Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve ⓘ

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, many people came to Florida. Some, like Zephaniah Kingsley, sought to make their fortunes by obtaining land and establishing plantations. Others were forced to come to Florida to work on those plantations, their labor providing wealth to the people who owned them. Some of the enslaved would later become free landowners, struggling to keep their footing in a dangerous time of shifting alliances and politics. All of these people played a part in the history of Kingsley Plantation.

Weekend open houses are available from 10:00 am-12:00 pm and 2:00 pm-4:00 pm. Visitation is limited to protect this fragile structure.

The Kingsley Plantation audio tour "The Lion's Story Teller" provides visitors with an immersive experience of the past.

Visit Kingsley Plantation virtually by exploring the grounds through these panoramic images.

Freedom, enslavement, royalty, lineage, survival, the Kingsley family story is a web as complex as American history itself.

The St. Johns River has been a strategic waterway for centuries. During the Civil War, the Union blockade of Jacksonville and the St. Johns River was pivotal in maintaining a strong coastal and interior blockade of the southeast coast. The successful Union blockade of the Atlantic seaboard prevented supplies and goods from entering and leaving the Confederacy.

Florida voted to secede from the United States and to join with other Southern states in the Confederacy in 1861. Although few actual battles were fought in Florida during the Civil War, the state nonetheless played an important role for both sides in the conflict.

Learn more about the stories and daily activities of Union commanders and sailors on the St. Johns River. Transcribed from the original documents at the National Archives, these records are dramatic and detailed:

Mayport Mills/Fort Steele was located at the current site of the Mayport Naval Station. There are no historic remains of the village or the fort. St. Johns Bluff is the present location of Fort Caroline National Memorial, 13 miles east of downtown Jacksonville. Occasionally, Civil War reenactments are held at the park. Yellow Bluff Fort is located in north Jacksonville on New Berlin Road. From 9A, exit to Heckscher Drive east. Take New Berlin road south from Heckscher Drive. Yellow Bluff Fort is approximately 2 miles on the right. There is a marker and picnic tables. The site is open daily. Pilot Town was located on the north side of the St. Johns River along present-day Heckscher Drive and near the northern terminus of the St. Johns River Ferry. Fort George Island and Kingsley Plantation are located off Heckscher Drive (Fla. AIA/105) just north of the ferry landing. Cedar Point is located at the south end of Black Hammock Island and can be reached from Heckscher Drive. Take New Berlin Road to Cedar Point Road which ends at the park in 7 miles.

United States Colored Troops and Timucuan Preserve The Maple Leaf Shipwreck The Civil War on Fort George and Batton Islands

Dateline : July 13, 2011; Cedar Point Area, NPS, Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve

National Park Service, Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve and the University of North Florida (UNF), Department of Anthropology completed their 10 th season of cooperative archaeological field schools within the Preserve. The 2011 field season included UNF students and added a new opportunity for the public to join in the archaeological research. Through the UNF Continuing Education Program members of the public were invited to aid in the excavation of a Spanish mission site at the Cedar Point area of the Park. Those involved received firsthand experience in excavation techniques, the field identification of artifacts, and mapping archaeological materials and features.

The site location is where the former Spanish Mission Santa Cruz y San Bueneventura de Guadalquini once stood. A mixture of various Native American groups, including Mocama speaking people Colones, Yguajas and Asajo (Yamassee), established the mission on the southern end of Black Hammock Island in 1684. These native groups had fled their previous mission site, also called Santa Cruz, located on St. Simons Island in Georgia. The original mission site was established in 1605 and lasted until the movement south in 1684. English and French pirates and raiders drove these groups south to the area of northeast Florida for protection offered by the Spanish. A census taken in 1689 indicated there were 60 families (300 people) living at the mission at Cedar Point. A 1695 visitation found Santa Cruz housing 5 caciques (leaders) as well as 2 inihas (2 nd in command), along with the head cacique who oversaw the wellbeing of all living at Santa Cruz. The inclusion of multiple leaders at the mission suggests the residents of the mission were drawn from several existing settlements.

Sometime between 1695 and 1697 the population of Santa Cruz joined the mission people at San Juan del Puerto on Fort George Island, Duval County, Florida. The people of Santa Cruz were under threat of attack from nearby enemy groups and vulnerable due to their close proximity to the mainland. Prior to this move, the Santa Cruz leader had a council house built for them at San Juan. The Santa Cruz cacique later became the head cacique for the San Juan mission in 1701. In 1702 Carolina raiders lead by Colonel James Moore razed and burned both the Santa Cruz and San Juan missions en route to a siege on St. Augustine. Thus, the era of the influence of the Spanish Missions effectively ended in Northeast Florida.

As mentioned above, a council house was built for the mission residents who moved to San Juan. Following previous excavations at the Santa Cruz mission site, this year’s field school and public archaeology program from UNF uncovered features related to a large structure (a possible council house) at the mission site. These features are the remnants of post holes where structural posts were placed for walls. Walls were built in between the posts from wattle and daub. When bisected, the post hole features reveal a conical appearance where a square post was placed in the hole and shell and dirt were tamped down around it to hold the post in place. This is much like what is done today for setting posts in cement. Also uncovered at the site were a significant amount of San Marcos mission related pottery, Spanish majolica, olive jar sherds, faunal remains and other accouterments of daily living.

The structure appears to be very large with post holes indicating an approximately east to west bearing wall of at least 10 m (31 ft) in length by 6 m (20 ft) bearing approximately north to south. However, since the complete building has not been excavated it could be substantially larger. The only previously excavated council house in Florida is located at Mission San Luis in Tallahassee. This council house was a round structure 125 feet in diameter and housed 2000 to 3000 people at a time. If the council house at Santa Cruz is of a similar nature it would have been designed to house the 300 inhabitants known to have lived there. The large structure currently under excavation at Santa Cruz appears to be of a rectangular nature rather than round as found at San Luis. This may indicate a change in architectural style due to Spanish influence. In any case, the structure at the Santa Cruz site is likely to be substantially larger than what is now uncovered. Additional excavation of the site is needed to fully understand the history and landscape of Santa Cruz.

Artifact analysis has yielded a wealth of information for understanding of how indigenous groups lived and worked at the Santa Cruz mission. Researchers have learned from faunal remains about the types of shellfish, fish, mammals and reptiles that made up the Native American diet. The recovery of corn cobs and corn kernels have taught researchers the types of maize eaten and allowed for a comparison of diet to types found throughout the region. This may give us an idea of where this crop originated within the New World and may indicate trading patterns. Other remains found at the site from previous years included peach pits and domesticated pig bones. These morsels are noted in the mission period documents from this era and finding evidence of them has led to the validation of historical documents.

Through artifact analysis, the research of historical documents and the recent discovery of structural features, the Park has verified the location of the Santa Cruz y San Bueneventura de Guadalquini mission at Cedar Point. Future cooperative efforts with the University of North Florida will enable the Park to better define the mission landscape, locate other areas of occupation and offer insight as to how the indigenous groups of the Southeast lived.

Efforts began to Christianize the Native American population within the first few years after Pedro Menendez’s victory over the French in Florida and his establishment of the city of St. Augustine. At this time, native people far outnumbered European settlers, and all were surrounded by forests, estuaries, marsh, swamps and rivers. In their new colony, the Spanish were responsible for setting up a productive, profitable and Catholic settlement. Not all Spaniards had the same agendas in Florida. Some wished to use the Native Americans as laborers and important allies for the new colony, while some were genuinely devoted to the ideal of saving their souls through religious conversion. Many probably fell somewhere in the middle. Missionaries eagerly began their work. Most Native Americans in north Florida were semi-nomadic (meaning they moved their settlement from time to time) and were dispersed throughout the countryside. In order to convert them, missionaries needed to gather the Native Americans into permanent settlements. By the 1580s, Spanish Franciscan friars set up a system of missions throughout Florida. Missions were Spanish-style self-sufficient villages. Native Americans lived in and around these villages, where they could be observed and taught Catholic and European beliefs and customs. Often these missions were located at or near important native villages and towns.

One important mission that existed within today’s Preserve boundaries was San Juan del Puerto, on Fort George Island. The mission was established sometime in the 1570s and was one of the largest missions, serving nine smaller villages. The mission was one of many set up by the Franciscans throughout the new colony of Florida.

San Juan del Puerto served the Timucua, who already had a large village on the island. It is believed that the mission was built on or near the site of the existing village, along the west side of the island. Not much is known about life at San Juan del Puerto. No standing buildings remain at the mission. Limited archaeological work has been done, and there are documents left by the friars that shed some light on life at San Juan del Puerto.

Father Francisco Pareja was one of the most prominent Franciscans at the north Florida missions. He served as a spokesman for his fellow Franciscans, declaring that “we are the ones who bear the burden and the heats, and we are the ones who are subduing and conquering the land.” Pareja is remembered for his work in writing down the Timucua language and producing religious works in both Timucua and Spanish to help the missionaries and their converts communicate. He published three catechisms, one confession, and other religious documents, as well as a grammar of the Timucua language. Since Pareja lived at San Juan del Puerto for most of his time in Florida, the people who lived at that mission worked closely with him and his books. Pareja wrote that “many Indian men and women have learned to read in less than six months, and they write letters to one another in their own language.” Since there are no Timucua speakers alive today, Pareja’s works are the only source we have for understanding the Timucua language.

For the Timucua and other Native American people, life at a mission village was substantially different from life outside it. At the mission, a sedentary, non-nomadic way of life was promoted, with a focus on farming and labor. Corn, wheat and vegetables were raised, and part of the Natives’ crops was taken as tribute to the colonial government. Not much is known about the daily life of the men, women and children who lived in and near the mission villages, while working and receiving religious instruction. The Timucua from the missions were drafted to work as transporters, couriers, cattle ranchers, or river pilots. It is difficult to determine what the Timucua thought of mission life and the colonial government. Some were drawn to the missions for protection from other tribes, and some embraced the new life and teachings. Some likely pretended to conform to Catholic life while still maintaining Timucua religious beliefs. Some accepted the Spanish religious authorities but rejected the political and military authorities. In the 1650s, many Timucua, including some from San Juan del Puerto, rebelled against the Spanish military. This rebellion was led by chiefs and nobles attempting to regain the power and provinces they and their ancestors had once controlled. The rebellion was violent, but ultimately unsuccessful. By this time, the population of Timucua had already begun to decline, due largely to diseases like smallpox brought over by the Europeans.

Population decline among the Timucua practically emptied the missions, even San Juan del Puerto, which was one of the largest missions. Guale people from Georgia traveled south and settled into the depopulated missions of Northeast Florida. The British began attacking Florida in the 1760s with the intention of gaining some territory as a colony, and enslaved some of the Natives captured in the attacks. Missions, being concentrations of people and symbols of Spanish power, were frequently targeted, and fear spread that the British wanted to enslave all natives. Smaller missions closed, and larger missions moved closer to the city of St. Augustine for protection. In 1736 San Juan del Puerto, now quite small because of population decline, was attacked and destroyed, its wood buildings dismantled or burned. The former inhabitants gathered and reformed the mission outside the walls of St. Augustine. A few years later, the mission closed forever. Today there are no Timucua left in Florida. There are no standing structures on Fort George Island to bear witness to the large mission of San Juan del Puerto.

Francisco Pareja to the Spanish Crown, St. Augustine 8 March 1599, Archivo General des Indias, Seville, Spain, 54-5-20/6 (photocopy in the Stetson Collection, P. K. Yonge Library of Florida History, Gainesville, Florida), as quoted in Daniel Stowell, Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve Historic Resource Study , National Park Service, 1999.

For more information on current mission archaeology taking place in the Preserve click here.

Archaeological investigations at some of the Kingsley slave cabins produced artifacts that give us a glimpse into daily life at this community of enslaved people.

Hundreds of artifacts were recovered during the archaeological excavations in 1968 and 1981. Images from left to right: ginger beer bottle, ceramic and glass fragments, metal cross, bead. Gardening, hunting, fishing, and cooking occupied time after plantation work was finished. Clay pipes, handmade clay marbles, a harmonica, toothbrush, brass bell, and glass inkwell are other possessions found at the slave cabins – intriguing traces of the occupants’ personal lives. The 1968 excavation is considered by some to be the beginning of African American archaeology. It was not the first place where a dig revealed evidence of African American lives, but it was the first place where the research question was specifically focused on the African and African-American experience.

In 2006, the University of Florida began a multi-year project at the slave quarters. These field schools have revealed more about lives of enslaved people. Artifacts provide insight into every day life, food ways, and religion. Among the discoveries was the location of the graveyard at Kingsley Plantation.

In spite of their small, size, these artifacts have been the only clues to the daily activities of the inhabitants of the slave quarters at Kingsley Plantation You have a role in protecting our archaeological treasures. Do not pick up items found on the grounds. Report illegal activities to a park ranger. Remember - digging for artifacts or removing anything from the park is illegal and robs us all of our heritage.

The Fort George Hotel (pictured at right) was built in the 1870s on the east side of Fort George Island, but burned in the 1880s. It was part of an effort to push recreation and tourism enterprises on the island.

During the 1920s two country clubs were built on the island. The Fort George Club was built adjacent to Kingsley Plantation house (or "The Homestead" as the Rollins family called the site) and the Ribault Club was built on the empty site of the Fort George Hotel.

Both buildings still stand on the island, although the Fort George Club suffered from a fire in the 1930's which destroyed the wooden 2nd floor. The club was rehabed in the 1930s but the club era of the island would end with the pressures of the Great Depression and World War II. The Recreation Era of the islands history began with the clubs but continues today with the national and state parks. The Ribault Club is open to the public as a state park. The bookstore at Kingsley Plantation occupies a portion of the Fort George Club.

Negroes escaping from Beaufort, S.C., with plunder from the abandoned residences of these masters, stopped by U.S. Gunboat Seneca/The New York Public Library Digital Collection

(March 12, 1862-April 9, 1862) During the Civil War, the US military occupied Jacksonville on four separate occasions. Each period of occupation played a distinctive part in shaping the emancipatory experiences of freedom seekers in and around TIMU. On March 12, 1862, the first federal occupation of Jacksonville began when a combined force of US Army and Navy personnel entered the city.The US military remained in the city for less than one month. The evacuation of federal personnel from the city left many freed people in limbo as their liberation relied heavily on the continued presence of US troops. While the US Navy successfully transported some freed people to Fernandina and St. Augustine, both occupied by federal forces, scores of freedom seekers were left behind and in the hands of the Confederacy. The first occupation of Jacksonville illustrates the often-tenuous relationship between US military and civilian leaders and northeast Florida’s enslaved laborers."

"The US Navy and freed people developed a mutually beneficial relationship. Freed people often commandeered small boats or swam to reach the US Navy that patrolled the St. Johns River. US Navy vessels brought freedom seekers onto their ships because freed people often provided valuable information about the Confederate States of America activities. However, during the first US military occupation of Jacksonville, American commanders sought to either preserve or promote Unionist sentiments in the region by protecting the property rights of enslavers who had remained loyal to the federal government. Emancipation was not among the military’s objectives. Nonetheless, many freedom seekers who successfully claimed that their enslavers had supported the Confederacy were either carried by US Navy vessels to freed people colonies in St. Simons Island, Georgia, and Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, or transported to the mouth of the St. Johns River where freed people camps were forming at Mayport Mills. Federal policy, however, did not curtail the desire of freedom seekers to flee to federal naval ships.expecting their newfound liberation to be recognized and protected. What freedom seekers encountered when they reached federal lines often depended on a particular US soldier’s or sailor’s racial prejudices and abolitionist views. Although the federal policy intended to create a standard response to freedom seeker demands, many soldiers and sailors ignored their orders and embraced Black calls for emancipation."

The Timucuan Preserve has many great places to look for birds, butterflies, and dragonflies. The observation platform in the Theodore Roosevelt Area is a favorite spot for bird enthusiasts. Shorebirds are often seen in the marshes and beaches near Fort George Island. Butterflies can often be spotted in the spring at the Kingsley Plantation garden. Florida is home to more than a 150 species of odonates belonging to three families of damselflies and six families of dragonflies. They can be seen near any body of water or running stream, often sitting in sunspots breaking through the forest canopy along a river or pond, or patrolling the water's edge. Some species can be found in open fields far away from water while searching for prey or while migrating. Learn more from the University of Florida Entomology Department. Bring Butterflies to Your Backyard

so these birds right here are put in mergansers which is a beautiful waterfowl species the male has a black face with a beautiful white hood and given the name pudding and the females are dull brown and they also have a hood on their head as well and they're one of the wintering waterfowl here along the uh coast of florida this beautiful species it looks like they're uh going under and feeding on small fish aquatic invertebrates and other prey that they could find so really beautiful Visit our keyboard shortcuts docs for details Duration: 1 minute, 43 seconds The boardwalk on Talbot Island offers a great opportunity for bird watching. Here Isiah Scott takes us on a short birding journey through the area.

Join birder Isiah Scott on a bird watching adventure through Timucuan Preserve. This stop is on Fort George Island's Mount Cornelia.

Learn about birds significant to the Gullah Geechee community with Isiah Scott as he tours Kingsley Plantation.

Birder and Instagram personality Isiah Scott takes visitors on a birding tour through Timucuan Preserve.