Two Forts, A Picnic, and a Parade

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Fort Matanzas National Monument

Castillo de San Marcos National Monument

St. Augustine, Florida

We had two options for Easter Sunday, and picked the one we thought would be less crowded. We encountered a surprise, but the day was a huge success anyway.

If we were birds, Fort Matanzas National Monument would just be about 5 miles away, across some marshes and onto a barrier island. But we don't fly and we don't canoe, so we had to drive about 15 miles to the National Monument. When we arrived we were met with signs saying that the ferry boat ride to the actual fort was out of service. Last fall, Hurricane Mathew decimated the dock out there and, as the NPS budget is tightening, they haven't had the money to replace it. That means visitors are limited to viewing the fort from the visitor center, across the river.

There is some interesting history in how this fort was built and got its name. The Spanish settled St. Augustine in the early 1500s (more on that later) and Spain claimed all of Florida for its own. France, having colonial plans of its own, established Fort Caroline at the present site of Jacksonville, about thirty miles up the coast. Obviously, this wasn't going to go too well.



France made the first move and tried to send a naval force down to the mouth of the Matanzas river, to sail upstream and capture the Spanish at Saint Augustine through the back door. It might have worked, except a storm (possibly a hurricane) wrecked the French fleet at the mouth of this river. The French were forced to seek refuge in these hostile marshes and dense forests, which would have been tough enough.

The Spanish sent a small army under the leadership of a man called Menendez. Interestingly, he was a freed slave who took up a Spanish offer to serve in the military with a reward of some land later. The French were handily outgunned and were captured by Menendez. For reasons not entirely clear, instead of taking them prisoner, he ordered all 250 of them slaughtered. 'Matanzas', the Spanish word for 'slaughter', became the name of the river near where he murdered the French.

Later, the Spanish realized that the river posed a strategic weak spot in the defense of their city, so they built a fort on an island overlooking the mouth of the river. It was a small fort, but served its purpose, as the city has never been attacked from this southern point. Since you can only see the fort from across the river, I can't say much about it. There are some exhibits showing the layout and how it was armed. Since this is the third of seven forts we will be seeing on this trip, I am looking for a good book that talks about forts in general, but haven't found any yet. I'm finding it curious, though, that none of the forts we've seen so far, Pickens, Jefferson, and Matanzas have ever seen actual combat action. Seems the idea of a fort is simply just to intimidate your enemy into submission, but hell, I'm not a military strategist.

The visitor center here, though, is a delightful place. There is a great little nature hike, over a boardwalk, that gives an inside look at a hardwood hammock with a view of the marshes. And in the center of the site is a set of really old, and really big live oak trees that were simply astounding in their massiveness. And one of the park rangers, dressed as a Spanish colonial soldier, gave a demonstration of loading and shooting a flintlock musket. It really is quite a process what a soldier had to do to fire one of those things. Interestingly, the accuracy of the shot was so low that aiming wasn't important. It was more important that you get the thing reloaded and fire again, without harming yourself or your fellow soldiers - quantity of shots was more important than accuracy of aim! While it was a great place to spend an hour or two, I wouldn't go there until they get the ferry back in service.

But then I would combine the visit here with a visit to the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument in St. Augustine itself. It is just a 15 mile drive up route 1A into the center of the town. Normally, you can probably park in the monument lot, but we ended up parking in a city garage a few blocks away.

Castillo de San Marcos is the main fort protecting St. Augustine, located right on the entry to the port itself. It was built in 1672 out of coquina, a spongy mix of smashed seashells, bound by calcium carbonate. The walls were 14 - 19 feet thick at the bottom, tapering to 9 feet at the top. It was designed not so much to deflect incoming cannonballs as to absorb the shock. It is the only remaining military structure built in the 1600s. Surrounded by a moat, it shares design notions with the other big forts we've seen at Jefferson and Pickens as a series of connected arched casements, each casement supporting a large cannon. It has changed nationalities a few times, but was never conquered by force. The show includes a small platoon of period-dressed park rangers re-enacting a ceremonial shooting of a cannon.

We took the girls on this excursion. We knew they couldn't go inside the buildings, but a lot of the sightseeing is outside and they could go with us for that. Joan and I would alternate inside tours. But at Castillo, waiting outside with the dogs, it was them that became a center of attraction. There really isn't much to equal having two corgis in a public area. Dozens of people oohed and ahhed at our dogs and I heard lots of 'que linda's.

We had also planned to have them with us because we had a picnic lunch on the main grounds. But it turned out that we weren't the only one's with that idea. For one thing, this is a 'National Parks Week', so entry to all parks in the system is free - that can bring a lot of families into the nearest park. Secondly, it was Easter so a lot of families were interested in doing something special, after church, of course. And finally, something we didn't know about at all, St. Augustine stages an Easter Parade right here in the downtown area - there were hundreds of people in attendance in and around the monument making the day a little bit trying, but very festive. And the girls got lots of attention.

An interesting aside about St. Augustine. This city is billed as the 'oldest continuously inhabited European settled city in North America', founded in 1565. There are older cities in the U.S., but they don't fit that description exactly. Some cities were established earlier and then abandoned, so they don't count. And then there are those pesky little Indians to deal with. Those of us from New Mexico are fully aware of places like Acoma and Taos Pueblo which have histories going back a thousand years. However, Indians aren't European, so, although continuously inhabited for a much longer time, they aren't in the same category as St. Augustine.

Having put the town in the proper context, I'd like to add that Joan and I both found St. Augustine a great find. After touring the monument, and watching parts of the parade, we found ourselves in the Old Town and it was terrific. We even stopped for drinks and snacks on a patio with the girls. And the skyline, viewed from the top of the fort, was a beautiful display of Spanish architecture. Being from New Mexico, we are very used to Spanish influence, but here in Florida it takes on a different character, one we would love to explore more. And we would start right here in St. Augustine. (17.1.40)

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Photos

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Live Oaks on the Fort Matanzas Visitor Center Grounds

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Fort Matanzas across the Lagoon

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The St. Augustine Harbor from Castillo de San Marcos

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Castillo de San Marcos and its (now dry) moat

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Corner of Castillo and the Harbor it Protects

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Picnic On the Parade Grounds of the Castillo

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Modelof Castillo de San Marcos

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The Flags that have hung over the fort

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Yeah, a cannon and its balls

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Viewfrom the top of the Castillo

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Those be 19 foot thick walls at the bottom!