On the banks of the St. Johns River in Arlington is a unique structure: Fort Caroline. The fort is a replica modeled after the French settlement of the same name that was built in 1564. The fort was later destroyed and no physical evidence has ever been found of its location, but documents at the time indicate it was somewhere on the St. Johns River. The present-day Fort Caroline is a wonderful amenity to visit and gives people an idea of what it was like for those French settlers. This article is intended to be a retelling of the story of Fort Caroline, the French settlers in the area, and the 20th century replica. Sources include Proposed Location of the 1565 French Huguenot Fort Le Caroline by Paul H. Gissendaner, works by Charles E. Bennett, the thesis of Michael P. Fleck’s The Archaeological History of the Sixteenth-Century French Fort Caroline in Northeast Florida and original French and Spanish sources on the subject.
The origins of the French settlement in North America began in 1562 with explorer Jean Ribault. Ribault was sent to the New World by Admiral Gaspard de Coligny with the goal of establishing a colony for French Huguenots, Protestant Christians in conflict with France’s Catholic majority. Ribault traveled across the Atlantic Ocean with three ships and 150 colonists. On May 2, 1562 Ribault reached the mouth of the St. Johns River, which he named the River of May. Ribault placed a monument at the mouth of this river to claim the land for France. The monument has never been found but it apparently had an impact on the local Timucua, who reportedly established a shrine around it. After exploring the River of May, Ribault traveled north and reached the Port Royal Sound in what is now South Carolina. Ribault chose what’s now called Parris Island to establish a French outpost, Charlesfort. Ribault left 27 men to defend Charlesfort while he sailed back to France for supplies.
