Day 13

Georgia's Crooked River State Park

 We are spending three nights at the Crooked River Campground which is one of the most pristine campgrounds we've ever visited.  From here we'll make a number of side trips, some of which will take us to the coastal islands of southern Georgia and northern Florida.

After a leisurely start at our campsite we visited Fort Caroline, Florida.  Fort Caroline, on the St. Johns River, was originally discovered by the French in May, 1652, and then established as a colony in 1564, making it the oldest settlement in the continental United States!  Yes, it is older than St Augustine, and Plymouth!

Dominated by French Huguenots who were coming to the new world to escape religious prosecution, Fort Caroline was named after the French King at the time, Charles IX.   The native Timucuan indians welcomed the visitors who were ill prepared to fend for themselves.  These French settlers were slaughtered by the Spanish in 1565.  The French recaptured the Fort in 1568, but never attempted to colonized the area.  

A reproduction of a typical Timucuan hut.

The fort that exists now is only a best guess reproduction of what the original fort looked like, and its location is also approximate.  This reproduction was also only built to 1/3 scale of the original.

A gopher terrapin, one of the few year round residents of Fort Caroline.

The walk from the visitors center to the Fort was short, but we got lost on our return and ended up up taking a 1 mile hike along a nature trial.  We felt like we'd hiked much further, especially since the temp was in the high 70's and we did not bring any water with us. 

It was 1:30 PM when we left Fort Caroline, so following the advice of two different rangers, we stopped for lunch at the "Safe Harbor" seafood restaurant and market which was located next to the Mayport Naval Air Station.  It was exactly what we wanted; tables overlooking the harbor and seafood in a basket!  Joni had grilled shrimp, and I opted for grilled shrimp and a fried soft shell crab.  DELICIOUS!

The view of the Safe Harbor from the ferry to Fort George Island.

The ferry across the St. John's River

Leaving the ferry our drive to the Kingsley Plantation was very short.  Originally the entire island was owned by Zephaniah Kinglesy who established a "sea island cotton" plantation there in 1814 and continually operated until 1865.

At this time slave labor followed the "task system", each slave being assigned a daily task, and once that task was completed the slave could pursue any activity and keep any funds made related to that activity.  

One of the features of this National Park Service Historic Preservation is the focus on slave life on the plantations.  As we strolled the grounds we listed to a very detailed audio tour that was available to download onto our phones

2 mile long approach to the main house 

Front view of main house

View from front porch looking toward the St. John's River

Shackles used on slaves at this plantation for the slightest infraction.

32 tabby cabins were the slaves' homes.

The stables.

Kitchen and home of Mr. Kingsley's Black wife, Anna,  who he married when she was 13 and freed when she was 21.  Anna, actually ran the plantation for man years while Mr. Kingsley tended to his other plantations.

Leaving Fort George Island we drove north following the coastline, along highway A1A crossing Little Talbot, Big Talbot, and Amelia Islands, and eventually crossing back into Georgia and stopping in St. Mary's where we picked up some take out Greek food for dinner at the Riverside Cafe.

Our dinners were delicious, but huge so we were able to save 1/2 of each of our dishes, moussaka for Joni, and pasticcio for me.