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Fort Picolata

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Fort Picolata (Spanish: Fuerte Picolata) was an 18th-century Spanish fort on the east bank of the St. Johns River, about eighteen miles from St. Augustine (San Agustín), the capital of Spanish Florida (La Florida). Lying on the old trail to the Spanish province of Apalachee in western Florida, Fort Picolata and its sister outpost, Fort San Francisco de Pupo, controlled all traffic at the ferry crossing where the river narrows considerably. This natural pass was called "Salamatoto" by the Indians. The first defense works at the site, built soon after 1700 as an outpost of the military defensive network of St. Augustine, were little more than a sentry box surrounded by a palisade. According to the archaeologist Carl D. Halbirt, fort Picolata and fort San Francisco de Pupo were "hexagonal wooden towers 16 ft. high and enclosed by a hexagram palisade", but they were "dilapidated" by 1737. Both forts were rebuilt somewhat more substantially in 1738 as 30-ft. high by 16-ft. square wooden towers with machicolation enclosed in an 8-ft. high palisade. They were destroyed in the War of Jenkins' Ear (1739–1744). Fort Picolata was rebuilt in 1755 as a coquina stone tower 2½ stories high and enclosed by a palisade.