Last updated: June 22, 2021
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What's in a Name? Online Jr Ranger Activity
The park was named for the Timucua-speaking people who once lived along the rivers and salt marshes in Northeast Florida. These rich natural resources attracted and supported people for thousands of years. Different parts of the park have unique reasons for their names today. Let's play a guessing game! We will name a site or area in Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, you can either write down your guess or play with a friend and each say your guess out loud. Click on the name to read the real story behind it.
Cedar Point boat ramp and hiking trails have been the home to people for thousands of years, a Timucua village, a Spanish Mission named Santa Cruz y San Bueneventura de Guadalquini, a plantation owned by the Fitzpatrick family and later the Broward family, and more recently it was known as Buddy's Fish Camp. None of these names stuck, rather the land shape, a peninsula pointing out between rivers, and the area tree, lush Southern Red Cedars, gave Cedar Point it's name today.
The Theodore Roosevelt Area hiking trails were never walked or visited by President Theodore Roosevelt. In 1969, a man named Willie Browne donated all his land to The Nature Conservancy with the stipulation that it or any future owner would keep the land in its natural state. Willie requested that the property be named for his hero, former president Theodore Roosevelt.
Fort Caroline and Charlesfort, both established as Hugeuenot colonies, were named for the French King Charles IX.
The historic site today known as Kingsley Plantation was owned by many different people over it's 100 year history as a plantation. The Kingsley name refers to several of the owners, Anna, Zephaniah, and their son George Kingsley, as well as Zephaniah's nephew Kingsley Beatty Gibbs. Although not the first or last owners, many of the buildings standing today were constructed by enslaved people while the Kingsley family owned the island.
The Ribault Column, today located atop the St. Johns Bluff, was named for French Captain Jean Ribault, leader of the expedition to establish a French colony in Florida.
American Beach was a beach for African Americans during segregation. It was established by A.L. Lewis founder of the Afro-American Life Insurance Company. The company name clearly influenced the beach but the street names in the community tell even more of the story.
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The streets of American Beach were named in honor of the following: Burney Rd.: I. H. Burney II, a president of the Afro-American Life Insurance Co. (”the Afro”) Ervin St.: Louis Dargan Ellis, first fulltime agent of the Afro, later a vice president Gregg St.: the Rev. Elias J. Gregg, pastor of the Mt. Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church, Jacksonville; first president, African-American Industrial and Benefit Association (predecessor of the Afro) James St.: James H. Lewis, son of A.L. and Mary Lewis, a president of the Afro Julia St.: Julia Brown Lewis, mother of A. L. Lewis Lee St.: the Honorable William H. Lee, secretary, vice president, board member of the Afro Leonard St.: James L. Lewis, grandson of A. L. Lewis Lewis St.: A. L. Lewis, President of the Afro, founder of American Beach Mary St.: Mary Lewis, first wife of A. L. Lewis Price St.: the Rev. Alfred W. Price, third president of the Afro Waldron St.: the Rev. J. Milton Waldron, pastor, Jacksonville’s Bethel Institutional Church; had the original idea for the Afro. |
The name Spanish Pond was chosen for the hiking trails and pond across from the park entrance because it was the closest pond near the land purchased for the Fort Caroline National Memorial. Congressman Charles E. Bennett chose the name Spanish Pond to reference the Spanish role in the Fort Caroline story.
People have lived on what we call Fort George Island for thousands of years. Timucua villages, Spanish Mission San Juan del Puerto, plantations owned by several families, Prohibition era clubs, and more occupied the land but the name comes from the short lived British fort now lost. The British established Fort St. George on the island to pay tribute to the dragon fighting saint and the King of England. The St. part of the name was dropped and people called it simply Fort George Island.
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