My cousin Debbie led me to the Lord on that island's shrimp pier back in the summer of 1975. Hence... I've always thought of that special place as my spiritual home. My family use to have reunions there every summer. Oh how I miss them, as I'm now living in sunny South Africa. God bless you all...
Fort Caroline was founded in 1564 by French Huguenots (Protestants). It is named after the French King Charles the 9th, whose name in Latin was Carolus on his coins. The fort was attacked in 1564 by the Spanish from Saint Augustine, 39 miles to the south. St. Augustine being founded in 1565 as a bastion from which to attack the French at Caroline. In 1565 the Spanish captured the fort without the death of a single Spaniard, they marched for three days and nights in hurricane force rain to get to the fort. They attacked at dawn, killing most of the Frenchmen in their beds, still asleep. Some fled to nearby French ships, and sailed back to France. In 1568 the French returned and attacked Fort Caroline with indian allies and burned it to the ground, killing all the Spaniards at the fort, which had been renamed in Spanish Fuerte de Santo Matheo ("Fort of Saint Matthew"), and the river Mai was renamed Rio de San Matheo, because it fell to the Spanish on St. Matthew's feast day of the Roman Catholic Church. The river it was on was called the Mai by the French as it was discovered in the month of May in 1562, but not settled until 1564. Later, in the 1600s the Spanish renamed the river San Juan (English Saint John) after a settlement at the mouth of the river, on its north bank. The St. Johns River is not drinkable, it is classified as being brackish, a mix of saltwater from the Ocean (Ocean tides can reach as far up river as past Orange Park and Jacksonville). The only fresh water for the fort was Spanish Pond. But the pond could dry-up at times of drought and expand into a huge marsh with hurricane rains. The actual physical remains of the fort (1564-1568) have never been found despite numerous attempts over the past 100 years. Its general location is based on maps made by the French in 1565 and published in Germany in 1595. I have posted (2014) three articles on Fort Caroline to the internet, just Google "Mattfeld Fort Caroline" for more info. Old maps exist from the 1600s-1700s showing Fort Caroline to be in Georgia, not Florida. But scholars have determined these maps are wrong, the site is in Florida as appears on the earliest French maps of 1563 and 1565, and later Spanish maps of Rio de San Matheo of 1575 and 1601 in Spanish Atlases. Today's St. Johns Bluff appears in earlier Spanish maps as Barrancas de San Matheo "Bluffs of St. Matthew," and this height also appears as MONTE in Spanish, meaning "mountain." (Map of 1791 made at St. Augustine by the Spanish)
just got back from ocracoke today 07/22/2015, been going for 20yrs place has changed but one thang that hasnt is the fun and people and the heat ,after ten does of drinking and fun it will kick your ass
