BGuthrie Photos: FL -- Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve & Fort Caroline National Memorial

FL -- Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve & Fort Caroline National Memorial:

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[1] FTCAR_050309_004.JPG	[2] FTCAR_050309_010.JPG	[3] FTCAR_050309_021.JPG
[4] FTCAR_050309_030.JPG	[5] FTCAR_050309_041.JPG	[6] FTCAR_050309_051.JPG
[7] FTCAR_050309_053.JPG	[8] FTCAR_050309_058.JPG	[9] FTCAR_050309_067.JPG
[10] FTCAR_050309_074.JPG	[11] FTCAR_050309_097.JPG	[12] FTCAR_050309_101.JPG
[13] FTCAR_050309_118.JPG	[14] FTCAR_050309_119.JPG	[15] FTCAR_050309_122.JPG
[16] FTCAR_050309_138.JPG	[17] FTCAR_050309_151.JPG	[18] FTCAR_050309_155.JPG
[19] FTCAR_050309_177.JPG	[20] FTCAR_050309_182.JPG	[21] FTCAR_050309_203.JPG
[22] FTCAR_050309_208.JPG	[23] FTCAR_050309_238.JPG	[24] FTCAR_050309_241.JPG
[25] FTCAR_050309_245.JPG	[26] FTCAR_050309_249.JPG	[27] FTCAR_050309_266.JPG
[28] FTCAR_050309_271.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. FTCAR_050309_010.JPG: Timucuan Friends: Timucuan Chief Saturiba's men crafted a shelter, similar to the one seen here, so Saturiba could sit and watch the colonists build their settlement. When the French requested help, Saturiba sent eighty of his strongest men. The natives helped dig the fort's moat; they gathered palmetto leaves, weaving a thatch to cover the colonists' houses. The Timucuans gave of their bounty--gold and silver jewelry, pearls, animal hides, and medicinal plants. In return, Chief Saturiba sought a war alliance to help his people. When the alliance never materialized, Timucuan assistance dwindled.
2. FTCAR_050309_021.JPG: That's not a nuclear power plant in the distance but I don't remember what it is.
3. FTCAR_050309_030.JPG: The River of May: Captain Rene de Laudonniere, on June 22, 1564, arrived in New France with his three ships and some 200 French Protestant noblemen, soldiers, and artisans, landing along the River of May (St. John's River). The adventurous men and women brought their fears, hopes, and dreams. Would they survive in this strange land? Would they discover the riches these imagined? The colonists were hopeful. The French found a site for their settlement on June 30th. Protected by a bluff commanding a river view, the spot offered fertile land, potable water, woodland fruits and building materials, and an abundance of fish. The French soldiers thought the ground defensible and its closeness to the sea afforded access for ships. Above all, the Timucuan natives seemed friendly and willing to help them in their new world.
4. FTCAR_050309_041.JPG: The Building of la Caroline: Measuring a piece of ground in the shape of a triangle, the colonists laid out their fort and settlement. Using shovels, cutting hooks, and hatchets, they cleared the site of trees. The fort and storage barns were erected quickly, with other buildings soon to follow. The first guardhouse, built in the center of the fort, stood too high and was blown over by fierce winds. Baking ovens were placed outside the fort to keep fire away from the fort's powder magazine. Once the common buildings were completed, the colonists set to work building their homes. The original size and exact placement of the colony and fort are still a mystery to historians. In 1964, 400 years after the establishment of la Caroline, the fort you see before you was built by the National Park Service. It is not a reconstruction of the original; it is based on educated guesswork and serves only to bring the fort story alive. Fort de la Caroline: Jean Ribault arrived at la Caroline on August 28, 1565, with reinforcements for the failing colony. On Ribault's heels stood a Spanish flotilla bent on ejecting the French. Escaping near-capture, Ribault sailed south to destroy the Spanish. A violent storm wrecked his fleet. Assuming that la Caroline was now vulnerable, Spanish commander Pedro Menendez ordered an overland assault; a French traitor led 500 Spaniards through jungle and swamp to capture the poorly guarded French colony. The Spaniards killed 143 French colonists, but spared 70 women and children. Laudonniere, le Moyne, and 40-50 others escaped into the woods and eventually back to France. Only one Spaniard died. The Demise of La Caroline: The colony at La Caroline came to a bloody end when the Spaniards attacked the fort and massacred 142 settlers. Outraged, the French retaliated a few years later by joining with the Timucuans to wipe out the Spaniards occupying the area. The former colony was abandoned, but the Spanish colony of San Augustin has become the oldest continuously inhabited European settlements in what is now the United States. The Spaniards Take Over: The Spanish controlled Florida continuously for almost two centuries. They introduced citrus and cattle ranching to Florida landscape. Their legacy included a system of Catholic missions tended by Franciscan friars. Some Native Americans, including Timucuans, converted to the religion of the Spanish overlords. Others rebelled. The mission system was largely destroyed by a series of English raids lasting into the early 1700's. The Plantation Period: Widespread clearing of land for plantation agriculture began when the British acquired Florida from Spain in 1763. British rule lasted only twenty years but it had an immense impact of Florida's landscape and ecology. Many settlers came seeking their fortunes. Others sought a refuge from the American Revolutionary War. Still others were brought involuntarily as slaves to work on plantations. Florida returned to Spanish control in 1784 as part of the treaty ending the Revolution. From American Territory... Even before the United States acquired Florida from Spain, many of the Florida plantations were owned by Americans, who grew cotton, citrus and sugar cane. Rice cultivation and forest products were also important in an economy of antebellum East Florida. When Florida joined the Confederacy and the Civil War began, the St. John's River became a militarily important waterway, and a route to freedom for runaway slaves. .... To Urban Development: After the Civil War, the pace of change in Florida accelerated. Lumber and other forest products were exploited on an increasingly vast scale. The completion of railroad lines brought large numbers of a new kind of visitor -- the tourist. The St. John's River was dredged to accommodate larger ships, and Jacksonville, once a small town where cattle forded the river, became an expanding metropolis and major southern seaport.
5. FTCAR_050309_051.JPG: "A good distance from the Fort I built an oven to auoyde the danger against fire, because the houses are of palme leaves, which will soone be burnt after the fire catcheth holde of them, so that with much adoe a man shall have leasure to quench them." -- Laudonniere
6. FTCAR_050309_074.JPG: These supports helped to keep the walls up
7. FTCAR_050309_138.JPG: Two of northeast Florida's most recognizable plants are Spanish moss and Live oak trees. Spanish moss, the gray curly plant hanging from the trees, is not a moss and does not come from Spain. It is native air plant that lives by trapping rain and dust in its spongy leaves. Timucuans wove Spanish moss into garments for use in warm weather. The French discovered that the moss could be used as stuffing for mattresses. Live oaks, large trees with small dark green leaves, were used by the French for building ships. The naturally curved branches were perfect for making the ribs of a ship's hull. The tree trunks could be sawed into planking used in the ship's hull and deck.
8. FTCAR_050309_177.JPG: Shield. French - 1500's.
9. FTCAR_050309_182.JPG: Marion Helmet. French - 1500's.
10. FTCAR_050309_203.JPG: A Timucuan totem pole
11. FTCAR_050309_208.JPG: A Timucuan canoe
12. FTCAR_050309_271.JPG: New France: On the morning of May 1, 1562, French navigator Jean Ribault first viewed the river you see before you -- the St. Johns. He named it the River of May. A day later, staking France's claim to the New World, Ribault's men placed a stone marker -- similar to the monument here -- on a sandy knoll near the river's mouth. Thus began a race with Spain to colonize la Florida. The race ended in 1565 with France's defeat and Ribault's death at the Matanzas massacre, south of St. Augustine.
Wikipedia Description: Fort Caroline
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fort Caroline was the first French colony in the present-day United States. Established in present-day Jacksonville, Florida in 1564, it lasted only a year before being obliterated by the Spanish.

History{

A French expedition, organized by Protestant leader Admiral Gaspard de Coligny and led by the Norman navigator Jean Ribault had landed at the site on the River of May (now the St. Johns River) in February 1562, before moving north to Port Royal Sound. There, on present-day Parris Island, Ribault left twenty eight men to build a settlement known as Charlesfort. Ribault then returned to Europe to arrange supplies for the new colony, but was arrested in England due to complications arising from the French Wars of Religion, which prevented his return.

Without supplies or leadership, and beset by hostility from the native populations, all but one of the colonists sailed back to Europe after only a year. During their voyage in an open boat, they were reduced to cannibalism before the survivors were rescued in English waters. Meanwhile, Ren� Goulaine de Laudonni�re, 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 the reigning French king, Charles IX. 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.

In June of 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 Men�ndez de Avil�s, 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 Men�ndez's ships, the latter retreated 35 miles south, 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. In a bold stroke, Men�ndez marched his forces overland, launching a surprise dawn attack on the Fort Caroline garrison which then numbered about 200 to 250 people. The only survivors were about 50 women and children who were taken prisoner and a few defenders, including Laudonni�re, who managed to escape; the rest were executed.

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 Men�ndez and his troops and summoned to surrender. Apparently believing that his men would be well treated, Ribault capitulated. Men�ndez then executed Ribault and several hundred Frenchmen as Lutheran heretics at a place now known as Matanzas ("massacres") Inlet. This atrocity shocked Europeans even in that bloody era of religious strife. This place is known today by a fort built much later, Fort Matanzas. This massacre put an end to France's attempts at colonization of the southeast 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 all his Spanish prisoners in horrible 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.

Reconstruction:

Fort Caroline was authorized as a National Memorial on September 21, 1950, and established on January 16, 1953. The memorial features a scaled-down reconstruction of the fort, based on historic renderings, and a visitor center. The memorial is administered in conjunction with Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve. As with all historic areas administered by the National Park Service, the memorial was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966.
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