Memorial
Operated by the National Park Service, Fort Caroline National Memorial memorializes the short-lived French presence in sixteenth century Florida. Here you will find stories of exploration, survival, religious disputes, territorial battles, and first contact between American Indians and Europeans. In addition, Fort Caroline National Memorial hosts the Timucuan Preserve Visitor Center.
About Fort Caroline
Timucuan Preserve Visitor Center
The Timucua
Ribault Monument
Fort Caroline (1564)
The United States Marine Corps (USMC) Support Facility - Blount Island, a pre-positioning center, can be seen in the distance. The USMC took ownership of half of Blount Island in 2005. The Blount Island Command was a personnel of 942 and an annual economic impact of $385 million.
Several new residences, across the St. Johns River, on Little Marsh Island.
The Theodore Roosevelt Area (aka Willie Brown Nature Preserve)
Employing 380 workers, BAE Systems Southeast Shipyards is situated on 81-acres at the intersection of the Intercoastal Waterway and the St. Johns River, roughly two miles from the Atlantic Ocean. The ship repair facility opened in 1966 as the Atlantic Dry Dock Corporation. BAE acquired Atlantic Marine in 2010 for $352 million.
J.Lauritzen A/S (JL) was founded in 1884 and has been a leading supplier of ocean transport solutions for 125 years. This Lauritzen tanker was headed out of JAXPORT.
The Story of Willie Brown
https://www.nps.gov/timu/historyculture/tra_willie_earlyyears.htm
Spanish Pond
The Fort Caroline National Memorial is located on Fort Caroline Road in Jacksonville and is open to the public daily.
Photo tour by Ennis Davis
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Fort Caroline was the first French colony in the present-day United States. Established in what is now Jacksonville, Florida, on June 22, 1564, under the leadership of Rene Goulaine de Laudonniere, it was intended as a refuge for the Huguenots. It lasted one year before being obliterated in 1565 by Spanish settlers, who built their own fort at the site, later abandoned in 1569. The site is now operated as Fort Caroline National Memorial, a unit of the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Caroline
Timucuan Preserve Visitor Center
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Located at Fort Caroline National Memorial, the Timucuan Preserve Visitor Center hosts the exhibit "Where the Waters Meet." This exhibit showcases the richness of the environment in northeast Florida and how humans have interacted with this environment for thousands of years. The Visitor Center hosts a bookstore and information desk, and activities are available to do while exploring the exhibits.https://www.nps.gov/timu/planyourvisit/timucuanpreserve_visitorcenter.htm
The Timucua
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The Timucua were a Native American people who lived in Northeast and North Central Florida and southeast Georgia. They were the largest indigenous group in that area and consisted of about 35 chiefdoms, many leading thousands of people. The various groups of Timucua spoke several dialects of the Timucua language. At the time of European first contact, the territory occupied by speakers of Timucuan dialects occupied about 19,200 square miles, and was home to between 50,000 and 200,000 Timuacans. It stretched from the Altamaha River and Cumberland Island in present-day Georgia as far south as Lake George in central Florida, and from the Atlantic Ocean west to the Aucilla River in the Florida Panhandle, though it reached the Gulf of Mexico at no more than a couple of points.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timucua
The name "Timucua" (from Thimogona) came from the exonym used by the Saturiwa (of what is now Jacksonville) to refer to the Utina, another group to the west of the St. Johns River. The Spanish came to use the term more broadly for other peoples in the area. Eventually it became the common term for all peoples who spoke what is known as the Timucuan language.
While alliances and confederacies arose between the chiefdoms from time to time, the Timucua were never organized into a single political unit. The various groups of Timucua speakers practiced several different cultural traditions. The people suffered severely from the introduction of Eurasian infectious diseases, to which they had no immunity. By 1595, their population was estimated to have been reduced from 200,000 to 50,000 and only thirteen chiefdoms remained. By 1700, the population of the tribe had been reduced to 1000. Warfare against them by the English colonists and native allies completed their extinction as a tribe soon after the turn of the 19th century.
Ribault Monument
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The Ribault Monument commemorates the 1562 landing of Jean Ribault near the mouth of the St. Johns River. Ribault erected a stone column bearing the coats of arms of his French King Charles IX to claim Florida for France.https://www.nps.gov/timu/historyculture/foca_ribaultmonument.htm
During the early 1920s a movement began in the Florida Chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution to mark the location of Ribault’s first arrival in the New World. The goal was to highlight the beginnings of European colonization of Florida by Protestants - for the sake of religious freedom - and to remind Americans that this colony was established half a century prior to the Plymouth Colony. In 1924 a piece of land was donated near present-day Mayport for a new column designed by Florida sculptor Charles Adrian Pillars. The U.S. Post Office also released a commemorative stamp of Ribault’s landing, and the U.S. Mint released a coin.
When U.S. Naval Station Mayport was established in 1941, the monument became inaccessible to the public and was moved. Three moves later, in 1958, the monument found its permanent home on St. Johns Bluff, and became part of the new National Park site, Fort Caroline National Memorial.
Fort Caroline (1564)
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Rene Goulaine de Laudonniere, who had been Ribault's second-in-command on the 1562 expedition, led a contingent of around 200 new settlers back to Florida, where they founded Fort Caroline (or Fort de la Caroline) atop St. Johns Bluff on June 22, 1564. The fort was named for King Charles IX of France. For just over a year, this colony was beset by hunger, Indian attacks, and mutiny, and attracted the attention of Spanish authorities who considered it a challenge to their control over the area.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Caroline
In June 1565, Ribault had been released from English custody, and Coligny sent him back to Florida. In late August, Ribault arrived at Fort Caroline, with a large fleet and hundreds of soldiers and settlers, and took command of the settlement. However, the recently appointed Spanish Governor of Florida, Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles, had simultaneously been dispatched from Spain with orders to remove the French outpost, and arrived within days of Ribault's landing. After a brief skirmish between Ribault's ships and Menendez's ships, the latter retreated 35 miles southward, where they established the settlement of St. Augustine. Ribault pursued the Spanish with several of his ships and most of his troops, but he was surprised at sea by a violent storm lasting several days. Menendez marched his forces overland, launching a surprise dawn attack on the Fort Caroline garrison which contained 200 to 250 people. The only survivors were about 50 women and children who were taken prisoner and a few defenders, including Laudonniere, who managed to escape; the rest were massacred.
As for Ribault's fleet, all of the ships either sank or ran aground south of St. Augustine during the storm, and many of the Frenchmen onboard were lost at sea. Ribault and his marooned sailors were located by Menendez with his troops and summoned to surrender. Apparently believing that his men would be well treated, Ribault capitulated. Menendez then executed Ribault and several hundred Huguenots (French Protestants) as heretics at what is now known as the Matanzas Inlet. The atrocity shocked Europeans even in that bloody era of religious strife. A fort built much later, Fort Matanzas, is in the vicinity of the site. This massacre put an end to France's attempts at colonization of the southeastern Atlantic coast of North America.
The Spanish destroyed Fort Caroline, but built their own fort on the same site. In April 1568, Dominique de Gourgues led a French force which attacked, captured and burned the fort. He then slaughtered the Spanish prisoners in revenge for the 1565 massacre. The Spanish rebuilt, but permanently abandoned the fort the following year. The exact location of the settlement is not known.
The original site of Fort de la Caroline has never been determined, but it is believed to have been located near the present day Fort Caroline National Memorial. The National Park Service constructed an outdoor exhibit of the original fort in 1964, but it was destroyed by Hurricane Dora in the same year. Today, the second replica, a near full-scale "interpretive model" of the original Fort de la Caroline, also constructed and maintained by the National Park Service, illustrates the modest defenses upon which the 16th-century French colonists depended.
The United States Marine Corps (USMC) Support Facility - Blount Island, a pre-positioning center, can be seen in the distance. The USMC took ownership of half of Blount Island in 2005. The Blount Island Command was a personnel of 942 and an annual economic impact of $385 million.
Several new residences, across the St. Johns River, on Little Marsh Island.
The Theodore Roosevelt Area (aka Willie Brown Nature Preserve)
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The Theodore Roosevelt Area is open 9:00 to 4:45 daily. It is a 600-acre natural treasure of hardwood forest, wetlands, and scrub vegetation. It is also rich in cultural history.https://wikimapia.org/1448827/The-Theodore-Roosevelt-Area-aka-Willie-Brown-Nature-Preserve
Visitors can experience miles of thickly wooded peaceful nature trails, vast grassland that supports both water and land animals, ancient piles of discarded oyster shells which yield clues about an extinct culture, and the legacy of preservation bequeathed to all by this property's last private owner, Willie Browne.
In 1960 Willie gave seven acres of land along Mt. Pleasant Road to the Campfire Girls organization for a place to build a campground and lodge. During the last years of his life Willie struggled to keep his property. Though real estate developers eagerly offered him millions of dollars for his property, Willie refused to sell. “Money cannot buy happiness and this place makes me happy,” Willie once said. Willie worried that there would come a time when Jacksonville would be so densely populated and developed that no wild areas would remain where people could enjoy the natural beauty of “Old Florida.”
In 1969 Willie Browne donated all his land to The Nature Conservancy with the stipulation that it or any future owner would keep the land in its natural state. Willie requested that the property be named for his hero, former president Theodore Roosevelt. In December 1970, Willie Browne died alone in his cabin, content that he had done everything possible to nurture, conserve, and protect the gift of land bequeathed to him by his father. With his passing, Willie bequeathed his conservation values and his precious gift to all of us, for all time.
Employing 380 workers, BAE Systems Southeast Shipyards is situated on 81-acres at the intersection of the Intercoastal Waterway and the St. Johns River, roughly two miles from the Atlantic Ocean. The ship repair facility opened in 1966 as the Atlantic Dry Dock Corporation. BAE acquired Atlantic Marine in 2010 for $352 million.
J.Lauritzen A/S (JL) was founded in 1884 and has been a leading supplier of ocean transport solutions for 125 years. This Lauritzen tanker was headed out of JAXPORT.
The Story of Willie Brown
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In 1882 real estate attorney William Henry Brown II and wife Eliza moved to Jacksonville, Florida from New York City. Shortly thereafter their two daughters, aged 1 and 5, died in a yellow fever epidemic that killed many people in northeast Florida. Following this tragedy, Mrs. Browne bore another child named William Henry Browne III.
In an effort to safeguard the child from the then unknown cause of yellow fever the Brownes purchased a 600 acre tract of land far from the more populated areas of Jacksonville. In 1890, when son William III was six months old, the family moved into an existing two-story home that overlooked a beautiful circular shaped salt marsh. The following year another son, Saxon, was born. This home once stood in what is now the Theodore Roosevelt Area.
In this rural maritime setting the Browne boys flourished. Their mother, a trained school teacher, taught the boys to read, write, and do basic mathematics. When not under their mother’s tutelage the boys fished, roamed the vast shell mounds, and explored the ruins of old Confederate gun batteries on St. Johns Bluff. From atop the Bluff, which is ninety feet high, young “Willie” could see the Atlantic Ocean five miles to the east. The boys tended the family’s cattle, chickens, citrus trees, and vegetable garden. One hundred years ago the property was isolated. At that time the city limits of Jacksonville did not reach this far into eastern Duval County. The nearest towns were Mayport (2 miles east), Fulton (1 mile west), and Cosmo (2 miles west). Transportation to and from Jacksonville was available by catching a river ferry, named the Hessie, which made a daily roundtrip from Fulton.
In the early 1900’s a fire destroyed the Browne’s two-story home Shell Mount. Mr. and Mrs. Browne moved back to Jacksonville while Willie and Saxon stayed on the property. The boys built the one room cabin where they would live the rest of their lives. The foundations of this cabin can be visited along the Willie Browne Trail.
On his sixteenth birthday Willie was given ownership of the property as a gift from his father. Mr. Browne instructed Willie to nurture and care for the property, “keep hunters off it” and to maintain the land in a natural state. The gift of the property to Willie at such a young age instilled the responsibility and value of wildlife conservation.
Willie and Saxon made their living by farming, commercial fishing, running a saw mill, and selling oystershells taken from the extensive mounds that still dominate the property. They also worked a variety of odd jobs such as landscaping, woodcarving, and boat building.
In the 1920’s, both Mr. and Mrs. Browne died and were buried on the property. From their parents, Willie and Saxon inherited an intense appreciation for the land that led to a lifelong desire to protect the natural bounty they both depended upon for their daily existence.
Willie lived a reclusive, isolated existence seldom leaving his property. Water was hand- pumped each day from a well, located close to the cabin, and carried indoors in a metal bucket. A single lightbulb and a radio were powered by a Model-T car battery. This style of low-technology dependence seemed to be all Willie needed or desired. Willie demonstrated his love for people by giving away parcels of land to people in need and to those who would value the land’s natural beauty.
In 1960 Willie gave seven acres of land along Mt. Pleasant Road to the Campfire Girls organization for a place to build a campground and lodge. During the last years of his life Willie struggled to keep his property. Though real estate developers eagerly offered him millions of dollars for his property, Willie refused to sell. “Money cannot buy happiness and this place makes me happy,” Willie once said. Willie worried that there would come a time when Jacksonville would be so densely populated and developed that no wild areas would remain where people could enjoy the natural beauty of “Old Florida.”
In 1969 Willie Browne donated all his land to The Nature Conservancy with the stipulation that it or any future owner would keep the land in its natural state. Willie requested that the property be named for his hero, former president Theodore Roosevelt. In December 1970, Willie Browne died alone in his cabin, content that he had done everything possible to nurture, conserve, and protect the gift of land bequeathed to him by his father. With his passing, Willie bequeathed his conservation values and his precious gift to all of us, for all time.
https://www.nps.gov/timu/historyculture/tra_willie_earlyyears.htm
Spanish Pond
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Five hundred Spanish soldiers marched four days through marsh, forest tangle, fierce winds, and heavy rainfall to an encampment near here. This is where Menendez and his men camped, exhausted and weary, the night before the attack and capture of Fort Caroline.https://www.nps.gov/timu/historyculture/foca_spanishpond.htm
Today, Spanish Pond's boardwalk and trail provide an opportunity for a quiet walk and connects you to more trails through pine flatwoods, oak hammock, tidal marsh in the neighboring Theodore Roosevelt Area.
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In 1884 John Nathan Spearing, a machinist and shipbuilder from Clinton, Maine, and owner of a shipyard in Spearing Street in Jacksonville, purchased a 500 acre tract encompassing what is now Theodore Roosevelt Preserve. Spearing, a Confederate soldier stationed at Fort Caroline, eventually built the Spearing “manor” which the Browne family lived in until it was destroyed by fire in 1914.https://spirit-dust.blogspot.com/2009/03/busy-day-of-exploring.html
John’s brother, Warren, had a small cabin near the Indian trail on the bluff overlooking Saint John’s Creek. A baby born to Warren was buried in an unmarked grave at this cabin site. The exact location was unknown. Warren later left on a cattle drive to Texas during the Spanish American War, never to return.
John Spearing died in 1879 leaving behind his pregnant widow, Margaret. Because the location was a day’s trip by wagon from Jacksonville, Margaret decided to move back into town leaving the property in the care of the neighbors, the Brownes.
Although John was in Jacksonville when he died he wanted to be buried on the St. John’s Bluff house site. His body was carried by the steam ship Volusia to the bluff at the Indian trail where his funeral was held.
The Fort Caroline National Memorial is located on Fort Caroline Road in Jacksonville and is open to the public daily.
Photo tour by Ennis Davis