JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Situated on the St. Johns River off Fort Caroline Road, the Fort Caroline National Memorial offers insights into a short-lived French colony in 16th-century Florida.
Although not the original fort, the standing exhibit holds significance for the community, especially for local students who visit as part of their curriculum.
However, the fort’s proximity to the river has made it vulnerable to flooding and rising sea levels, prompting plans for relocation.
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Steven Kidd, Chief of Science and Resource Management at the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, has been at the forefront of the relocation plans.
“We are dangerously close to the river,” Kidd said. “We’ve suffered a lot of damage on our palisade wall. It was destroyed during Hurricane Matthew and took a lot of work to rebuild. We’re also losing some of our shoreline.”
To address these challenges, Kidd said the goal is to build a new replica of the fort closer to the visitor center, away from the river’s edge. It would be on the same property and distance-wise, not far from the current exhibit.
Kidd said continuing to make repairs is not only unrealistic, but also expensive.
“Let’s keep an eye toward the future and try to be financially sustained, responsible and build something that’s not going to be inundated when we have a storm,” Kidd said.
Kidd said the new exhibit will be designed to be more accessible for those with disabilities and accurate to the original fort.
Additionally, there are plans to reconstruct an indigenous village to provide context on how the French colonists interacted with the indigenous people upon their arrival.
“Congress has charged us with telling the story of the French,” Kidd said. “But we also want to put that into context of, ‘How did the French interact with the indigenous people living here?’“
Construction is expected to begin in the winter of 2027. In the meantime, the public will have opportunities to weigh in on the changes through upcoming comment periods.
As the community looks forward to a more sustainable exhibit, Fort Caroline National Memorial remains a cherished site for learning and reflection.
Updates on opportunities for public comment will be shared at a later time.