Fountain of Youth: America’s First Colony

Last updated: October 30, 2023

While on a road trip to a Florida with my mom, we stopped and spent an entire day in St. Augustine and I’m honestly a little perplexed as to why I didn’t know about this very interesting city! One could easily spend and entire weekend exploring. We visited the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park (which you’ll read about below), Castillo de San Marcos, the St. Augustine Lighthouse (so cute!), Fort Matanzas National Monument, and Downtown St. Augustine (which has America’s oldest wooden schoolhouse!).

Ok, let me start by saying that Ponce de Leon’s Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park is more than what it seems. You could spend all day here… I learned so much!

• It’s the original site of the Nation’s oldest city.
• St. Augustine is the oldest successful European settlement in the United States. Colonial America started in St. Augustine 55 years before the Pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock, and 42 years before Jamestown!

Meet Ponce de Leon. The Statue below is that of him with an inscription that states:

Juan Ponce de Leon: Born in Spain 1460. Governor of San Juan (now Puerto Rico) 1509-1511. He made the first recorded sea voyage to what is now the United States of North America , making his first landing in the vicinity of St. Augustine. First European settlement in the U.S.A.

“… a captain, good man, and nobleman called Juan Ponce de Leon; I knew him very well. He is one of those who came to these parts with the first admiral Christopher Columbus on the second voyage he made to these Indies. Juan Ponce de Leon went to discover… he went in search of that fabulous fountain… that the Indians said turned old men young.”

He named this land first seen here, “La Florida” – “Land of Flowers” – this name later embraced what is now the United States, and is still retained by the state of Florida.

The park contains a well claimed to be the freshwater source supposedly sought by Ponce de Leon. While there is no supporting evidence that this is true, and we all know that the Fountain of Youth is just a myth, I went ahead and drank some for good measure.

Now, my favorite thing about the park: the peacocks! They are everywhere and I swear I was so confused about why they were there. I mean they are pretty and all, and I loved seeing them super close up and personal (especially when they would fan out) but it seemed like a random thing to have at an archeological park. THEN, I ended up researching what groups of animals were called after we had left (don’t ask), and learned that a group of peacocks has a few different names but the one that stuck out to me is that they can be referred to as a party of peacocks. I thought that was pretty perfect since they look like they are all dressed up to go to a party all the time with those gorgeous feathers. THEN I read that peacocks were a symbol of eternal life and it all clicked: THAT’S why there were peacocks at the Fountain of Youth Park! Perhaps I’m the only one in the world that didn’t know that but I put it together immediately after reading that a peacock symbolized eternal life. Now, it makes sense as to why they were there. Check out these beautiful birds!

There’s 15 waterfront acres of entertainment and information rich with American history, including the life of the first settlers and how they lived. I was legit impressed.

There are live shows such as how to make things from iron and even a live demonstration of a canon being set off!

Graves with human remains of the early settlers were discovered as early as 2017.

On April 13 1934, a gardener accidentally uncovered a skeleton while planting orange trees. The Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. was contacted and Dr. Matthews Sterling, the director of the Department of Ethnology and Archaeology came to the park to examine the remains. He positively identified them as a Native American Indian male. A month later, Dr, Sterling and his staff from the Smithsonian set up camp and excavated 47 catholic burials. All were Christian Timucuan Indianas, all buried between AD 1570-
AD 1650. Many of them were buried with glass beads that helped provide the dates and some of the beads can be seen in the gift shop museum.

The park is quite beautiful and as staged above, it’s worth taking at least half the day to explore and learn about this place!

And that, my friends, is the tale of the first colony in America. That’s for visiting with me. For more Florida adventures from this trip, see us explore The Keys, Dry Tortugus National Park, and Monkey Jungle!