Fort Matanzas

Saturday dawned and there was sun!

Blue sky! It might be a great day for a little more sight seeing.

I set off for Fort Matanzas. I got there and found out that in order to get to the fort, you had to take a ferry ride across the Matanzas River. I stopped in at the office and got a ticket for the FREE ferry and stamped my National Park Service Passport. I had about half an hour until the ferry boarding, so I decided to take a stroll on the nature trail.

I picked up a self-guided brochure and set off on the trail.

One of the plants it pointed out was yaupon holly. The red berries were bright dots of color in the brush. There was also the ubiquitous saw palmetto. In fact, it is so ever present that I didn’t even bother to take a picture of it.

They also gave information about the resurrection fern. It grows on the live oak. During times of drought, it turns brown and withers. When there is rain, they come back to life. I guess the rain is good for the resurrection ferns.

There was also a memorial of the massacre of the French by the Spanish. The French, lead by Ribault, surrendered to Menendez. They thought that they would be safe. Unfortunately, that wasn’t a good career move on Ribault’s part. The exact location of the massacre is unknown, but it was somewhere in the vicinity.

Incidentally, the massacre is the basis for the name of this body of water.  Matanzas is Spanish for massacre.

After I finished my walk on the nature trail, I headed over to the dock to get ready for the ferry ride.

And the fog was starting to roll in. That’s the fort across the water.

We landed and the ranger told us to stick to the trails and the mown grass. The fort was on an island that was named for some of its inhabitants – Rattlesnake Island.

This is a smaller fort that was built in 1742 to prevent access to St. Augustine via the Matanzas Inlet. There was the square base that served as the platform for the cannons. There was also a cistern in it, as there is no fresh water on the island.

There was a rectangular tower that had two rooms and an observation deck. The regular soldiers occupied the lower room, and the officer had the upper room.

The entrance to the observation deck was through the officer’s room. So much for private quarters.

If you have been reading my posts, I am sure you can identify the building material.

Coquina, right?

Right.

The fog was really rolling in by the time we left. In fact, my glasses kept misting over.

On the way back , the ranger answered my question about the speed of the water. She said that people sometimes call this body of water a river, but it is really a tidal estuary.

https://www.facebook.com/kalamazookim/videos/10153359762701989/

The water rushing by is the tide going out.

The ranger also told me that I could see the remains of the Old Spanish Coquina Quarry on Anastasia Island, so I decided to take that route back to the campground.

The quarry had been abandoned for many years, and it was kind of difficult to see where it had been. I did see some coquina that must have been left behind.

There was an interpretive sign with photos of men quarrying coquina in the early 20th century.

It was a rather gloomy day, and it was about time for dinner. So, I decided to get a little something before I returned to the campground.

I stopped at Sonny’s BBQ. It is a southern barbecue chain, so I figured I should try it while I was in the “sunny” south.

Between the leftovers from Columbia and the leftovers from Sonny’s, I had food for a few more meals.