San Marcos de Apalache Historic State Park is a Florida State Park in Wakulla County, Florida, organized around the historic site of a Spanish colonial fort (known as Fort St. Marks by the English and Americans), which was used by succeeding nations that controlled the area. The Spanish first built wooden buildings and a stockade in the late 17th and early 18th centuries here, which were destroyed by a hurricane.
The stone fort was built beginning in 1753. It came under successive control by Great Britain, Spain, the United States and, lastly, the Confederacy during the American Civil War. A U.S. Marine Hospital was built from the materials of the fort. The US took control of the site again in 1865, and the fort site was abandoned.
On November 13, 1966, the fort area was designated a National Historic Landmark because of its significance and added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. Designated as a National Engineering Landmark, the fort site has been highlighted on the Florida Native American Heritage Trail. On October 10, 1962, Congress authorized designating Fort Saint Marks as a National Historic Site upon donation of the site to the National Park Service. That donation apparently never happened, however, and the site remains a Florida State Park and a National Historic Landmark.
The historic park is located in the vicinity of St. Marks, off S.R. 363, at 148 Old Fort Road.
History
In 1679, the Spanish built a wooden stockade at this site which they called San Marcos de Apalache. It was part of their colonial expansion in the northwestern Florida area. A settlement developed around the fort beginning about 1733. Another wooden structure was built about 1753. The wooden fort was destroyed and the garrison drowned, during a hurricane.
During the Civil War, the Confederate army took over the site and named it Fort Ward, after Florida seceded from the Union. U.S. forces regained control in 1865, in the last year of the war.
Remains of the stone fort are in evidence at the site. A museum and visitor center have been built on the foundation of the old hospital.