Today we decided to ride our bikes to Fort Matanzas National Monument. It is about 11 miles away. We'll spend most of that ride on Highway A1A. It won't be our most scenic bike ride, but we'll have lots of sun and very flat terrain. After biking through miles of suburbia, we came upon a section of A1A where the Matanzas River comes right up next to the roadway. They call this section of the river the Devil's Elbow.
"Devil's Elbow" was named after a treacherous channel, straight across the river, that existed prior to the dredging of the Intracoastal Waterway by the Army Corp of Engineers. The bends of the channel were known to be "the devil" to navigate. This area continues to be famous, not for its twists and turns, but for its great fishing. Here is a view of a couple of the piers out into the channel.
Back in the 1500s, every European country was fighting for a piece of North America. France set up a colony at Fort Caroline near the Georgia/Florida border (near present-day Jacksonville) at the same time Spain was setting up its colony at St. Augustine. They each were hoping to kick the other out of Florida.
In 1565, a group of Huguenot Frenchmen sailed south from Fort Caroline with the hope of destroying Spain's new outpost at St. Augustine before reinforcements could arrive. A storm blew the raiding party further south and their ships were destroyed. The Spanish got word of the attack and found the remnants of the raiding party at the mouth of the inlet. While the French soldiers, facing sure death by starvation or battle, surrendered to the Spanish in hopes they would at least live, the Spanish chose instead to slaughter all their captives. In all, nearly 250 Frenchmen were killed. From that time, the inlet was called Matanzas, the Spanish word for "slaughters." Here Kathy stands by the entrance sign.
The fort itself is located on a small island in the middle of the Mantazas River. The National Park Service ferries visitors over to tour the fort. We had about an hour before the next ferry, so we ate our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and then took a walk on the nature trail. Here is Dave getting lost in the nature of things, looking for the theory of everything.
Along the trail, a small memorial was erected to the French who were massacred by the Spanish here. However, the actual burial site of the massacre was never uncovered.
Fort Matanzas National Monument also protects over 100 acres of salt marsh and barrier islands along the Matanzas River on the northern Atlantic coast of Florida. The area is full of wildlife. Here are some tracks from Mr. Racoon as he made his way along the shore of the river.
Here is our first glimpse of the fort. The fort is 50 feet wide on each side with a 30 foot tower. It is built of coquina, a local shellstone. We took a pontoon boat just like this over to the island.
Fort Matanzas was built by the Spanish in 1742 to guard Matanzas Inlet, which could be used as a rear entrance to the City of St. Augustine. Such an approach would otherwise be able to avoid St. Augustine's primary defense system, centered at Castillo de San Marcos.
In 1740, Gov. James Oglethorpe of Georgia used the inlet to blockade St. Augustine and launch a thirty-nine day siege. St. Augustine endured the siege, but the episode convinced the Spanish that protecting the inlet was necessary to the security of the town.
Under Gov. Manuel de Montiano's orders, construction of the fort began that year and was completed in 1742. Engineer Pedro Ruiz de Olano, who had worked on additions to the Castillo de San Marcos, designed the fortified observation tower. Convicts, slaves, and troops from Cuba were used as labor to erect the structure, which was sited on present-day Rattlesnake Island and had a commanding position over Matanzas Inlet. At the time it was built, it was completely covered in white-washed stucco. It would have really made an impression on anyone sailing up the river.
In 1916, the U.S Department of War began a major restoration of the badly deteriorated fort. By 1924, three vertical fissures in the wall were repaired and the structure was stabilized; in the same year, National Monument status was proclaimed. Fort Matanzas was transferred from the War Department to the National Park Service on August 10, 1933. As an historic area under the Park Service, the National Monument was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966. Here is the view from the back of the fort as our boat approached the dock.
Ranger Matt led us up into the fort to talk a little bit about what life was like for the Spanish soldiers. This fort only had four guns, but that was more than enough to keep ships from coming into the river.
We had a few minutes to poke around on our own. Our first stop was the top. We climbed the stairs into the Officer's Quarters and then up a very, very small ladder to the observation deck at the top of the fort. Here is the view down.
After taking in 360 degrees of view of the river and marsh, we went downstairs to check out the soldiers' quarters. Six men had to share this bunkroom. Notice the bed only has room for four - because two men were always on duty at any one time.
When not defending the river from enemy attack, the fort also served as a coast guard station and a place where vessels heading for St. Augustine could get advice on navigating the river - especially the Devil's Elbow!
An RV adventure just wouldn't be complete without a selfie!
Just as we were boarding the boat to head back over to the mainland, our captain pointed out a couple of Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins swimming by. We were just able to snap this pic of one of them, just before they swam too far away.
Before long, we were back on our bikes. However, we did see one more dolphin on the way home!
Again, it wasn't the most scenic of drives, but it certainly was easy. We did pass one "photo op" at the St. Augustine Beach Veterans Memorial Sculpture Garden.
And so ends another adventure. Tomorrow is moving day. We are heading down to Mims, Florida - near Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center.
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