Fort Caroline National Memorial — Attraction in Jacksonville

• Visited Friday afternoon during the winter break holiday in December 2023, plenty of parking. • Staff amazing in shop and went out of their way to help answer questions for kids. Rangers were the same. • Visitor center is very well done exhibits and relatively large. It’s much more up to date than others. They have a place to sit where kids can work on Junior Ranger Booklets. Much more kid friendly here than any of the other forts we visited. Junior ranger was advertised everywhere (inside/outside) and they even offer a senior ranger (18+ yr old). The Junior Ranger Badges are wooden here. There used to be 2 Junior Ranger booklets but they have updated it and merged the two into one for Fort Caroline and the Timucuan Preserve. • The NPS store was a decent sized shop with a good selection of merch. • Visitor Center closed at 4:30PM but the grounds are open until 5:00. We decided to try and sneak the Nature Trail in which is only about a mile and relatively flat (also very sandy). We got distracted by the demo fort but made it back to the parking lot with 3 mins remaining. The staff were all sitting in gold cart waiting for the rest of the cars to leave. The signs at the front said gates close at 5PM period. There was still one family we passed on the trail, and we were hoofing it. • There is also a bald eagle nest out back and we spotted one hanging out in the trees behind the visitor center. A couple rangers saw us and came out to watch them too. Super cool rangers here. • We would definitely come back to complete other trails if we were in town. • There are also lots of NPS Passport Cancellation Stamps here. 4 were outside (they move them inside after hours) and 3 LARGE novelty ones inside...

I am a writer and photographer for National Park Planner and I visited Fort Caroline National Memorial in March 2015. Fort Caroline marks the general location of the first French settlement in North America. The exact location is no longer known, which is why the park has been designated as a “Memorial” and not as a “Historic Site.” In the 450 years since the settlement was established (June, 1564), man and nature have eroded and reshaped the land and the Fort Caroline site is now thought to be somewhere at the bottom of the St. Johns River. French presence was short lived, for just over a year after arriving in Florida the fort was sacked and nearly all settlers were massacred by the Spanish headquartered at St. Augustine.

While Fort Caroline National Memorial is its own entity, it now lies within the boundaries of the Timucuan Ecological and Historical Preserve, which was created in 1988 and is part of the National Park system. Most people, including the National Park Service employees, make no distinction between the two. The National Memorial opened in 1953 and includes the reproduction exhibit of Fort Caroline, the Hammock Trail, the Spanish Pond, and the land on which the Ribault Monument is situated.

An adjoining parcel of land known as the Theodore Roosevelt Area was acquired by the National Park Service for the Timucuan Preserve in 1990. It was originally donated to the Nature Conservancy in 1969 by Willie Brown. Two hiking trails can be found in this area and the Spanish Pond Trail connects the two parks together.

For complete information on visiting the Fort Caroline National Memorial and the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, visit National Park...

This is a great national monument. A superb combination of history and nature.

There are essentially five areas to visit: the Timucuan Preserve museum; the Ribault Monument; the reconstructed Fort Caroline and Timucuan village; the Spanish Pond and associated hiking trails; and the Theodore Roosevelt Nature Area and associated trails.

The Timucuan Preserve museum is located inside the monument's Visitor Center and overviews the Timucuan tribe, which was native to this area of Florida and essentially went extinct after contact with Europeans.

The Ribault Monument is a couple minutes down the road from the Visitor Center, and commemorates the 1562 landing of French explorer Jean Ribault.

The reconstructed fort and village can be accessed by following a trail next to the visitor center. The trail is brief and easy. A lot of blood was spilled in this area due to European religious extremism and hegemony.

The Spanish Pond trail is across the street from the visitor center. The trail is not very difficult, but you WILL get devoured by mosquitoes if you don't bring bug spray. The trail actually connects to the Theodore Roosevelt Nature Area (which otherwise has an entirely separate entrance and parking lot), but it also ends in a beautiful pond with plenty of bird life.

You can get five National Park Service Cancellation Stamps here, as well as four other stamps. The stamps are located just outside the visitor center.

Closed Monday...