While the French and Spanish colonizers dominate much of the historical narrative, the Native Timucua peoples and their descendants are central to the region’s story. Their presence pre-dates the Europeans by millennia; their cooperation, resistance and cultural endurance shaped the landscape.   The decline of the Timucua population, due to

In the early 1900s the story of Fort Caroline began to attract renewed interest from historians, locators and local advocates. While archaeological proof remained elusive, a 138-acre site along the St. Johns River near the modern Arlington district of Jacksonville was chosen to commemorate the settlement.   In 1953, the U.S. Congress establish

Spain, determined to secure its claim to Florida and to block French inroads, commissioned Pedro Menéndez de Avilés to lead an expedition. Arriving in 1565, Menéndez established St. Augustine further south and marched overland to attack Fort Caroline. A hurricane that disabled French ships frustrated their retaliation. Menéndez’s overland mar

In the mid-16th century, France sought to establish a foothold in what was then called Florida—a region claimed by Spain yet still largely un-controlled. Huguenot (French Protestant) leaders sought refuge and new lands; Admiral Gaspard de Coligny supported colonial ventures. The explorer Jean Ribault (and later René Goulaine de Laudonnière) spe