The SUNshine State left a lot to be desired this morning, as we
headed across the Napoleon Bonaparte Broward Bridge across St. John's Bay

 

 

We left Jacksonville Naval Air Station this morning in pouring rain. It was not the way we planned to complete our last day in the SUNshine State!! Jim deftly traversed the interstate highway to bring us to our only "tour" stop of the day, at the French Fort Caroline. Luckily the rain subsided long enough for us to explore Fort Caroline and the Timucuan Ecology & Historic Preserve.

Fort Caroline memorializes the short-lived French presence in sixteenth century Florida. Here we found stories of exploration, survival, religious disputes, territorial battles, and first contact between American Indians and Europeans.

French explorer Jean Ribault was impressed by the first native peoples he encountered in Florida. The Timucuans under Chief Saturiwa, who met the French at the mouth of the River of May in 1562, were one of a number of Timucua-speaking tribes who inhabited central and north Florida and southeastern Georgia. They were the final stage of a culture whose way of life had remained essentially unchanged for more than 1000 years.

In Florida, both Spain and France hoped to claim their piece of the "new world." By the time the French planted their settlement at La Caroline, Spain was entrenched in South and Central America and its sea routes through the Caribbean were well established. Spanish ships bearing gold and silver from the mines of Mexico and Peru stopped at Havana before sailing for Spain. They rode the Gulf Stream through what is now the Straits of Florida and up the southeastern coast of North America. The Spanish were uneasy about a French settlement because their treasure ships, while they followed the Florida coast, could be easy prey for suspected French raiders in their nearby haven at La Caroline.

Therefore: Phillip II of Spain sent Admiral Pedro Menendez to remove the French from Florida. Menendez established a base to the south at St. Augustine. Ribault sailed down the coast seeking to attack the Spanish, but his ships were scattered by a hurricane and beached far to the south.Seizing the opportunity, Menendez marched north with 500 soldiers to attack the weakly guarded colony. It is believed that the Spanish camped overnight nearby, and attacked early. Forty or fifty French people, including Laudonniere, escaped and sailed for France. Out of the remaining 200 people, only about 60 women and children were spared. Menendez and his soldiers marched the survivors, including France's Jean Ribault, to the area now called Matanzas. Here, on October 12, 1565 Ribault and nearly 300 other French were slaughtered. This ended France's challenge of Spain's colonization in North America.

Now, the Timucuan Ecology and Historic Preserve is a 46,000 acre protected wetland, one of the last unspoiled coastal areas on the Atlantic Coast. It also preserves historic and prehistoric sites within the area. There is archaeological evidence indicating 6,000 years of human habitation here.

France WAS here...for a brief and unsuccessful attempt to
colonize LaFlorida

Path leading to Fort Caroline

 

ATimucuan hut near Ft. Caroline

 

 

 

 

 

Entrance to the reproduction of Fort Caroline

Moat surrounding the exterior walls of Ft. Caroline

The exterior wall of the fort facing St. John Bay

 

 

Artifacts belonging to French Commander, Jean Ribault

 

Looking over the courtyard inside Fort Caroline

Shells left behind in large piles called "Shell Middens" are
the oldest cultural remains in the Timucuan Preserve.

An owl totem carved by the Timucuan

Some of the "natural" tools used by the Timucuan

A Timucuan dugout canoe