There’s only one city I know of where a store carries goat-powered washing machines and electric corsets, and the most gruesome jail in Florida history looks like a pink 19th-century hotel with gables, towers, and a veranda. Also, the roar of cannon fire can be heard seven days a week. That’s St. Augustine, America’s oldest city, where legend says that in 1513 Juan Ponce de Leon discovered the magical fountain of youth.
The Ancient City, founded 55 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, naturally has many “oldest” and “firsts.” Various buildings are preserved as museums and attractions with colorful reenactments, making St. Augustine a fun family destination. Here are some favorites.
Castillo de San Marcos
Built in the late 1600s to protect St. Augustine from pirates, the massive star-shaped fortress has 12-foot-thick, 33-foot-high walls, drawbridges, and artillery on the gun deck. Reenactments and cannon firings occur every weekend, when rangers give talks and volunteers in period dress pose with visitors.
St. Augustine Pirate and Treasure Museum
Housing the world’s largest collection of authentic pirate artifacts, this interactive museum puts the kids on deck, tying knots, raising the flag, and yes, firing a cannon.
Oldest Store Museum Experience
This reassembled 1900s general store displays thousands of salvaged items representing the finest merchandise of the day, including top-of-the-line manure spreaders and a dubious potion to cure any ill. In the giggle-worthy interactive tour, professional actors portray a clerk, a butcher, and a snake oil salesman to wow all ages.
Old Jail Museum
So why was Florida’s most inhumane of jails, with its blood-chilling gallows out back, built to look like a fancy hotel? Henry Flagler made a deal with the city in 1891: He’d be allowed to replace the miserable eyesore far from his posh new hotel but it couldn’t look like a jail. Storytellers in jailhouse stripes lead tours through the maze of cell blocks and dungeons.
Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park
To set the record straight, Ponce de Leon did not claim he had found a magical spring that would restore lost youth when he landed on the shore that he would name La Florida. In truth, he was just making a pit stop to take on fresh water for his crew. The best he could find was a sulphur spring (no magical taste in that, trust me). He also encountered native Timucuan people, relatives of the Calusa Indians. The fact that they’d been in residence for thousands of years didn’t prevent the explorer from claiming the land for Spain.
Fast-forward a few centuries to 1909, when Luella Day McConnell (aka Diamond Lil on account of the diamond embedded in her front tooth) blows into town with piles of Yukon Gold Rush money. Luella buys the beautiful acreage of ancient live oaks and magnolia trees where Ponce de Leon strode ashore. Near her well, she accidentally unearths a large cross laid out in stones, buried with evidence dating to Ponce de Leon’s landing. Having successfully promoted Dr. Edison’s Obesity Pills, she promptly prints up notices proclaiming her discovery of the lost Fountain of Youth. People flock to participate in the magic waters at 5 cents per dipper. Thus, St. Augustine tourism was born.
The next owner discovers human bones on the property, prompting archaeological digs that uncover artifacts from the Timucuan culture. Authentic artillery is found on site or acquired for display. A replica of the first Spanish mission is built. Reenactors are hired to tell the stories. A small planetarium is constructed to demonstrate 14th and 15th century navigational tools. A two-story globe, state-of-the-art at the time, is installed to recreate explorers’ routes and settlements. The well dipper is replaced by disposable cups, and hope for rejuvenation is sold in miniature bottles in the new gift shop. And at some point, a muster of friendly peacocks takes up residence.
Today, the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park continues to evolve. The springhouse now features life-size displays of Timucuan life and a timeline through the centuries. Interpreters are on hand to set the Ponce de Leon story straight. There are period reenactments, a functioning blacksmith shop, and a sample Timucuan village along the pathways. There’s a lookout to climb, a boardwalk over the salt flats and oyster beds, and musket loadings and cannon firings every hour.
While the park is still shaking off the mantle of an Old Florida roadside attraction, believers (and nonbelievers, just in case) still can test the rejuvenation powers of the “magical” springs. And the kids? You had them at cannons and peacocks.
Lots more here: