Fort Matanzas National Monument

Fort Matanzas National Monument, established in 1924, is a historic and natural preserve area near St. Augustine, Florida. The area first came to prominence in the 1500s, when Spanish forces used its islands and inlets to defend their colonial claims in Florida. In 1742, the Spanish built a stone fortification on the Matanzas inlet. The fort was ultimately abandoned after a series of battles among the Spanish, French, and British contributed to the decline of the Spanish Empire. In the early 1900s, the United States preserved the fort and turned it into a national park and monument. Since 1935, the area has been controlled by the National Park Service, which offers nature trails, historic exhibits, and boating facilities for visitors.

Background

The earliest known people of Florida were nomadic Native Americans who arrived about 12,000 years ago. Over thousands of years, the Native Americans of Florida began creating permanent settlements where they could develop their cultures and customs. In the early 1500s, European explorers began traveling to the area in search of land and resources. The Europeans found many developed communities, including those of the native Calusa, Apalachee, and Timucua people, many of whom would be killed or driven away in the coming generations.

Spain's Juan Ponce de León undertook one of the most influential European missions to Florida in 1513. His explorations helped to solidify Spanish colonial power in the area. In the coming centuries, other European nations, mainly France and Britain, would compete for territory and influence in Florida. In 1565, Spanish and French colonizers clashed at an inlet near the Spanish colony of St. Augustine. The Spanish massacred the French, leading the inlet to be named Matanzas, which is Spanish for "slaughter."

Starting in 1586, British colonizers became the main competitors to the Spanish in Florida. British forces attacked and badly damaged St. Augustine in 1586. British colonizers began settling on lands claimed by Spain during the 1600s and 1700s. In 1740, British governor James Oglethorpe of the Georgia colony sent ships to the Matanzas inlet to blockade St. Augustine. Although St. Augustine resisted the siege, the Spanish in Florida realized that the Matanzas inlet was providing their enemies with an easy passageway for attack.

Early Spanish colonizers at the Matanzas inlet had built wooden watchtowers that helped them spot intruders. These watchtowers were unarmed and rotted frequently due to the wet, tropical climate. Such meager defenses failed to repel the Oglethorpe invasion. In 1740, following the siege, Spanish colonial governor Manuel de Montiano ordered engineer Pedro Ruiz de Olano to build a stone tower on the site. This tower would form the basis of Fort Matanzas and provide a strong, permanent means of defending the inlet from attack.

Overview

Spanish engineers and laborers began building the Matanzas stone tower in 1740. Progress was slow. The workers had to quarry coquina stones at another location and support their construction with strong wooden pilings to prevent it from sinking into the marshy ground. Meanwhile, they also faced frequent attacks by British colonists and their Native American allies. Regardless, by 1742, Fort Matanzas was complete, and its garrison and cannons were powerful enough to repel another attempted invasion by Oglethorpe.

Fort Matanzas was about 30 feet (9 meters) tall and 50 feet (15 meters) long, large enough to station several soldiers, gunners, and an officer. It also held five cannons with sufficient range to attack ships sailing into the inlet. Despite the strength of the fortification and its successful first performance, Fort Matanzas would be of little use after 1742. In the coming decades, Spanish influence in Florida quickly waned, as did the overall power of the Spanish Empire. Spanish forces abandoned the fort, and their Florida colony dissolved.

When Florida became part of the United States in 1821, Fort Matanzas was in a state of disrepair. American forces declined to use it. For much of the nineteenth century, it remained an obscure ruin. In the 1880s, the US War Department and Congress briefly considered funding a restoration project to preserve the building for tourists. Ultimately, more pressing issues and then the country's entry into World War I in 1917 meant that little funding went toward Fort Matanzas.

In 1924, proponents of restoration gained funding to repair and rebuild the fortification walls. That same year, President Calvin Coolidge recognized Fort Matanzas as a national monument, a prominent status that entitled it to restoration and maintenance. On July 1, 1935, control of the area passed to the National Park Service, which arranged for the fort to be extensively restored and to have a protective seawall and nearby visitor center constructed.

In the coming years, interest in Fort Matanzas and early Spanish history increased, as did the size and offerings of the national park and monument. The original preserved fort became the centerpiece of an almost three-hundred-acre park stretching across much of nearby Rattlesnake Island and Anastasia Island. Boating facilities, most notably a ferry service established in 1972, made the area a popular destination for water traffic. In the twenty-first century, the ferryboats carry approximately sixty thousand visitors to the site each year.

Many visitors to the Fort Matanzas National Monument come to see the fort and various historical exhibits and reenactments, exploring its past from the earliest Native American inhabitants to its importance to the Spanish Empire. Many other visitors enjoy the natural habitat. The National Park Service has preserved the unique ecosystem of the barrier islands in the inlet. The area is known for its interesting mixture of dunes, scrub, salt marshes, and coastal forests and the plants and animals that inhabit them. Visitors may walk nature trails or relax on beaches.

In 2016, Hurricane Matthew brought extensive damage to the park and monument area. Even as crews undertook the long process of cleaning and repairing, Hurricane Irma in 2017 brought further damage. The storms damaged boardwalks, docks, boats, and trees. Tours to the national park and monument were temporarily reduced or suspended while repair crews worked to fix the damages. The monument was once again damaged in 2022 by Hurricanes Ian and Nicole and then in 2024 by Hurricane Milton. The monument reopened in a restricted state in October 2024.

Bibliography

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