The Haunting of Fort Matanzas
When you are visiting Florida it is easy to forget its
history. It is easy to get lost in cities
and beaches and theme parks. However, two hours North of Orlando, the oldest
city in the United States sits quietly on the beach whispering of ghost stories
and old wars. St. Augustine’s history
goes back to the very first European settlers in the Americas. Its stories are as old and tortured as any
and the history of Fort Matanzas bears witness to this.
Fort Matanzas is located on Rattlesnake Island just south of
St. Augustine. Fort Matanzas’ was closed
when we visited. Hurricane Irma had took
its toll and the boat that transports visitors to Rattlesnake Island had been
shut down and visitors banned. We could
not explore its haunted history or see it for ourselves, but its tragedies and
ghost stories seem to resonate more because we were banned from going.
Although the current Fort Matanzas was built in 1742, its
history is much older than that.
Matanzas means slaughter in Spanish and there is a reason the fort is
named after a slaughter. In 1562, when
Spain and France were locked in a battle for Supremacy, King Phillip II of
Spain learned that the French, under the leadership of Rene De Laudonniere had
established a colony on Spanish land in Florida. The French settlers were Protestants and
Spain was the most devoutly Catholic country in Europe. When King Phillip learned the settlers were
Huguenots he acted fiercely.
After a series of battles and some political maneuvering, over 300 unarmed
Huguenots were slaughtered after they failed to convert to Catholicism. A few survived the massacre after converting
to Catholicism, but most were slaughtered.
Thus the fort built on Rattlesnake Island and the River it guarded were
both named Mantanzas after the slaughter.
Death followed the Small Island and fort after that. The current Fort, built in 1745, saw many
skirmishes and deaths as the land transferred from the Spanish to the British
to the Americans. During its brief
period of use this stone, Gothic fort was used to house convicts, slaves, and
prisoners. After the Americans took the
fort it was never used as a fort and quickly fell into disrepair until the
National Park Service took over.
Now, it is visited by tourists and its dark history is
mostly a memory. Those who visit at
night, however, see its history in the ghosts that wander the island. They report seeing phantom orbs and strange
lights. Faces linger beneath the water
and shadows wander the corners of the old fort.
Its history still lives there in the phantoms that wander its shores.
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