#67 A Spanish knight in Jackson County (100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida)

Flag of Spain flies over San Marcos de Apalache
St. Marks, Florida

The little known story of a Spanish knight and his exploration of our area is #67 on my list of 100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida.

Please click here to see the full list as it is unveiled.

Don Laureano de Torres y Ayala was a Knight of the Order of Santiago and newly appointed Governor of Florida when he was ordered to cross the Panhandle  and explore the territory between Pensacola and Mobile Bays. He carried out that exploration 321 years ago in 1693.

If Torres y Ayala's name seems familiar, it may be because he is the featured villain in the video game Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.

Don Laureano de Torres y Ayala
Courtesy Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

Entry into the Order of Santiago, which bore the Spanish name for St. James, was highly restricted. A candidate had to prove that he, his parents and his grandparents were of noble blood. Jews, Muslims, converts to Christianity, attorneys, moneylenders, notaries public, retail merchants and those without the wealth to support themselves were barred from membership.

In anticipation of the planting of a new settlement on Pensacola Bay, the King of Spain on June 26, 1692, ordered an exploration of the lands between that point and Mobile Bay. His orders were delivered to Don Laureano de Torres y Ayala in Mexico City on January 12, 1693, by the Viceroy of New Spain.

Sailing aboard a frigate from Havana, Cuba, on May 2, 1693, the governor reached Florida at San Marcos de Apalache (present-day St. Marks) thirteen days later. After making proper arrangements for supply by sea, he marched west from Mission San Luis (present-day Tallahassee) on June 8, 1693. Following him was a force of more than 100 Spanish soldiers and priests.

New Interpretive Station at site of Mission San Carlos
Sneads, Florida

The expedition reached the Apalachicola River at present-day Chattahoochee on the evening of June 9th. Torres y Ayala crossed over that same day with the priests and a small escort. They landed on the Jackson County shore and followed the trail up the hill to Mission San Carlos.

Then the westernmost Spanish outpost in all of Florida, the mission stood on the site of today's Jim Woodruff Dam Overlook at Sneads. Its location is Tour Stop #3 on the Jackson County Spanish Heritage Trail and is marked by an interpretive kiosk.

Torres y Ayala remained at Mission San Carlos for two nights as he waited for the rest of his command to cross the river and bring up the horses. He was able to secure the services of five Chacato Indian guides that seemed to have some familiarity with the way to Pensacola Bay.

The governor described his departure from San Carlos in his detailed journal:

Blue Springs in Jackson County, Florida

On the 11th I started northwest, and, after traveling five leagues, pitched camp by an excellent spring which, they told me, flows into the Apalachicola river. These five leagues from the Chacato village to this spring, called Calistobe, are through pine groves, except for some woods around small ponds. - Don Laureano de Torres y Ayala, Journal Entry for June 11, 1693.

 The spring that early Spanish explorers called Calistobe or Calistoble was today's Blue Springs. They believed it was the head of the Chipola River, which they knew flowed into the Apalachicola near the Gulf. It is Tour Stop #1 on the Jackson County Spanish Heritage Trail.

The road that the expedition followed from Mission San Carlos to the spring was the original Old Spanish Trail. It followed today's Reddoch Road from State Highway 69 to Blue Springs.A section of the original pathway can still be seen just inside the entrance to Blue Springs Recreational Area and is Tour Stop #2 on the Jackson County Spanish Heritage Trail. Free guidebooks to the new 150-mile tour are available at the historic Russ House & Visitor Center in Marianna.  Interpretive kiosks mark each of the stops.

Cross of the Knights of Santiago

The Knight of Santiago and his followers camped at Blue Springs on the night of June 11, 1693. The next morning the resumed their march, following the trail to the northwest and the Natural Bridge of the Chipola in today's Florida Caverns State Park. Torres y Ayala's description indicates that water was high and the Natural Bridge muddy when he arrived:

...In a short distance we ran into considerable difficulty in getting both the horses and the men on foot through because of the many bogs, creeks, and woods; the horses became mired to their cinch straps, and the men on foot to their waists. However, our determination caused bridges and brush roads to be built so that we could keep moving forward on foot, with the unloaded horses falling and getting up again. - Don Laureano de Torres y Ayala, Journal entry for June 12, 1693.

The men eventually made it through the mud and bogs, emerging from the swamp near Blue Hole Spring. Because of the use of the Natural Bridge by early explorers, Florida Caverns State Park is Tour Stop #9 on the Jackson County Spanish Heritage Trail.

A Cave in Jackson County

Continuing forward on the Old Spanish Trail, they soon reached a large cave where the lost Spanish mission of San Nicolas de Tolentino had stood 19 years earlier:

...I pitched camp in a cave, a very pleasant spot called San Nicolas, where there was formerly a Chacato village. This cave is formed of calcareous stone and has a very large spring of water; there our entire pack train took shelter after we had traveled five leagues this day. - Don Laureano de Torres y Ayala, Journal entry for June 12, 1693.

The cave where the San Nicolas stood and the governor's command spent the night of June 12, 1693, has never been positively identified. It was likely one of several large caves about three miles northwest of Marianna on private property. An interpretive kiosk stands at the intersection of State Highway 73 and Union Road, which has been designated Tour Stop #10 on the Jackson County Spanish Heritage Trail.

The cave where Torres y Ayala camped?

Being a knight of royal blood had its privileges.  Exhausted from the difficult journey, Torres y Ayala decided to rest at the cave for an extra day while sending part of his force ahead under Fray Rodrigo de la Barreda to open a better road.  The Franciscan friar set out on the 13th with 25 men to while the governor remained behind to enjoy cold water and cool temperatures of the cave.

Leaving the San Nicolas cave on the 14th after his day of rest, Torres y Ayala followed the trail blazed by Barreda:

...Then I went four leagues west-northwest through beautiful woods of laurel, live oak, chestnut, oak, sassafras and pine. I spent the night at the same spot where the very reverend father, Friar Rodrigo, and his band has been the night before. On June 15 I continued northwest through a league of pine groves, and then crossed a deep creek.... - Don Laureano de Torres y Ayala, Journal entries for June 14-15, 1693.

Pensacola Bay

A Spanish league of that day was a little under three miles. The deep creek that the governor described crossing on June 15, 1693, was Holmes Creek. The exact site where he crossed it and left Jackson County is not known, but based on the direction of his march it may have been the old Marianna ford near today's Tri-County Airport south of Graceville.

Don Laureano de Torres y Ayala eventually reached Pensacola Bay. In doing so he completed the first known crossing of the Florida Panhandle by a European explorer. His march was the last known crossing of Jackson County by a Spanish military force. Mission San Carlos at Sneads was destroyed three years later in an attack by Creek Indians and was never rebuilt.

The real march of this long-forgotten Spanish knight and video game villain more than 300 years ago is #67 on our list of 100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida.

#73 Mission San Carlos (100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida)

View of Lake Seminole from the Mission San Carlos site

A long-forgotten Spanish mission that stood on a hilltop near Sneads is #73 on our list of 100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida.

Please click here to see the entire list as it is unveiled.

The first attempt by Spanish missionaries to convert the Chacato Indians of Jackson County to Christianity ended in disaster. Less than one year after two missions and a part-time church were established west of the Chipola River, the Chacato rose up against the priests and drove them from the area in 1675.

Restored fort at Mission San Luis in Tallahassee

Spanish authorities responded by sending soldiers and Apalachee militia from Fort San Luis at present-day Tallahassee. The towns and fields of the Chacato were burned and the people forced to flee into the woods. Many eventually joined the Alabama/Coushatta (Coosada) towns of the Upper Creeks near Montgomery, Alabama.

The Chacato who had converted to the Catholic faith, however, remained behind and relocated from western Jackson County to the high hill overlooking the confluence of the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers near present-day Sneads. Spanish documents first refer to their presence at this site in 1680.

Jim Woodruff Dam from Mission San Carlos site

Because the group of Christian Indians came primarily from the destroyed village at Mission San Carlos (in Washington County), they named their new village San Carlos as well. The chiefs appealed to the Spanish for a new friar to lead them and in 1680 the name of Mission San Carlos appeared in official documents.

For the next 16 years, Mission San Carlos or Senor San Carlos de Chacatos was the most outlying Spanish settlement and Royal outpost in Florida. This gave it critical importance as the launching point for numerous exploration and diplomatic parties that entered western Florida and Alabama during the years 1680-1696. Among these was the 1686 diplomatic mission to the Upper Creeks led by Marcos Delgado and the 1693 crossing of the Florida Panhandle by the exploration party of Governor Don Laureano de Torres y Ayala.

Restored Spanish church at Mission San Luis in Tallahassee

Life at Mission San Carlos for the American Indians who lived there consisted of farming, fishing and hunting, as well as Catholic Mass in the chapel. The mission likely had a smaller version of the restored church that can be seen today at Mission San Luis in Tallahassee. The priest lived next door in a convento or residence.

The arrival of the English in South Carolina, however, spelled the doom of Mission San Carlos and its peaceful inhabitants. The English wanted slaves to do heavy labor in the development of their American colonies and arranged to purchase captives taken by the Creek Indians for that purpose. With slave trading now a profitable enterprise, the Creeks set out on a series of raids against the mission settlements in Florida, rounding up men, women and children to be taken to Carolina and sold into slavery.

The church at Mission San Carlos was smaller but
probably constructed in a similar manner to this one
at Mission San Luis in Tallahassee.

It is a little known fact that the first large group of slaves in the American colonies were peaceful Christian Indians from Florida. Between 1693 and 1706, the Creek slave raids wiped out the Timucua, Apalachee, Chacato and other tribes that had lived in Florida for hundreds of years. The captives wound up living in slavery as far north as New England.

The Creeks first attacked Mission San Carlos in 1693. The church and homes were looted and captives taken. The raid did not destroy the settlement, but severely damaged it. The mission's days, however, were numbered.

Spanish friars served at Mission San Carlos in 1680-1696.

Creek warriors returned to Mission San Carlos three years later in 1696. They destroyed the Chacato village, desecrated the church, looted the settlement and made off with a large number of captives to be sold as slaves to the English. The remaining inhabitants scattered into the woods and swamps.

Mission San Carlos was never rebuilt after this 1696 raid. A village named San Carlos was established near modern Tallahassee a short time later and populated by Chacato refugees from the Jackson County settlement. That community, in turn, was destroyed by raiders in 1702-1704. Some of the surviving Chacato fled to St. Augustine. Others made their way west to Mobile Bay where they soon settled near the French, who also practiced their Catholic faith. Their descendants live in Louisiana and Texas today.

Jackson County Spanish Heritage Trail
(Click to Enlarge)

A major historic site, Mission San Carlos is now Stop #3 on the Jackson County Spanish Heritage Trail. A new 150-mile driving tour of important Spanish colonial sites in the county, the trail begins and ends at the historic Russ House & Visitor Center on West Lafayette Street in Marianna. Free guidebooks are available there.

An interpretive kiosk for the mission site has been purchased by the Jackson County Tourist Development Council and was erected this morning (6/4/2014) by the Jackson County Parks Department with assistance from the Town of Sneads and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Learn more about the Jackson County Spanish Heritage Trail by visiting http://visitjacksoncountyfla.com/heritage/spanish-heritage-trail/

#80 The Old Spanish Trail (100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida)

1823 map showing part of original Old Spanish Trail
Road from Mt Vernon Ferry (Chattahoochee) to near Marianna is the original.

The historic Old Spanish Trail - sometimes called El Camino Real or the Mission Road - is #80 on our list of 100 Great Things about Jackson County, Florida.

Please click here to see the full list as it is unveiled.

Jackson County is blessed with a series of roads that could rightfully be called "Old Spanish Trails." There is the old Pensacola-St. Augustine Road, which followed the approximate route of today's State Highway 2. Early maps also show a road running up the west side of the Apalachicola and Chattahoochee Rivers along the route of today's River Road (Highway 271). And, of course, today's U.S. 90 is often called the Old Spanish Trail. There also is a county road connecting Sneads, Grand Ridge, Cypress and Marianna named the Old Spanish Trail.

So which of these was the original or "real" Old Spanish Trail?  The answer might surprise you because it is "none of the above."

Apalachicola River at Chattahoochee Landing
The Old Spanish Trail crossed the river here south of the bridge.

River Road and the Pensacola-St. Augustine Road were both Spanish trails, but the former went north and south while the latter replaced the earlier "Old Spanish Trail" of legend. U.S. 90 was built in the early 20th century and commemorates the original Old Spanish Trail but for the most part does not follow its route. Local records. meanwhile, show that county road called "Old Spanish Trail" was built during the Reconstruction era along the telegraph line that connected Marianna with Chattahoochee and Tallahassee. Its name commemorates the earlier Spanish road, but it does not follow the same route.

Where the Old Spanish Trail crossed the Apalachicola

The "real" Old Spanish Trail can still be traced today, although much of the route cannot be followed by car.

According to the accounts of early Spanish missionaries, soldiers and explorers, they crossed the Apalachicola River between today's Chattahoochee and Sneads by dugout canoe. Their route came down a natural gully cut into the steep bluffs to today's Chattahoochee Landing Park. From there they paddled across to the Jackson County shore at a point just south of today's U.S. 90 Bridge.

The original trail led west through the vast floodplain swamps along a still visible trace below Victory Bridge to the high bluffs south of today's Apalachee Correctional Institution. From the point it intersected with high ground, it turned almost due north and followed the ridge up across U.S. 90 to today's West Bank Overlook Park at the western end of the Jim Woodruff Dam.

Lake Seminole from the site of Mission San Carlos

The Spanish mission of San Carlos (the second of that name) stood on the hilltop here in 1680-1696. At the time of its existence it was the westernmost outpost of the King of Spain in all of Florida. Consisting of a church, a home for its priest and a large village of Catholic Chacato Indians, Mission San Carlos was destroyed by Creek Indian raiders in 1696.

Mission San Carlos is now a stop on the new Jackson County Spanish Heritage Trail, a 150 mile driving tour that links eleven Spanish colonial sites. A guidebook is available at the historic Russ House and Visitor Center in Marianna and an informational kiosk will be erected soon at West Bank Overlook Park.

Section of original Old Spanish Trail along Reddoch Road

From Mission San Carlos, the trail wound west across the site of present-day Sneads. It ran slightly north of but parallel to U.S. 90 until it reached what is now Providence Church Road. This modern county road follows the route of the "real" Old Spanish Trail northwest to the point where it intersects with State Highway 69 north of Grand Ridge.

From that intersection, the route of the original trail is followed by Reddoch Road (Highway 164-A), a paved county road that leads northwest from Highway 69 to its intersection with Blue Springs Road (Highway 164).

Providence Church Road and Reddoch Road combine to form the single longest stretch of the original Old Spanish Trail that can be driven by car in Jackson County today. The route leads through the beautiful rolling hills north of Grand Ridge and past numerous ponds and small lakes, some of which were described by Spanish explorers.

Old Spanish Trail kiosk at Blue Springs
The trace of the original road is in the background.

Although Reddoch Road intersects with Blue Springs Road today, the original trail continued straight west into Blue Springs Recreational Area where a portion of it can still be seen today.

On the left just past the booth where visitors to the park pay their entrance fees an old road can be seen deeply cut into the hillside overlooking the spring. This is a rare surviving segment of the actual Old Spanish Trail and is now Tour Stop #2 on the Jackson County Spanish Heritage Trail. A new interpretive kiosk is in place there.

Tour Stop #1 on the driving tour is Blue Springs and another new kiosk has been built overlooking the historic spring.

The Spanish knew Blue Springs by the name "Calistoble." The name is probably a Chacato (not to be confused with Choctaw) Indian word, but its meaning has been lost. They believed the spring to be the main source of the Chipola River, which they labeled as the "Calistoble" on early maps.

Andrew Jackson marker at the Natural Bridge of the Chipola
Florida Caverns State Park

From Blue Springs the trail angled again to the northwest to today's Florida Caverns State Park where it crossed the Chipola River by way of its Natural Bridge. A portion of the road to Blue Hole Spring follows the original route across the Natural Bridge.

The Spanish referred to the vast floodplain swamp of the Chipola River as the "great forest of Chipola." Tradition that the name comes from the Choctaw word for "sweet water" is not correct, as the Indians who lived in the area during the 1600s were Chacato and not Choctaw. Most of the Chacato later merged with the Alabama-Coushatta people who then lived among the Upper Creeks.

The main group of this band now lives in Texas, although some descendants reside in Oklahoma. The exact meaning of the word in their language is not known.

Blue Hole Spring at Florida Caverns State Park

From the Natural Bridge, the Old Spanish Trail followed today's park road to Blue Hole Spring. From there it continued west along a route that can no longer be driven but can still be seen in places.

The original trail passed a large cave several miles northwest of Marianna where the Spanish mission of San Nicolas de Tolentino stood in 1674-1675. This cave has not been identified by archaeologists and could be any one of several near today's intersection of Highway 73 and Union Road.

The Catholic church at San Nicolas was the site of the first Christmas service in what is now Jackson County. Established in 1674 at the Chacato village of Atanchia, the mission only survived for about one year. Spanish accounts indicate it stood at a cave large enough to hold 200 people and inside of which a natural spring or karst window produced a stream of water that flowed from the "living rock."

Jackson County Spanish Heritage Trail kiosk in Cottondale

From the long lost mission site, the trail angled to the southwest and crossed at or near what is now Cottondale before continuing on to pass out of the county west of Alford at today's Oak Hill.

A military expedition followed this section of the Old Spanish Trail in 1677 on its way to attack a fort held by Chisca (Yuchi) Indians somewhere in present-day Walton County. The history of that raid is interpreted by Tour Stop #11 on the Jackson County Spanish Heritage Trail. A new informational kiosk for the stop stands next to U.S. 231 in the parking lot of Cottondale City Hall.

An important part of American history, the Old Spanish Trail is commemorated by U.S. 90 today. Its real path is an important part of the new Jackson County Spanish Heritage Trail. You can learn more about that driving tour at http://visitjacksoncountyfla.com/heritage/spanish-heritage-trail.

Be sure to pick up a free guide booklet at the historic Russ House in Marianna and enjoy doing some exploring of your own!

Searching for Mission San Nicolas - Jackson County, Florida

Historic Rock Cave - Site of Mission San Nicolas?

My previous post on the site of Mission San Carlos at Sneads (see Mission San Carlos)generated a lot of email and interest, so I thought you might enjoy learning about another likely Spanish mission site in Jackson County.

Of the three Spanish settlements thought to have been located in Jackson County, Mission San Nicolas was the oldest. Located in the secondary town of the Chacato Indians, San Nicolas was established by Franciscan friars in 1674, more than 336 years ago. It was the location of the first Christian church and the first known European home between Pensacola Bay and the Apalachicola River.

Trace of the real "Old Spanish Trail"

The Chacato were one of the most enigmatic tribes in Florida history. Also called the Chatot or Chacto and often incorrectly confused with the Choctaw tribe, they arrived in western Jackson County late in the Mississippian era (A.D. 900 - A.D. 1500). During the prehistoric era their settlement was concentrated around the Waddell Mill Pond site, a fortified village and mound group between Marianna and Campbellton. By the 1600s, however, they had abandoned that site and dispersed to three large and a number of smaller villages scattered through western Jackson County and eastern Washington County.

The largest of their towns was located somewhere in the vicinity of Falling Waters State Park in northeastern Washington County, although the site has not been located to date. The secondary town was west of the Natural Bridge of the Chipola River on the old trail leading from Blue Spring across the Natural Bridge to a forks between today's towns of Cottondale and Campbellton. The third largest Chacato town was near Campbellton.

Historic Rock Cave Entrance

When they were first encountered by the Spanish, the Chacato were extremely warlike. In 1639, when the Governor of Florida negotiated a peace treaty between them and the Apalachee and other tribes living in the Big Bend region, he noted the accomplishment was extraordinary because the Chacato had "never had peace" with any other tribe. It would take another 35 years, however, before the Spanish finally ventured to send missionaries west to the Chacato province.

The first mission, San Nicolas, was established at the secondary Chacato town in 1674 by an expedition that included soldiers, missionaries and Christian Apalachee Indians. Fray Rodrigo de la Barreda became the village friar and was left there alone to live among the Indians when the men making up the main expedition returned to Mission San Luis at what is now Tallahassee.

Historic Rock Cave

The mission, according to Barreda and other Spanish writers, was located at a cave so large it could hold 200 people. Inside the cave, he wrote, was a spring of water that flowed from "the living rock." The friar's home was located on the bluff above the cave while the church was located nearby. Surrounding this small group of structures was the Chacato village itself.

Mission San Nicolas was temporarily successful and an estimated 100 of the village's inhabitants converted to Christianity. The success, however, did not last. Less than one year after the mission was established, a portion of the Chacato rose in revolt against the Franciscans. One of their chiefs was outraged because a friar, probably Barreda, had told him that to be a good Christian he must give up his multiple wives and live only with the first woman he had married.

Fray Rodrigo de la Barreda was wounded in the head by a blow from a stone axe but managed to escape to safety at Mission Santa Cruz de Sabacola in what is now Seminole County, Georgia. Mission San Nicolas was destroyed.

The exact site of Mission San Nicolas has never been identified, but there is a strong probability that it was located at the historic Arch Cave northwest of Marianna. Of all the caves along the route of the old trail followed by the Spanish, it is the only one that closely matches the descriptions given by the Spanish writers. Not only is it large enough to hold a large number of people, it holds a natural spring that flows from one of the walls. The cave is protected and is on private property. The photographs seen here were taken with the permission of the owner.

To learn more about the early Spanish settlements of Jackson County, please consider my book: The History Of Jackson County, Florida: The Early Years. ($19.95)

It is also available as an instant download for your Amazon Kindle reading device or free Kindle software: The History of Jackson County, Florida: The Early Years. ($9.95)

Mission San Carlos - One of the Oldest Settlements in Jackson County

West Bank Overlook near Sneads

Noted for its beautiful views of Lake Seminole, the West Bank Overlook near Sneads also holds the distinction of being one of the most significant historic sites in Jackson County. It was here during the 1680s and 1690s that the Spanish maintained the mission of San Carlos de Chacatos.

A mission was a religious center where Franciscan friars worked to convert Native Americans - in this case Chacato Indians - to Christianity.

View of Jim Woodruff Dam from the Overlook

Mission San Carlos was established in around 1680 to serve a group of Christian Chacatos that had relocated to the hilltop near Sneads from their original homes west of the Chipola River in Jackson and Washington County. A 1675 rebellion involving part of the tribe had destroyed the original Mission San Carlos, thought to have been located near Falling Waters State Park in Washington County. A sister mission, San Nicolas, was destroyed in what is now Jackson County at the same time.

Both of these original missions had been dedicated in 1674, but lasted for less than one year. Spanish soldiers and allied Apalachee warriors retaliated against the Chatot by invading their territory and destroying their towns and fields.

Lake Seminole

Not all of the Chacato had been involved in the rebellion, however, as several hundred members of the tribe had accepted Christianity through the teachings of the Franciscans. Opting to remain close to the Spanish, they relocated to the confluence of the Chattahoochee and Flint Rivers (today's Lake Seminole), where they built a new town on the high ground where the West Bank Overlook can be seen today. The site was then directly across the Chattahoochee River from Mission Santa Cruz de Sabacola, which stood in what is now Seminole County, Georgia.

In around 1680 the Franciscans responded to the calls of the Chacato and established a new Mission San Carlos at the site near Sneads. It would remain for the entire time of its existence the westernmost establishment on the Florida mission chain and the most outlying post of the King of Spain in the Florida colony.

Part of the Mission San Carlos Site

This status gave Mission San Carlos a unique place in history. In 1686, for example, Marcos Delgado left the mission on a noted overland expedition to establish an alliance with the Upper Creeks of Alabama. Seven years later in 1693, Governor Don Laureano de Torres y Ayala rested briefly at San Carlos while making the first known overland crossing of the Florida Panhandle by Europeans. Both expeditions also stopped at another well-known Jackson County landmark, Blue Springs.

Another view of the Mission Site

Mission San Carlos, tragically, did not survive the decade of the 1690s. Attacked by war parties of Creek Indians from Alabama and Georgia, the mission was destroyed. Many of its people were slaughtered and others carried away into slavery to be sold to the English in South Carolina. The church was desecrated and its religious objects either destroyed or carried away as booty.

The site of the mission was rediscovered in 1948 by Florida archaeologist Ripley P. Bullen. Working on the hilltop at the west end of the then under construction Jim Woodruff Dam, Bullen found pieces of Spanish ceramics and other artificacts indicating the presence of the mission site. The West Bank Overlook now crowns the hill where Bullen conducted his work.

There are no interpretive markers at the site noting it as the location of the long forgotten mission, but perhaps the future will bring about an effort to place one there.  To learn more about Mission San Carlos and other Spanish sites in Jackson County, please consider my book: The History Of Jackson County, Florida: The Early Years.

It is also available for Amazon Kindle by clicking here: The History of Jackson County, Florida: The Early Years