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 Fort George Island Cultural State Park - Jacksonville, FL
N 30° 24.600 W 081° 25.835
17R E 458642 N 3364296
Fort George Island Cultural State Park is located off Heckscher Drive in Jacksonville, Florida, USA.
Waymark Code: WM2T6D
Location: Florida, United States
Date Posted: 12/17/2007
Views: 74
Native Americans feasted here, colonists built a fort, and the Smart Set of the 1920s came for vacations. A site of human occupation for over 5,000 years, Fort George Island was named for a 1736 fort built to defend the southern flank of Georgia when it was a colony. Today´s visitors come for boating, fishing, off-road bicycling, and hiking. A key attraction is the recently restored Ribault Club. Once an exclusive resort, it is now a visitor center with meeting space available for special functions. Behind the club, small boats, canoes, and kayaks can be launched on the tidal waters.
At the park, there is a tabby ruin. This structure is believed to have been built around the 1850s and is a typical tabby structure. Careless hands and feet have damaged the structure, and threaten its survival for future visitors. It is currently undergoing restoration. Tabby was an ideal method of masonry construction for locations like Fort George, where outcrops of rocks do not occur. Use of oyster shells in tabby construction was first reported in the Americas circa 1580, by the Spanish and their slaves. On Fort George, oyster shell from Indian middens was gathered, burned at a high temperature, and then crushed to a powdery consistency. Crushed shell was mixed with equal parts of sand and water, and mixed with whole shell aggregate. The tabby mixture was poured into wooden molds and dried for several days before the next layer was added.
Park Type: Day Use
Activities:
Visitor center, hiking, car tour route, bicycling, boat ramp, canoeing, and fishing.
Background:
Fort George contains the longest record of civilization in Duval County, Florida. The huge shell mounds found on the island are evidence of Indian habitation dating back over 7,000 years. A major food source for the native people were the oysters and fish found in the surrounding waters. After eating the edible portion, the oyster shells were discarded, accumulating over the years to form enormous shell middens seen today.
Originally called Fort Saint Georges, the fort was built in 1736 by General James Olgethorpe, founder of Georgia Colony. The fort no longer stands and its location has not yet been determined. Rising 65 feet above sea level, Mount Cornelia is reputed to be the highest point on the U.S. Atlantic coast south of North Carolina’s outer Banks. To learn more about Fort George island and its former inhabitants take the 4.4-mile self-guided Saturiwa Trail tour. Guided tour books are available at the Talbot Islands Ranger Station.
Link to Park: [Web Link]
Park Fees: Not listed
Date Established?: Not listed
Additional Entrance Points: Not Listed
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