Fort Caroline National Memorial on the St. John's River near Jacksonville, Florida. First European settlement on the North American mainland, 1564 AD. Pictures, links, and a few comments about this fascinating, almost forgotten pearl of history. So thorough was the Spanish conquest of the New World in the 1500's that challenges to their dominance are not common knowledge to this day. The Spanish Conquest of the Aztec and Incan civilizations and the subsequent erasure of their history and culture are well documented. Few know, however, that in the 1500's, the Spanish took time out of their busy schedule of plunder and enslavement to utterly crush a French attempt at establishing a beachhead on the southern Atlantic coast of North America. Fort Caroline National Memorial commemorates the establishment in 1564 of the French settlement of La Caroline, which was to be an experimental outpost where the Huguenots (French Protestants) would be granted religious tolerance. Two years earlier, French explorer Jean Ribault had placed a stone column on a bluff nearby bearing the official seals of Charles IX. Ribault claimed everything in sight for France. When Philip II of Spain learned that Ribault was reinforcing the colony with troops and much-needed provisions, he (King Philip) dispatched Admiral Pedro Menendez de Avilés to "remind" the French that Spain had laid claim to Florida, even though they really hadn't quite felt the urgency to occupy or settle it. Menendez set up shop in 1565 at Saint Augustine, 32 miles to the south. Ribault responded by gathering all his forces and sailing against Menendez. An unexpected hurricane (they were all unexpected in those days) scattered and wrecked the French ships all up and down the beaches of present-day Saint John's and Flagler Counties. Knowing that La Caroline was undefended, Menendez captured the village on September 20, 1565 and killed 140 defenders. 60 women and children were taken prisoner, 40 or 50 others escaped via ship to France. The Spanish troops then marched south down the beach and killed or captured the shipwrecked French. The survivors were rounded up and taken to the inlet of a river south of Saint Augustine, where the Spanish hacked 350 of them to death with swords. That river came to be known as Matanzas (slaughter). France avenged the killings in 1568 by slaughtering the Spanish troops garrisoned at La Caroline, which the Spanish had renamed San Mateo. But the die was cast, the French gave up their attempt to colonize the American southeast, and La Caroline was never reoccupied by anyone. Eventually the shifting sands and water of the Saint John's obscured the original site. Were it not for sixteenth-century Spanish attention to detail with regard to butchering the oppostion, Fort Caroline might be as well known to the average American as Jamestown, Plymouth, or Saint Augustine. Today Fort Caroline stands resolute in the face of her latest invader: suburbia. A bluff nearby tells the story. Completely bulldozed, stripped of century-old live oaks, it is a sad moonscape of vinyl and stucco. Compare and contrast it to the nearby Timucuan preserve, an ever changing symphony of tides and sawgrass, where osprey and egrets soar above porpoise that swim up to greet the fishermen that they compete with for tasty fish. All of this natural beauty is set against the backdrop of a pivotal place in American history. Please go see it. Links to other pages about Fort Caroline: The National Park Service's offical web page contains lots of useful info about the memorial and the Timucuan Preserve. If you haven't surfed the NPS website, you should. It is deep, fact-oriented and well organized, and hosts a forum for park visitors to share their experiences. This article written by Miami Herald travel editor Jay Clarke which ties together many of the places and facts of Jacksonville before anyone called it Jacksonville. Topics include the Timucua, French and Spanish escapades, and the haunting antebellum Kingsley Plantation. You will also find phone numbers, hours of operation and other information vital to visitors. This Painting of the Ribault column. Check out my other page about the Jacksonville area: Dames Point Bridge Click here to view my homepage © 1997 Mike Strong. This page was originally published on June 13, 1997. It was last updated October 7, 1997. Please feel free to link the site, I do ask that you send me the address of your page. Questions or comments welcome via e-mail.

Fort Caroline National Memorial

on the St. John's River near Jacksonville, Florida. First European settlement on the North American mainland, 1564 AD. Pictures, links, and a few comments about this fascinating, almost forgotten pearl of history.

So thorough was the Spanish conquest of the New World in the 1500's that challenges to their dominance are not common knowledge to this day. The Spanish Conquest of the Aztec and Incan civilizations and the subsequent erasure of their history and culture are well documented. Few know, however, that in the 1500's, the Spanish took time out of their busy schedule of plunder and enslavement to utterly crush a French attempt at establishing a beachhead on the southern Atlantic coast of North America.

Fort Caroline National Memorial commemorates the establishment in 1564 of the French settlement of La Caroline, which was to be an experimental outpost where the Huguenots (French Protestants) would be granted religious tolerance. Two years earlier, French explorer Jean Ribault had placed a stone column on a bluff nearby bearing the official seals of Charles IX. Ribault claimed everything in sight for France.

When Philip II of Spain learned that Ribault was reinforcing the colony with troops and much-needed provisions, he (King Philip) dispatched Admiral Pedro Menendez de Avilés to "remind" the French that Spain had laid claim to Florida, even though they really hadn't quite felt the urgency to occupy or settle it. Menendez set up shop in 1565 at Saint Augustine, 32 miles to the south. Ribault responded by gathering all his forces and sailing against Menendez. An unexpected hurricane (they were all unexpected in those days) scattered and wrecked the French ships all up and down the beaches of present-day Saint John's and Flagler Counties. Knowing that La Caroline was undefended, Menendez captured the village on September 20, 1565 and killed 140 defenders. 60 women and children were taken prisoner, 40 or 50 others escaped via ship to France. The Spanish troops then marched south down the beach and killed or captured the shipwrecked French. The survivors were rounded up and taken to the inlet of a river south of Saint Augustine, where the Spanish hacked 350 of them to death with swords.

That river came to be known as Matanzas (slaughter). France avenged the killings in 1568 by slaughtering the Spanish troops garrisoned at La Caroline, which the Spanish had renamed San Mateo. But the die was cast, the French gave up their attempt to colonize the American southeast, and La Caroline was never reoccupied by anyone. Eventually the shifting sands and water of the Saint John's obscured the original site.

Were it not for sixteenth-century Spanish attention to detail with regard to butchering the oppostion, Fort Caroline might be as well known to the average American as Jamestown, Plymouth, or Saint Augustine.

Today Fort Caroline stands resolute in the face of her latest invader: suburbia. A bluff nearby tells the story. Completely bulldozed, stripped of century-old live oaks, it is a sad moonscape of vinyl and stucco. Compare and contrast it to the nearby Timucuan preserve, an ever changing symphony of tides and sawgrass, where osprey and egrets soar above porpoise that swim up to greet the fishermen that they compete with for tasty fish. All of this natural beauty is set against the backdrop of a pivotal place in American history. Please go see it.

Links to other pages about Fort Caroline:

The National Park Service's offical web page contains lots of useful info about the memorial and the Timucuan Preserve. If you haven't surfed the NPS website, you should. It is deep, fact-oriented and well organized, and hosts a forum for park visitors to share their experiences.


This article written by Miami Herald travel editor Jay Clarke which ties together many of the places and facts of Jacksonville before anyone called it Jacksonville. Topics include the Timucua, French and Spanish escapades, and the haunting antebellum Kingsley Plantation. You will also find phone numbers, hours of operation and other information vital to visitors.

This Painting of the Ribault column.

Check out my other page about the Jacksonville area: Dames Point Bridge

Click here to view my homepage

© 1997 Mike Strong. This page was originally published on June 13, 1997. It was last updated October 7, 1997. Please feel free to link the site, I do ask that you send me the address of your page. Questions or comments welcome via e-mail.