The National Park Service has proposed the creation of a new outdoor memorial to commemorate French settlers who built Fort Caroline in the 1560s and mitigate flooding concerns at the current memorial location within Timucuan Ecological & Historical Preserve in Northern Florida. It is inviting the public to comment on the environmental assessment for the relocation.
The current Fort Caroline Memorial exhibit, located along the bank of the St. Johns River, has received chronic storm and flooding damage. The park has continued to repair the exhibit, but the repairs are no longer sustainable or cost effective.
The new Fort Caroline Memorial exhibit will honor the French settlers and highlight characteristics of the historic Fort without recreating a simulation of the original structure. The current exhibit will be removed from the landscape, and native vegetation will be encouraged to reestablish naturally. The new memorial is also planned to incorporate existing and new accessible trails with site gathering opportunities and connection to the St. Johns River.
According to the Park Service, the purpose of the project is to mitigate damages to the Fort Caroline National Memorial from Hurricane Ian and address frequent flooding concerns from increasing tidal influences. The project will act on the recommendations provided in the April 2021 Facility Management Hazard Resiliency Workshop Report to redesign and construct the new memorial.
Under the preferred alternative, actions would include:
- Relocation, redesign and construction of a new memorial on higher ground.
- Salvaging significant exhibit items from the old memorial site, such as the vaulted entry gate and incorporating them into the new memorial site.
- Providing new accessible opportunities for the public and the new fort exhibit location.
The relocation would use disaster supplement funding from Congress. In 2023, the omnibus funding bill included $1.5 billion in supplemental disaster funding for the NPS to help parks affected by recent natural disasters. The funding is intended to cover the costs of repairing and rebuilding ecosystems, infrastructure and historically significant structures.
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