Fort Matanzas National Monument ⓘ

The Early People Archaeological research tells us that at least 12,000 years ago, long before Europeans came to Florida, wandering hunter-gatherer people arrived. They lived a simple life, folowing the great herds of mammoths and other megafauna and gathering the wild grains, nuts, and berries they found in their seasonal wanderings. No one knows what these people called themselves, but to archaeologists, they are known as Paleo-Indians , the earliest people. Read More . . .

The Massacre of the French In 1564 a group of French Protestants known as Huguenots settled in Spanish-claimed territory near present-day Jacksonville. When the king of Spain found out about them, he sent an army under Don Pedro Menéndez to get rid of the French and to establish a Spanish colony in La Florida. This was the beginning of St. Augustine. Read More . . .

The American Period (1821 to the Present) The American Period in Florida was a time of conflict-- the Seminole Wars, the Civil War, the Spanish American War. It is also a time of change as Henry Flagler's railroad and luxury hotels brought wealthy tourists to St. Augustine, people who began the preservation of the historic Spanish forts which led to their protection as national monuments. Read More . . .

Many know the story of why Fort Matanzas was constructed. What most don’t realize is the men at this outpost had much more going on. The records are limited, but documentation from the 2 nd Spanish period (1784-1821) list many accounts of Matanzas soldiers patrolling the beaches, assisting victims of various shipwrecks on the Florida coast and dealing with pirates and fugitives on the beaches as well. Listed here are brief summaries of some of these logs. Evidence in the Officer’s logs of Fort Matanzas also show that the fort did indeed fire more than one shot throughout its military service. The events listed here were taken from the Fort Matanzas Historic Structure Report and the Second Spanish Period Correspondence from the East Florida Papers. Information on the 1 st and 2 nd Spanish period and British years is incomplete. It is likely that more happened than what is listed here .

T he European history of Fort Matanzas National Monument begins with an incident almost 200 years before the construction of the fort at Matanzas - the Spanish massacre of French forces in 1565. It took place near or possibly within the area which now makes up the monument. The incident initiated Spanish control of Florida for 235 years and led to the naming of the Matanzas River.

When King Philip II of Spain learned that the Frenchman Rene de Laudonniére had established Fort Caroline in Florida ( 1 on map ), he was incensed -- the colony sat on land belonging to the Spanish crown. Spanish treasure fleets sailed along the Florida coast on their way to Spain and Fort Caroline provided a perfect base for French attacks. Worst of all to the devoutly Catholic Philip, the settlers were Huguenots (French Protestants). Despite Philip's protests, Jean Ribault sailed from France in May 1565 with more than 600 soldiers and settlers to resupply Fort Caroline. General Pedro Menéndez de Aviles, charged with removing the French, also sailed in May, arriving at the Saint Johns River in August with some 800 people, shortly after Ribault ( 2 on map ). After a brief sea chase, the Spanish retired south to a site they had earlier reconnoitered, a Timucuan village called Seloy. The Spanish came ashore on September 8 and established and named their new village "St. Augustine" ( 3 on map ) because land had first been sighted on the Feast Day of St. Augustine, August 28.

He then learned from Timucuan Indians that a group of white men were on the beach a few miles south of St. Augustine. He marched with 70 soldiers to where an inlet had blocked 127 of the shipwrecked Frenchmen trying to get back to Fort Caroline (5 on map).

With a captured Frenchman as translator, Menéndez described how Fort Caroline had been captured and urged the French to surrender. Rumors to the contrary, he made no promises as to sparing them. Having lost most of their food and weapons in the shipwreck, the French did surrender. Francisco Mendoza, the Chaplain accompaning Menéndez, requested the chance to offer survival for those found to be Catholics, most refused. 111 Frenchmen were killed. Only sixteen were spared - a few who professed being Catholic, some impressed Breton sailors, and four artisans needed at St. Augustine.

Two weeks later the sequence of events was repeated. More French survivors appeared at the inlet, including Jean Ribault. On October 12 Ribault and his men surrendered and met their fate. This time 134 were killed. From that time, the inlet was called Matanzas -- meaning "slaughters" in Spanish.

Was this a cruel, cold-hearted act by the Spanish? Was Pedro Menéndez blindly following orders to rid Florida of the interlopers? Was it a religious conflict? What would the French have done to the Spanish if the hurricane had not wrecked their ships? Maybe there is even more involved. With food already low and no chance for resupply until spring, would there have been food and shelter for all if the French had been brought back to the new village of St. Augustine? Perhaps, as leader of his people, Menéndez knew that survival of the French in October might have meant the starvation of everyone by May.

Work started on the tower in the fall of 1740. Coquina stone was quarried near El Piñon, a small inlet once south of Matanzas. Construction was difficult, for long wood piles had to be driven into the marsh to support rising stonework.

Repeatedly, the British and their Native allies tried to stop construction. On July 21, 1741, the British moved in to attack the Spanish. Two British ships, the sloop St. Philip and a schooner (a sailing vessel with two or more masts) sighted a Spanish sloop anchored inside the inlet of Matanzas. A Spanish galliot (a shallow-draft vessel propelled mainly by oars), which had gone unnoticed by the British, opened fire from long range but scored no hits. Darkness and fog soon halted the British attack.

The next day the British again attacked. At 10 o'clock in the morning the St. Philip, now clear of the fog, moved in on the Spanish sloop. The sloop attempted to move away but ran aground on one of the many sandbars in the area. The British seized the opportunity and opened fire on the stranded ship. Several shots found their mark - two Spanish crewmen were killed and two were wounded. The Spanish galliot again saved the day by opening fire on the British ships, preventing them from taking further action. The St. Philip and her accompanying sloop were forced to retreat back to the open sea. If the British had been able to defeat the galliot, they would have destroyed the Fort Matanzas construction.

In September 1742 Oglethorpe tried again. By this time Fort Matanzas was completed and fired its cannon. The British retreated without firing a shot. The next April Oglethorpe returned again. However, heavy surf kept him from approaching the inlet or landing men and arms on the beach. Neither side fired a shot.

The rest of the story-- The king must have forgiven Governor Manuel de Montiano for his failure to go through proper channels. In 1751 Montiano was awarded the governorship of Panama, a very wealthy colony compared to St. Augustine and Florida. He died there in 1758.

The flag which flies over Fort Matanzas and the Castillo de San Marcos is described in heraldry as a red saltire raguly on a white field. A saltire is an X figure; raguly refers to the jagged edges of the cross. The X-shaped cross is commonly called "St. Andrew's cross" because tradition says that Andrew the Disciple was crucified on a cross shaped like an X.

The Spanish Soldier When we look at the soldiers of Spanish St. Augustine, we see a group of extraordinary men who were diverse members of a compact society. They were locally born, and Europeans who served in many different capacities and were highly skilled and trained troops of the New World who ultimately protected St. Augustine from foreign encroachment through the course of two major sieges and many other conflicts. What would life be like in Spanish St. Augustine, a fairly bustling town of approximately 1700 during mid eighteenth century? What would be the experience of its residents? Read More...

As early as 1569 the Spanish recognized the vulnerability of the Matanzas Inlet and built a wooden watchtower and a thatched hut to house six soldiers who took turns scanning the horizon. If a ship was sighted, a runner or small boat set out to warn St. Augustine. Watching and warning were the tower's tasks for it lacked any armament.

At least twice the watchtower kept pirates from coming in this "backdoor". In 1683 English outlaws captured the watchtower, but word made it to St. Augustine, and ships and soldiers came and drove them off. In 1686 French pirates attempted to come into the inlet, but again word was sent to St. Augustine, and these pirates, too, were repulsed.

In Florida's warm, wet climate, these wooden watchtowers often had to be rebuilt or replaced. No sign of any of the towers remain, but archaeological evidence suggests that they may have been on Anastasia Island in the vicinity of the park's visitor center.

After the French, the British became the main threat. Beginning with Sir Francis Drake's raid on St. Augustine in 1586, during which he burned the town, England repeatedly harassed the Spanish colony. Charles Towne (Charleston) in the Carolina Colony was established by the English in 1670. The English colony of Georgia was founded in 1733 by General James Oglethorpe. Both of these colonies were on land claimed by Spain. Hostilities were inevitable, and the British leaders were looking for an excuse for attacking St. Augustine. Wars in Europe gave them the excuse to carry the hostilities to the new world.

"Today, Sunday, about four in the afternoon, the second of October 1672 . . Manuel de Cendoya, Governor and Captain General of these provinces for Her Majesty. . . with spade in hand. . . began the foundation trenches for the construction of the Castillo." Thus did the government notary attest the official ground breaking for the Castillo de San Marcos, St. Augustine's most enduring legacy of the First Spanish Period and a tribute to the craftsmanship and skill of the engineers, artisans and labourers who built it.

Ironically, after all the fighting in Georgia and Florida, all it took was a signature on a piece of paper in Europe to take Florida away from Spain. During the Seven Years War (French and Indian War), the British had captured Spanish Cuba and the Philippines. In order to get these valuable colonies back, Spain was forced to give up Florida. Signed on February 10, 1763, the First Treaty of Paris, gave all of Florida to the British.

The Spanish of St. Augustine packed up all their possessions, including the forts' cannons, and moved to Cuba. The British supply ship, Industry , on its first run to St. Augustine bearing cannon destined for Fort Matanzas, sank near the St. Augustine Inlet, and all supplies were lost. Archeologists, working from the St. Augustine Lighthouse, have discovered this wreck and have recovered some of the cannon and other artifacts.

The Menorcans It is intriguing to think that the Spanish Mediterranean culture still evident in St. Augustine today came not so much from the two Spanish periods, but rather from the British Period when a group of Mediterranean peoples, collectively known as Menorcans, were brought to Florida as indentured plantation workers.

The English staffed Fort Matanzas with one sergeant, six or eight privates of infantry and one private from the Royal Artillery. As the political climate changed as the American colonies moved towards revolution, more cannon were added with two 18-pounders placed at the fort in 1763.

Life for the English soldiers at Fort Matanzas probably differed little from their Spanish counterparts. Days were spent in drill, repair to the fort and equipment, and foraging for food as the officer attempted to keep his men occupied with useful tasks.

The British had divided Florida into East and West Florida, so along with Nova Scotia, Great Britain had sixteen American colonies. While the War for American Independence was raging to the north, the Spanish, under General Bernardo de Gálvez , the governor of Louisiana, were attempting to harass the British on their western frontier.

Gálvez captured Baton Rouge, Natchez, and Mobile, all in British West Florida. After losing Pensacola to the Spanish, the British were afraid that the Spanish might make plans to capture St. Augustine by trying the same plan the British had tried-- coming up the Matanzas River and attacking from the rear. However, such plans were never executed.

The 1783 Peace of Paris ended the American Revolution and returned Florida to the Spanish. This time, however, most of the population, who owned businesses and plantations, did not leave. With so many British remaining in Florida, and very few Spanish returning, the character of this Spanish colony changed, leading to the eventual takeover by the United States.

In return for Spain ’s help during the American Revolution, Florida was transferred back to Spain by the Treaties of Versailles, part of the Peace of Paris, in 1783. Just like when the whole Spanish population moved to Cuba when the British took control, this time most of the British departed for British colonies in the Caribbean in spite of Governor Zespedes’ promise of equal treatment. The Menorcans, however, were very glad to have a Spanish, Catholic government return to power.

Governor Zespedes knew Florida needed more people, regardless of nationality, in order to survive. He offered large land grants, a ten year tax free occupancy, and a cash bonus to any family who would come to start a farm. He even offered to pay each pioneer 1.5 cents a day for feed supplies. Despite these generous offers, it was necessary by 1786 to drop the restrictions on non-Catholic settlers. Equally significant, the Spanish Government agreed to allow the migration of slave holders into Florida for the first time.

One of the slave holders who took advantage of the land grant offer was Zephaniah Kingsley, who along with his wife Anna Madgigine Jai, herself an ex-slave from Africa , owned and managed Kingsley Plantation on Fort George Island .

This influx of different people, including Americans, made the Second Spanish period much more cosmopolitan than the First Spanish Period had been. It also brought about the Patriot’s Rebellion (1811-1812) in which American “patriots” living in Spanish Florida, clandestinely supported by Georgians and unofficially recognized by the US government, attempted to rise up and seize Florida for the United States . With the promise of 200 acres of Florida land as an incentive, dozens of Georgia farmers marched to attack St. Augustine . They destroyed Spanish plantations and left only after a British fleet intervened. The US government immediately declared no knowledge of the plan.

Still, Spain ’s days in Florida were numbered. By 1800 Spain 's fortune and power were waning. Her once mighty empire was crumbling. There was little money to maintain the Castillo and even less for the outpost fort at Matanzas . Erosion and rainwater took their toll. Fort Matanzas was already in poor condition by 1821 when Florida was ceded to the United States through the Adams-Onís Treaty which turned Florida over to the U.S.

Only three Spanish soldiers were in residence at Fort Matanzas when the United States took possession in 1821. The interior was in ruins, and the gun platform's east wall and its foundation had cracked. The U.S. Army sent an inspector who reported that the tower was obsolete and had only historical value. Although owned by the War Department, Fort Matanzas was never occupied by the United States army. These early years as part of the United States were years of conflict for Florida. For years Indian groups who had been pushed off their land in Georgia and Alabama by white settlers had found refuge in Spanish Florida. These Indians, primarily Creeks, along with escaped African slaves, became known as Cimmarones or wild ones, the probable origin of the word Seminole. However, once Florida became a territory of the United States, these Indians were no longer safe. The US Army raided their settlements, and the Seminoles and whites engaged in a series of long, expensive wars ending with 4000 -5000 Seminoles being shipped to reservations in Oklahoma, and the tattered remnants of a proud people finally finding some refuge in the wilds of the Everglades. Read More . . .

Florida was granted statehood in 1845 as the 27th state. At the beginning of the Civil War, Florida was the third state to vote for Secession, which she did on January 10, 1861. Confederate troops immediately took Fort Marion (Castillo de San Marcos) from the lone Union sergeant caretaker who asked for a receipt and travel money to get home. Believing the war would soon be over and would never come this far south, the Confederates removed most of the cannon from Fort Marion and sent them to more strategic forts. In March 1862, the Union Navy arrived off the coast of St. Augustine. With no guns for defense, Fort Marion was abandoned, and the Union forces took over. The St. Augustine area remained in Federal hands for the remainder of the war. With the St. Johns River heavily patrolled, Confederate blockade runners attempted to use the Matanzas Inlet during the War, but the Union army stationed a barge in the river near the fort ruins, and attempts to pass were unsuccessful. Read more about the blockade runners here.

This activity had little effect on the old tower, however, and soon the area was abandoned once more. With the passage of time, the tower began to deteriorate even further. It was a quaint ruin overgrown with vegetation in 1872 when artist Harry Fenn sketched the fort for the book Picturesque America.

During the late 19th century, St. Augustine became the destination of America's rich and famous. In 1885, railroad tycoon and former Standard Oil partner Henry Morrison Flagler raised Florida's resorts to a new level with his 540-room Ponce de León Hotel in St. Augustine. The first of three Flagler hotels in the city, the Ponce de León (now the main building of Flagler College) combined exotic Spanish Renaissance and Moorish architectural features with innovative poured concrete construction. Whisked south in their private cars on Flagler's Florida East Coast Railroad, notables such as the Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, and Morgans made St. Augustine their winter home, expanding the old colonial city westward on King Street and north on San Marco. Many of the buildings downtown reflect this golden era. The Villa Zorayda, an exotic Moorish Revival style residence with courtyards and towers built in 1883 on King Street, is from this glittering time-period as is the Flagler Memorial Presbyterian Church (1880), and Castle Warden (1879), now Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum.

These wealthy visitors came down the river on excursions to the Matanzas ruins, and they also visited Fort Marion in town, which, although still an active military fort until 1900, was also falling into disrepair. They believed these historic structures must be saved, and they spoke with their friends and congressmen. In 1916, Congress granted $1025 for the repair of these structures, the first time that the federal government had granted money for historical preservation. Read More . . .

Many women, whose names are lost to history, are responsible for the survival and success of St. Augustine. They served their families, cooked, cleaned, raised children, nursed the sick, grew crops, mended and washed clothes, took care of entire households, served their community, and kept taking on responsibilities. They became business women, leaders, voters, artists, activists, and more. If noted in early history books, they were often recorded in the important roles as someone's wife, mother, daughter, or sister, but rarely did their names and contributions shine as they should, for they helped St. Augustine survive and grow into what it has become today. This page is dedicated to a few stories that were recorded in hopes that we continue to explore more untold stories in Women's History.

The Timucua raised crops like corn, squash, beans, pumpkins and melons. The women cooked the meals, cleaned, and prepared the animal hides for clothing. The women also made pottery for use in cooking. In 1539, Hernando de Soto led an army of more than 500 men in a devastating expedition through central and north Florida. His army seized food, took women for consorts, and forced men to serve as guides and bearers. After the arrival of the French and Spanish, the number of Timucua became smaller with each passing year. The Europeans brought diseases with them that the Timucua easily caught and died from. At the acquisition of Florida by Britain in 1763 there were perhaps 125 remaining. This last remnant either migrated with the Spanish colonists to Cuba or were absorbed into the Seminole population. They are now considered an extinct tribe.

When Pedro Menéndez de Avilés founded the city of St. Augustine , the Calusa tribe on the southwest coast of Florida was governed by a chief, who became known as King Carlos. Menendez was introduced to King Carlos and his sister. Her Indian name is not known, but when she was presented to Menéndez as a wife, she was baptized Antonia. Initially, Menéndez protested, since he already had a wife in Spain, but in the interest of diplomacy, Menéndez had no choice but to accept her as his “wife.” Antonia was sent to Havana , Cuba , to be instructed in the Catholic religion. Antonia was upset that Menéndez would not truly treat her as his wife and evenually Menéndez returned her to her brother in Florida. King Carlos planned to re-marry Antonia to a Christianized Indian named Don Pedro, who had been named heir to Carlos’s throne. Menéndez sent Antonia back to Havana, but Carlos threatened to kill many Spaniards unless his sister was returned. Antonia had clearly become a pawn in the dealings of Carlos and the Spanish governor, but she was not a silent pawn. When Menéndez orchestrated an unfavorable peace treaty between the Tocobaga and the Calusa, Antonia let her outrage be known. Menéndez returned to St. Augustine and probably never saw her again. In 1568, the tensions between the Calusa and the Spanish reached a high point , and King Carlos was killed by Spanish soldiers. Menéndez died in Spain in 1574. Antonia remained with her people for a time, teaching them the Catholic religion, but she eventually returned to Havana , Cuba , where she died.

Francisco Camacho came to Florida in the 1560’s from San Lucar de Barrameda, near Cadiz. He was a soldier in the regiment, and also a fisherman. He married an native woman named Teresa, and in 1580 the couple’s household in St. Augustine included Francisco, Teresa, Teresa‘s sister Catalina, and Catalina’s son, Juan. Fewer than half of the Spanish men in St. Augustine were married, and fewer than half of those had a Spanish wife.

Señora de Vera’s soldier husband died in St. Augustine sometime before 1580. She supported herself by opening her home as a boardinghouse, renting space to five soldiers. Three of the soldiers also worked on the side as carpenters, and one worked as a barber. Men vastly out-numbered women and they generally continued to live in the comrade groups mandated by Pedro Menéndez at the first settlement, in order to pool rations and share household needs. Most soldiers also practiced trades or crafts on the side to supplement their meager salaries, usually through barter.

The generation of Timucuans born during the 1560’s reached adulthood in the 1580’s, which was when missionary efforts in St. Augustine realized their first successes. Success was aided by the cooperation of the Timucuan caciques (chiefs), who appear to have quickly recognized the advantages of Spanish alliance. Doña Maria Melendez, a member of the Timucuan noble class, is an example. She was the Chieftainess (cacica) of the Timucuan town of Nombre de Dios during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Doña Maria was a Christian, and her mother (who had been the ruling Chief of Nombre de Dios before her) was one of the very early Timucua converts to Christianity. Doña Maria married a Spanish soldier named Clemente de Vernal, and he lived with her and their children at Nombre de Dios. By 1606 she had become the ruler of the Timucuan tribes extending along the coast between St. Augustine and approximately Cumberland Island, Georgia, possibly through Spanish intervention.

Isavel was a free citizen of mixed white and black ancestry who baked rosquetes, spiral-shaped cakes. She sold these cakes, as well as honey, door to door throughout the town, and from her home. She was an independent entrepreneur in an age when such a status was difficult for women.

Estefanía was the daughter of regimental Major Salvador de Cigarroa. She was in St. Augustine the night of the 1668 Searles raid, and ran into the street carrying her younger sister. One of the pirates shot at them, killing the smaller child and wounding Estefanía in the breast. It is not known if Estefanía was one of the well-to-do young ladies taken for ransom, but as an officer’s daughter she would have been both an eligible ransom candidate and an eligible bride in St. Augustine.

Juana was a native woman married to a Spanish soldier named Toma Hernando, and they had a house in St. Augustine. Juana died in 1689, and her death sparked a controversy between St. Augustine’s Franciscan (regular) clergy and their rivals, the secular clergy. The Franciscans claimed that they should see to her burial because she was a native, while the Parish priest asserted jurisdiction because she was a resident of the town and his parish, and lived like the Spanish. The case was appealed to the Bishop of Cuba, Diego de Compostela, who decreed in favor of the Parish priests, but not before the Franciscans secretly removed Juana’s body to the Convento de San Francisco for burial.

Sergeant Major Manuel de Cendoya was appointed Governor of La Florida with responsibility of overseeing the building of Castillo de San Marcos, the stone masonry fort. He was not paid for his service. When Cendoya passed in 1673, Doña Sebastiana, his widow, was left with the Crown claiming her deceased husband owed them money and taking inventory of her property. For about ten years, she wrote and petitioned the Crown for funds to assist her in raising her three children. Eventually, Governor Juan Marquez assisted her in settling her debts and collecting what she was owed. She returned to Spain. Her hardships eventually contributed to the welfare of all women. In 1685, Spain decreed that wives of deceased governors could return to Spain despite unsettled estates, ensuring that women, like Doña Sebastiana, would not be placed in such destitute situations.

María Magdalena’s mother, María Luisa Balthazar, was a Mocama Timucua native from the village of Palica, and her father, Juan Chrisístomo, was an enslaved Caribali African living in St. Augustine. María Magdalena and her sister Josepha Candelaria were born in their mother’s village, and were free. María Magdalena was married three times, first to Juan Margarita, who was thought to have been a native. In 1743 she married Pablo Prezilla, a free person of mixed white and black ancestry from Venezuela, and in 1745 she wed her third husband, Phelipe Gutiéres, a Spaniard. Her heritage and marriages illustrate the multiracial families that were common in St. Augustine.

Antonia Avero was a wife and mother, but what distinguishes her from many other women of the 1700s is that she was able to inherit and own property. She was the great-grand-daughter to Francesca Maria Garcia de Acevedo Penaloza, whose home was burned by the English during the Siege of 1702. The Avero Family lived near the fort, on today's St. George Street, not too far from the City Gate. Antonia married Captain Don Joseph Guillen and mothered five children. When her husband died in 1743, she inherited several houses, enslaved men, and one sloop. She remarried Joaquin Blanco, an administrative elite of St. Augustine. During the 1763 evacuation of the town, when Florida was traded from the Spanish to the British, she was forced to sell her property when she fled to Cuba. Much of what is known about her is because she filed a legal suit in 1791 for the return of her ancestral lands after the Spanish regained Florida. One of the Avero homes can be visited today, as it became St. Photios Greek Orthodox National Shrine, dedicated to America’s first Greek immigrants that landed on our shores in 1768.

Fort Mose was the first free African settlement legally sanctioned in what would become the United States. It became a haven for enslaved refugees from the British Colonies to the north, who would run away and escape to Spanish St. Augustine. The women and men of Mose won their liberty through great daring and effort and made important contributions to Florida’s multi-ethnic heritage. The village had a wall around it, with dwellings inside, as well as a church and an earthen fort. Fort Mose is on the Florida Black Heritage Trail and the NPS highlights it as a precursor site of the Underground Railroad.

In 1715, Ana Maria, an enslaved Mandinga African, fled Carolina with her husband in hopes of freedom only to be taken by Perro Bravo, a Yamasee cacique (native chief). Perro Bravo was angry because he never received payment for the enslaved people he had brought into Florida years earlier, and threatened to kill Ana Maria, along with the others in the group. In 1718, acting St. Augustine Governor Juan de Ayala y Escovar paid Perro 600 pesos worth of corn and liquor for the enslaved people. It is thought that Ana Maria and her husband, Francisco Menéndez, lived with the acting governor for some time, because that is when she took the name Ana Maria de Escovar. By 1720, Ana Maria’s husband had been appointed to command a slave militia. After successfully defending St. Augustine, Francisco and Ana Maria petitioned for freedom, as King Charles II had declared Florida an official slave sanctuary, but they were denied. Manuel de Montiano was appointed the new governor in 1737, and they petitioned once again. On March 15th, 1738, all petitioners were granted freedom, and Fort Mose was established. A 1759 census showed there to be 23 females living at Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose (Fort Mose), the first free African settlement in North America. Ana Maria de Escovar was one of these 23. Ana Maria and Francisco had four children, and continued to live at Fort Mose for some time, all the while making great contributions to St. Augustine.

The " Oldest House ," known today as the Gonzalez-Alvarez House, is the oldest surviving Spanish colonial dwelling in St. Augustine built in 1723. It's most famous resident was Mary Evans Fenwick. When the British took control of St. Augustine, Major Joseph Peavett, paymaster for the English military, purchased this house. He married Mary Evans Fenwick (1730-1792), a widow and midwife. Upon his death, she remarried twice and became Mary Evans Fenwick Peavett Hudson. In addition to her business as a midwife, she operated an inn and tavern in what is today thought to be the oldest house in Florida. Two hundred years later, a fictional account of her life and times was recorded in Eugenie Price's book, Maria .

Benedita was born in 1772 in the New Smyrna colony. Her parents, Bartolomé and María Usina, were original members of Turnbull’s expedition, and joined the Menorcan refugee group that fled to St. Augustine in 1777, when Benedita was just five. Her younger sister was born seven years later in 1784. The family occupied (as squatters) a Crown-owned lot on today’s Spanish Street and built a wood and thatch house there. Bartolomé farmed land to the north of St. Augustine, and by 1803 was able to buy the property legally. When Benedita was fourteen, although unmarried, she was listed as living with a neighboring family perhaps to help out in the house, or perhaps because of other family problems. She married Antonio Pons when she was fifteen, which was about a year older than the average age of marriage for Menorcan girls at that time. Pons had a farm in New Smyrna, and he took Benedita back to live with him there.

The story of Nansi Wiggins and her family spans the British, Second Spanish, and American periods of Florida, and illustrates diversity, fluidity and unpredictability of life during those times. Nansi, also known as Ana Gallum, came to America from Senegal as an enslaved person. She was purchased by an English planter, Job Wiggins, who had a plantation near Rollestown, Florida. Sometime around 1778, Job freed Nansi and married her in a Protestant ceremony. They had six children before Job died in 1797, and he left the plantation and the charge of the children to Nansi. She managed 1,400 acres of land, a hundred head of cattle and fourteen enslaved people, and was frequently in St. Augustine selling horses and enslaved people. Nansi and Job’s children married into diverse families. Ten years later, Florida became a territory of the United States. Although many black and mixed race families left Florida for Cuba, others, including some of Nansi’s descendants, remained to experience the institutionalization of the two-caste racial system that was ushered in.

Gerónimo Alvarez came to St. Augustine from Havana in 1784 and married a local Menorcan, Antonia Venz. In 1790, the family purchased the “Oldest House,” known today as the Gonzalez-Alvarez House . In 1791, they acquired another property, the Tovar house. Menorcans maintained a close-knit community and favors between community members allowed for mutual prosperity and social advancement. It seems that through Antonia, his Menorcan wife, Alvarez reaped the benefits of entering a large kinship network, which permitted him to prosper beyond his means as a baker and storekeeper. By marrying into the Menorcan segment of the population, Alvarez adapted to the frontier conditions of St. Augustine to his advantage.

The Ximenez-Fatio House was a fashionable rooming house for most of the 1800s operated by a succession of women owners. It was built between 1783-1820 by Andres Ximenez out of coquina. Ximenez married Juana Pellicer, daughter to the Minorcan community leader, Francisco Pellicer, and she ran the household. In 1821, when Florida became a U.S. territory, Margaret Cook began to buy property in St. Augustine. By 1830, she owned the building and decided to use it as a boarding house. Eliza Whitehurst managed it from 1830-1838. In 1838, Sarah Anderson purchased the house and property. In 1855, Louisa Fatio bought the house. After her death in 1875, the house became a gift shop and club. In 1939, the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Florida purchased the property. Today, visitors can tour the "boarding house" restored as it might have been when Eliza Whitehurst managed it.

In 1859, upon the death of her husband, Maria Mestre de los Dolores Andreu became one of the nation's first female lighthouse keepers, the first female Hispanic-American lighthouse keeper, and the first to command a federal shore installation. Maria was born to parents, Bartholomew Mestre and Marianna Lorenzo Mestre. She married Joseph Juan Andreu and had eight children. Joseph fell to his death when scaffolding collapsed. Maria took over as lighthouse keeper in St. Augustine in 1859 until the then Confederate States Navy darkened the tower during the Civil War in 1861 in an effort to hinder the Union Navy off Florida's coast. The Mestres and the Andreus, both Menorcan families, still have descendants living in St. Augustine today. The St. Augustine Lighthouse is one of Florida's first official lighthouses authorized by Congress. The present 165- foot tower dates from 1874 and is the state's only spiral-banded lighthouse. It also contains its original first-order Fresnel lens.

Caspar Garcia built the St. Francis Inn in 1791. Anna and Sarah Dummett operated it as a boarding house beginning in 1845. During the Civil War, sentiments in St. Augustine were intense. When Union forces took over St. Augustine, Anna heard that the Union flag had been raised at the St. Francis Barracks. Upset that St. Augustine had surrendered to the Union, she led a group of women who chopped down the wooden flagpole, thus preventing the Stars and Stripes from flying in place of the Stars and Bars.

Bernardo Segui, a prominent Menorcan businessman, constructed an imposing house about 1800, during the Second Spanish Period. Edmund Kirby Smith, the highest ranking Confederate officer from Florida and the last Confederate general to surrender in the Civil War, was born there in 1824. His mother, Frances Kirby Smith, was rumored to be a Confederate spy and was banished from St. Augustine during the Union occupation. Today, the building serves as the research library of the St. Augustine Historical Society .

This historic home was built in 1750 for Royal Spanish Treasurer Juan Estevan de Peña. The house would change hands many times and end up being run by The Woman’s Exchange of St. Augustine , founded in 1892. It is a non-profit organization and part of the Federation of Woman’s Exchanges. Members follow in the footsteps of women in the 19th century who began Woman’s Exchanges to help other women who had fallen on hard times. During the Civil War, while husbands and sons were off fighting for the Confederacy, their wives and daughters were left at home with little to no income. They could make hand crafted items and anonymously sell them through the woman’s exchange for a profit. Peck’s granddaughter, Anna Gardner Burt, the last owner, died in 1931 and left her house, furnishings, priceless antiques, and artwork in a trust to the city. She was explicit in her will that it be “maintained as an example of the old antebellum homes of the South.” The city almost declined her gift because of the loss of future property taxes. The Woman’s Exchange stepped in, paid annual rent, and agreed to show the home. It opened the house for tours May 1, 1932, that same day, the Woman’s Exchange gift shop also began operating in its new home.

From 1875-1878, Plains Indians were incarcerated in Castillo de San Marcos, known then as Fort Marion. The group consisted of 74 Cheyenne, Arapaho, Kiowa, Comanche, and Caddo prisoners who were brought to St. Augustine from Fort Sill. All were male, except three. Two of them were not technically prisoners but had refused to leave Black Horse; Peonte, also known as Mother, was wife to Black Horse, and Ah-kes, her daughter, was nine years old. Initially, conditions were bleak at the fort. When Lieutenant Pratt took over, he would remove their shackles and bring in teachers to provide a western education. While incarcerated at the Fort, Ah-kes was taught English and wrote a letter to the President asking for the freedom of her people. After three years they were released to the care of the Indian Bureau. The pressure to give up their cultural identity for a new way of life had significant impact for generations to come.

Mochi (Buffalo Calf Woman) was born in 1841, a Southern Cheyenne woman of the Tse Tse Stus band. At 24, she was a member of the Black Kettle’s camp and witnessed the Sand Creek Massacre . This event lead her to become a warrior, and she fought with her husband in battles and raids for the next 11 years. For her actions, she was incarcerated and sent to Fort Marion. She was the only woman to be held as an official prisoner at the Fort during the Plains Indians incarceration (1875-1878). During her time at Fort Marion, she refused to learn western culture and mourned the loss of her family and former way of life. Upon her release, she returned to Oklahoma, where she stayed until her passing in 1881.

Sarah Ann Mather and Rebecca Lathrop Perit started a school for the children of formerly enslaved people in St. Augustine. They later became teachers for the Plains Indians who were incarcerated at the fort from 1875-1878. Mather and Perit, along with Anna Pratt, Nannie Burt, Julia and Laura Gibbs, Amy Carruthers, and Harriet Beecher Stowe assisted Lieutenant Pratt in his efforts to educate the prisoners. For the prisoners who were released and wanted to continue their education, Mather worked to secure opportunities. In addition to learning how to read and write English, the prisoners also created Ledger Art, narrative drawings and paintings on old accounting books that depicted their experiences. During her time, Mather was considered a champion for education. However, past efforts to remove American Indians from their culture and "westernize" them are widely criticized today.

Harriet Beecher Stowe was an American abolitionist, author, and educator. She is most remembered for authoring Uncle Tom's Cabin, a novel advocating for the end of slavery. In the late 1800s, Mrs. Stowe and her friend Miss Mather are depicted in some of the art created by the incarcerated Plains Indians who were their pupils at Fort Marion. She wrote extensively about the Plains Indian incarceration period, 1875-1878. In a memoir titled The Plains Indians at St. Augustine , she detailed her impression of the prisoners as eager students. Much of her writing reflects her cultural lens, viewing the white American way of life as preferred and superior over the American Indian way of life.

The 1890 Memorial Presbyterian Church is a spectacular example of the Venetian Renaissance Revival style. It was built by hotel magnate Henry Flagler in memory of his daughter, Jennie Louise Flagler Benedict. She died of complications from childbirth, on her way to visit her father. The church was designed by internationally renowned architects John M. Carrere and Thomas Hastings, who had also designed Flagler's Ponce de Leon Hotel (now Flagler College). The remains of Henry Flagler, Mary Harkness Flagler (his first wife), Jennie Louise, and Margery (his infant grandaughter) are in a mausoleum within the church. The building's copper dome is modeled after the Basilica de San Marco in Venice. The women in Flagler's life had great influence on him. The guilt he felt over Jennie's death led him to change his work habits and lifestyle. In 1959, Jean Flagler Matthews, Henry Flagler's granddaughter, established the Henry Morrison Flagler Museum as a nonprofit corporation that houses an extenstive collection from America's Gilded Age.

Luella Day was a practicing physician who struck out in search of gold in the Klondike in 1897. In 1900, Luella and her husband, Edward McConnell, arrived in St. Augustine . She made quite an impression on high society with her ermine coats, bejeweled rings, and diamond-studded front tooth, which earned her the nickname Diamond Lil. The McConnells bought a large tract of land just north of town, on which stood a small, square coquina fountain. Luella began selling cups of “youth water” from her small fountain, turned her property into a park, and started charging charging admission. She claimed to “uncover” a stone cross in the ground that was 15 stones in length and 13 in width, supposedly signifying Ponce de Leon’s landing date, along with a metal casket that she claimed contained papers about the stone cross. Diamond Lil soon became very popular, but not everyone bought her “fountain of youth” story. Emily L. Watson, a contributor to the fledgling St. Augustine Historical Society, spent countless hours researching Luella’s claims, poring over Library of Congress documents, and looking for information disproving Diamond Lil. Wilson tried to dissuade Walter B. Fraser, a local businessman, from buying the property and continuing the myth, but she was unsuccessful; Fraser avidly developed the land. Today, the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park is one of St. Augustine ’s most popular tourist attractions. Despite the false fountain and wild claims, however, the site does have significant historical value. Archaeological excavations have revealed that the property once housed the village of Seloy , the Timucuan Indian settlement that Pedro Menéndez and his men encountered in 1565 when they first established the city of St. Augustine .

The 1887 Grace United Methodist Church is yet another Carrere & Hastings design, this one in the Spanish Renaissance Revival style. When Wilma E. Davis was baptized there in 1893, it marked the beginning of life lifelong association with the Methodist Church. At a time in which women ministers were rare, she was ordained a deacon in the Florida Conference of Methodism in 1924. Five years later she was ordained an elder, becoming the first woman to receive this certificate. As she traveled around the world, she maintained her association with Grace Church serving as a church pastor, working with youth and studying in Boston and the Middle East.

Inspired by her parents' determination to rise from former enslavement, she first attended Howard University and then earned a scholarship to attend Barnard College. Joining the cultural movement now known as the Harlem Renaissance, she traveled to the Caribbean and American South to study African culture. She lived in St. Augustine on several occasions throughout the 1920s, '30s, and '40s. She authored multiple essays, articles, and novels; the most popular being, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937). She is regarded as a world-renowned writer and anthropologist of African Folklore. Her works were not appreciated in her lifetime due to segregation and racism. A rediscovery of her works in the 1980s and '90s led to a new appreciation of her works, many which are now standard reading in the curriculum of high school and college literature classes. The St. Augustine City Commission chose Zora Neale Hurston to be memorialized with the naming of a local park, located at the corner of King Street and US-1.

The United States Coast Guard Women’s Reserve was chartered in November 1942 as a way for women to join the war effort during the Second World War. SPAR stands for Semper Paratus, Always Ready , the Coast Guard motto. Although the SPARs could not go to sea and had no authority over any male Coast Guardsman, they could serve as yeoman, clerks, parachute riggers, chaplains’ assistants, air control tower operators, boatswains’ mates, coxswains, radiomen, ship's cooks, vehicle drivers, and many more shore jobs, freeing the men to fight overseas. The SPARs were under direct military discipline, and they marched and drilled and drew the same pay as their male counterparts. The Coast Guard Women’s Reserve trained in many places throughout the country, including St. Augustine . Most of the SPARs were housed in the Ponce de Leon Hotel, whose contract with the military helped pull them out of the slump in tourism caused by the first years of the war. The female “Coasties” lived on one floor of the hotel while the men lived on the others. After the end of World War II, SPARs were gradually discharged up until June 30, 1946, Demobilization Day. About 10,000 women departed the Coast Guard Reserve with the same spirit of patriotism and dedication with which they had entered, confident that they had done their part to win the war.

Mrs. Katherine Twine, came to be known as the "Rosa Parks of St. Augustine" for her leadership in the civil rights movement. She demonstrated by marching and going to local segregated businesses in St Augustine. She was arrested so many times that she began to carry a large-brimmed hat which she called her "Freedom Hat" with her whenever she thought she would be arrested in order to have some shade from the sun in the outdoor stockade at the crowded jail. She also participated in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. She and her husband, who was the president of the NAACP division in St. Augustine, were among those who contacted and facilitated Dr. Martin Luther King coming to St. Augustine in 1964. The Twines continued to work for equality after the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. For their efforts, Katherine Twine was honored with the City of St. Augustine's prestigious "de Aviles Award" and they are both memorialized with the naming of Twine Street and Twine Park.

Fannie Louise Fulwood was a leader of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) during the 1960s Civil Rights movement in St. Augustine. In March of 1963, Mrs. Fannie Fulwood and Mrs. Eliza Hawthorne, representing the St. Augustine NAACP, wrote to President John F. Kennedy, asking that he oppose a federal grant for the city’s 400th birthday celebration because they excluded blacks citizens and would not meet with them to discuss the city’s racial problems. Fulwood, who earned her living as a housekeeper and maid, was the recipient of numerous awards, including the St. Augustine de Aviles Award and a fellowship award from the Unitarian Universalist Church.

Since its inception in 1916, the National Park Service has generally been a male-dominated organization, as it was originally formed from the United States Cavalry. The first official female employees of the Park Service appeared in 1918. They were Clare Marie Hodges and Helene Wilson, hired as temporary rangers while their male counterparts went to war. The Park Service was a hard field to break into for women, and most early female Rangers were Park Service wives, and they were usually temporary or confined to the job of naturalist. During World War II, many more women, especially wives of Rangers, joined the National Park Service as the men joined the military. The Park Service’s opinion of what was suitable duty for women was still a bit old-fashioned, and they were not placed positions where they would be called to fight fires, take part in rescue operations, or do other hazardous work. They were mostly confined to lecture programs, guided tours, museum and library work, and research programs. Today, female Park Rangers now have access to all the same positions as their male counterparts, and comprise just over 38% of the National Park Service staff. Martha Aikens became the first female Superintendent of Castillo de San Marcos National Monument in 1980.

The University of Florida has maintained a program of research and field school training in St. Augustine since 1972, under the direction of Dr. Kathleen Deagan. This program has been designed to learn about Spanish adaptations and the development of a criollo culture in America, while at the same time providing field training for archaeology students. The field school program works closely with the City Archaeologist and the City of St. Augustine to provide input for their Living History Museum depicting life in Spanish St. Augustine. As a museum curator, Kathleen also directs the Florida Museum of Natural History’s program in Historical Archaeology, which is based on building and maintaining archaeological collections from historic sites, and developing research and exhibits projects related to the collections.

Martha B. Aikens became the first female Superintendent of Castillo de San Marcos National Monument (1980-1983). In an interview in 1985, Aikens recalled that as the first double minority superintendent there was a community reaction of "wait and see," or a kind of guarded acceptance. With park experience as unit manager at Gateway/Breezy Point and in Everglades National Park she addressed a number of issues in need of resolution at St. Augustine. Aikens was with the NPS for over 30 years and received the Distinguished Service Award, the highest Departmental honor award, for her contributions as a manager, trainer, enterprising leader, and administrator for the National Park Service.

Anna Kingsley: A Free Woman Mary McLeod Bethune Ella C. Chamberlain and the early Suffrage Movement in Florida May Mann Jennings Women's Equality Day: The First Ladies of Florida Politics Zora Neale Hurston and Women's Contributions to Documenting Florida Folklife Mildred "Babe" Didrikson Zarharias, Athletic Contributions Florida and the 19th Amendment Louise Jones Gopher and the Seminole Tribe

Throughout its history, the stories of Fort Matanzas and the Matanzas area have been closely intertwined with that of the city of St. Augustine.

Located fifteen miles north of Fort Matanzas, St. Augustine and the Castillo de San Marcos serve as outstanding reminders of the might of the early Spanish empire and as reflections of European conflicts as countries battled for land and power in the New World. Read More...

The first conflict goes back to 1565, the year of the founding of St. Augustine and almost 175 years before the construction of Fort Matanzas. This is when another story was played out at the Matanzas Inlet--the massacre of the French Huguenots, the incident that led to the naming of the river, Matanzas, the Spanish word for "slaughters".

The British Threat & The Building of Fort Matanzas By 1740, it was no longer the French, but rather the British who were a threat to the Spanish Florida colony. Whoever controlled Florida controlled the rich shipping lanes coming from the Spanish Caribbean. The British had unsuccessfully laid siege to St. Augustine twice (1702 and 1740). Florida Governor Montiano knew the British would be back and would most likely attempt to come through the unguarded inlet at Matanzas. So, he immediately ordered a fort to be built to guard these southern approaches-- Fort Matanzas. Read More...

The original national monument site consisted of only the fort on Rattlesnake Island. Through the years, however, the National Park Service has acquired additional land on both Rattlesnake and Anastasia Islands and has been able to preserve a slice of an intact barrier island ecosystem. The river and ocean beaches as well as the .6 mile nature trail offer visitors the opportunity to view a variety of plants and wildlife native to this ecosystem.

The forest, dunes, scrubs, and salt marsh ecosystems are able to provide food and shelter for a myriad variety of plants and animals.

Find out more about the plants and animals in the park and how best to protect and interpret them.

Dr. F. Wayne King from the University of Florida conducted an extensive survey of the reptiles and amphibians found at Fort Matanzas National Monument. Click HERE for the results of his study complete with information on each species' ecology and habitat and photographs like this one of a red rat snake (corn snake), one of the beautiful, non-venemous snakes at Fort Matanzas.

The area around Fort Matanzas National Monument is also part of the Guana-Tolomato-Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve (GTMNERR), one of 25 such reserves in the United States. Designated in 1999, GTMNERR is a federal/state partnership administered by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Click HERE to visit the GTMNERR website.

Plant life is abundant at Fort Matanzas. This is primarily because the park receives an average of 49 inches of rain per year, and maintains an average annual temperature of 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Hard freezes are uncommon, which means the growing season extends throughout most of the year. Additionally, the park is located on portions of two barrier islands. Barrier islands, when left undeveloped, are comprised of several different plant communities spanning a relatively constricted geographical range. At Fort Matanzas these communities are represented by primary and secondary sand dunes, coastal scrub, maritime hammock, and estuarine salt marsh. This ecological diversity, and the plant-friendly sub-tropical climate, account for why over 250 individual plant species have been identified so far at Fort Matanzas, a park totaling only 300 acres in size.

Here at the park there are four different fern species present, all of which are noteworthy in their own right.

Think of them as nature’s spray paint, because they add a splash of color to every surface they live on.

Nothing seems to brighten the dunes more than the unexpected red-yellow desert sunset captured in a hardy aster, the blanketflower.

The 300 acres of Fort Matanzas National Monument is a mosaic of natural habitats. Working together, the maritime forest, the dune, scrub, and salt marsh ecosystems are able to provide food and shelter for a myriad variety of plants and animals.

Click any of the images below to learn more about the plants and habitats of Fort Matanzas National Monument.

The oldest and highest part of the barrier island is covered with a forest called a hammock ("shady place") -- an ancient dune on which larger plant species have taken root in the thin layer of decayed remains from pioneer species. Cabbage palm, red bay, magnolia, and live oak provide a canopy under which diverse animal species can thrive.

On the ocean side of the island are the sand dunes. Sea oats and other grasses, vines, like beach morning glory, and other salt-tolerant plants grow on the dunes and help stabilize them with their extensive root systems. These plants also provide cover and shade for the few hardy species of animals which live there.

Between the hammock and the dunes grow dense thickets of scrub live oak interspersed with thick stands of saw palmetto, bay and cedar, and an occasional sabal palm. Sandy and dry, scoured by harsh, salt-laden winds, the scrub is a harsh environment for animals, but a beautiful garden for wildflowers in the spring and summer.

On the inside (river side) of the island lie the tidal creeks and marshes of the estuary where salt water meets fresh. This is the most diverse habitat of the island in terms of animal species. Crabs scurry across the mud flats at low tide where clams, mussels, and oysters lie half buried. Herons, egrets, and other birds feed on the rich soup of fish and crustaceans living in the tidal flats and salt marshes.

All national parks, including Fort Matanzas, exist within the surrounding environment. Far from being islands of preserved lands separate from external influence, parks are integrally linked to the overall environment. When the environment as a whole has been perturbed in some way, the affects can often be observed, and are sometimes most apparent, within a park setting. This is because parks are largely free from the modern development that permeates our world. A change in, say, pollution levels in the air or water, the amount of man-made noise, the presence of non-native pests in a forest, or even the number of stars visible in the night sky, is more noticeable in a park than in a more altered setting. It is this characteristic of parks, their relative naturalness compared to almost any other place, which makes them bellwethers for the state of the environment as a whole. They are natural laboratories in which the effects of man's impact on the environment can best be measured.

Human civilization, and natural areas such as national parks, are already feeling the effects of a changing climate.

The northeast coast of Florida, though, is notable for a geologic feature rarely found anywhere else. It is a rock called coquina.

In a natural environment, plants or animals that are exotic or nonnative to the area can be harmful to the native species that live there.

National parks are charged with preserving natural and historical resources, including the sounds that are associated with those resources.

The goals of a national park can include both surrounding the visitor with natural beauty, and transporting the visitor back in time.

Water dominates the landscape, is essential to the creatures that inhabit the park, and is integral to the human history interpreted here.

Common insect pests include: mosquitoes, wasps, cockroaches, and ants, all of which are certainly present at Fort Matanzas.

In 2005 researchers from the University of North Carolina completed a comprehensive survey of mammalian species at Fort Matanzas. Because of this work, park managers can say with certainty that at least twenty-seven species of mammal live in or have transited through the park, or the waters adjacent to the park, at some point.

Some of these are animals one would probably not be too surprised to see in any preserved north Florida habitat: Virginia opossum, white-tailed deer, northern raccoon, eastern gray squirrel, and marsh rabbit, for example. Others might cause even long-time locals to take notice: coyote, bobcat, American black bear, feral hog, American mink, or the gray or red fox, for instance.

Many of the park's mammals might only ever be seen by researchers, being small, secretive, and/or nocturnal. Think of species like: short-tailed shrew, marsh rice rat, cotton mouse, Florida mouse, eastern mole, and the hispid cotton rat. Still others are far from being tiny, but you had better be looking to the river or sea at just the right time in order to catch: northern river otter, West Indian manatee, Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, or northern right whale.

There is one mammal species that bears the distinction of being endemic to Anastasia Island, where Fort Matanzas is located. This is the Anastasia Island beach mouse, a subspecies of the oldfield mouse. It is listed by the federal government as an endangered species. Fort Matanzas acts as one of two main refugia for this species, helping to ensure its existence into the future even as its overall population numbers remain at risk.

While a species like the Anastasia Island beach mouse evolved in this part of the world, other species that are mistaken for ecological natives were actually brought here (sometimes inadvertently) by European explorers and settlers: feral cat, house mouse, and the black rat included. The nine-banded armadillo, on the other hand, first came to Florida in zoos and circuses and subsequently escaped.

Finally, though humans are not included on the park's official list of mammal species (though should we be? We are mammalian animals after all!), the dog is. Not only the canine pets some visitors bring to the park at the end of a leash, but also feral dogs that have no owners and exist on the lamb, so to speak. By the way, sheep are one mammal species NOT found in the park! Click these links to learn about some other mammals found here at the park.

Your experience to the park is designed to be a self-directed one. Understanding that everyone has different interests, schedules, and abilities, we have created the following menu of opportunities to help you experience the park in a variety of ways.

While there are many things to do at Fort Matanzas National Monument, there is only one way to get to the fort. Grab your ticket for the 9:30, 10:30, 11:30, 12:30, 1:30, 2:30, or 3:30, cruise at the visitor center and get ready for an interpretive ranger program and an adventure! NO FERRY SERVICE ON TUESDAYS or WEDNESDAYS

Located in the main visitor center entrance and parking is a beautifly shaded picnic area . Shaded by an old oak canopy. Here you will find a public restroom facility, nature trailhead, and sidewalk to the visitor center. This gated area of the park is open 9:00am - 5:30pm daily.

Earn a badge by completing the Junior Ranger program. Ask staff for a book upon arrival, or become a Virtual Ranger.

This unpaved sandy trail is north of the Visitor Center and takes you on walk under a mile through the park's natural filtration system, the marsh. These wetlands help prevent inland areas from flooding and provide habitat for many of the park's creatures. This trail is a favorite place for bird watchers and kayak launchers.

From the main Visitor Center parking lot, access the boardwalk through the oldest and highest part of the barrier island covered with a forest called a hammock. This shaded trail is under a mile and gives you gorgeous views of a canopy of diverse trees and animal life in a maritime forest.

Rangers and volunteers are eager to answer your questions and provide interpretive opportunities throughout the day on the nature and culture of the park. Program topics, locations, and times vary on the season, weather, and visitation. Please ask the staff upon arrival in the Visitor Center for the upcoming opportunities.

An abundance of salt water fish species and a wide area to fish on both the river and ocean side provides a fun way to enjoy the outdoors with your family. To get started, you will need a salt water fishing license .You may fish anywhere along the shoreline in the park, with the exception of the posted area next to the ferryboat docks. Low tide provides the easiest access. Read More...

Relax and reflect. Take in St. Augustine's best beach views on the Matanzas River and Atlantic Ocean. To access the park's Visitor Center parking lot use the main park mailing address: 8635 A1A South, west of A1A. To access a second parking lot on the river: 8655 A1A South. To access the two ocean parking lots to the east of A1A South: 8635 A1A South and 8825 A1A South. To access the entrance to Rattlesnake Island parking lot: 9300 A1A South. Make sure you enter the zipcode for each address: 32080

To help you discover more about the park's natural and cultural resources, download the self-guided tour and more on Android and iOS . Brochures are also available in the park's Visitor Center.

Get a new perspective using the virtual tour . Using the virtual tour on your visit allows you to watch the ranger videos and view the 3D models. It will also provide you with virtual access to inaccessible areas (e.g., At the fort, there is no elevator to the gun deck or observation deck).

Watch videos on your device or in the park's Visitor Center. There are several short videos on the park's natural and cultural resources. Or visit our History and Culture page by clicking here .