The Timucuan Indians lived in northeastern Florida when Spain established the first European settlement on the North American continent in 1565 at St. Augustine, Florida. The Timucuans averaged well over a foot taller than the European settlers because of their high protein diet consisting of abundant venison, turkey, fish, shellfish, corn, and beans. Nevertheless, superior Spanish weaponry and tactics gave the Europeans the upper hand in battle, and an inherited lack of resistance to Old World diseases doomed Native Americans all across the continent because their populations were regularly decimated by fatal illnesses.
Mock-up of a Timucuan hut at the Ponce de Leon Fountain of Youth Park.
England and Spain competed for control of North and South America during the 17th and 18th centuries. Spain began building a fort in St. Augustine in 1672 to defend Florida from the Anglo aggressors. They built the fort using coquina–a fossiliferous sedimentary rock they quarried from nearby Anastasia Island. Coquina consists of sea shells cemented together. It’s soft when underground and therefore easy to cut, but it hardens when exposed to air, making it ideal material for repelling cannon balls. Indian, then African slaves quarried the rock for 20 years, loading the stone on oxcarts that were hauled to barges and shipped across Matanzas Bay to the site of the fort adjacent to St. Augustine. The fort, known as the Castillo de St. Marcos, took 20 years to complete. It was never taken in battle, though St. Augustine itself was sacked in 1702. The siege of the fort failed, and the British withdrew.
The Castillo de San Marcos.
The material used to build the fort was coquina, a type of fossil rock. Note the embedded fossil sea shells in the wall.
A 400 year old Spanish cannon. Note the coquina it’s resting upon.
Cannons on the 2nd story of the fort. The fort was never taken in battle.
An old fashioned mortar.
A moat, now drained, surrounded the fort. It was probably filled with alligators. This prevented the use of battering rams that could’ve broke in the door.
A watchtower with a view across Matanzas Bay.
View from inside the fort.
Ponce de Leon discovered this freshwater spring in 1513. The Spanish established a settlement here because of this convenience. The water tastes exactly like modern day St. Augustine tap water. The tap water near south Atlantic states always has a sulfurous aftertaste.
A cistern used for storing rainwater. Fresh rain tastes better than the local spring water.
Spain gave Florida and the fort to England in 1765 as part of a peace treaty. Spain regained control in 1783 after the U.S. kicked England’s butt in the Revolutionary War. The U.S. bought Florida from Spain in 1821 and gained control of the fort. The U.S. army used it as a prison for Indians during the Seminole Wars, and late in the 19th century kept Kiowa POWs here. What a depressing chapter of American history.
The Castillo de San Marcos is a nice spot for bird watching. The most abundant species are city pigeons, chimney swifts, boat-tailed grackles, mourning doves, and laughing gulls. The city pigeons might be descended from birds the Spanish brought from Europe to raise as food as early as 1610. Many of the individuals I saw were big and fat. Another name for city pigeon is rock dove because they are native to rocky cliffs in Eurasia. The fort offers ideal habitat for them. They nest in the crooks and crannies within the fort and have access to seaside foods rich in iodine, an element beneficial for brain development. People supplement their wild foraging.
I fed some pigeons a piece of banana bread that fell on the floor. They are greedy little pigs.
Boat-tailed grackles are superabundant in north Florida and south Georgia near the coast.
A snowy egret on the edge of Matanzas Bay.
Peacocks roam the grounds at the Ponce de Leon Fountain of Youth.
An immature white ibis.
A great egret and a great blue heron in the same frame.
While I was inside the fort, 3 wood storks soared overhead but not close enough for me to photograph. I saw wood storks all 4 days I vacationed in St. Augustine. I saw 4 species of animals for the first time on this trip–a greenhouse tree frog, gopher tortoises, a least tern, and a loggerhead shrike. I saw the first 3 in Florida, but I saw the shrike in northern Burke County, Georgia while I was driving home. It was in someone’s front yard about 10 miles south of my house.
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