The original Fort Caroline was destroyed by the French, after they had slaughtered the Spanish therein in April of 1568, after the Spanish had slaughtered the French therein, in September of 1565.

The lovely little Fort Caroline one can visit today is a reconstruction of a reconstruction built in 1964 (the first one was destroyed by Hurricane Dora that same year), based on a variety of evidence from the 16th century, none of it terribly specific about precisely where the fort was or exactly what it looked like.

The park in which Fort Caroline gracefully resides is beautiful, with what is advertised as a half-mile trail to get to the fort (which seemed much shorter than a half mile to me, but I'm definitely not complaining!). The Visitor's Center is great, with a small museum, a well-appointed lil' gift shop, and the Rangers on duty were friendly and engaging.

The park is a little off the beaten track, but it's hard to hold that against it (though it's just like the French to build their fort on a spot that would be inconvenient to major highways 450 years in the future!), and there's parking a-plenty, which may or may not have been because I got there slightly after the park opened. From talking to the Rangers, however, it seems the park doesn't get the traffic they feel it should.