Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve

Kingsley Plantation (also known as the Zephaniah Kingsley Plantation Home and Buildings) is the site of a former estate on Fort George Island, in Duval County, Florida, that was named for its developer and most famous owner, Zephaniah Kingsley, who spent 25 years there. It is located at the northern tip of Fort George Island at Fort George Inlet, and is part of the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve managed by the U.S. National Park Service. Kingsley's house is the oldest plantation house still standing in Florida, and the solidly-built village of slave cabins is one of the best preserved in the United States. It is also "the oldest surviving antebellum Spanish Colonial plantation in the United States."The plantation originally occupied the entirety of Fort George Island, described variously as occupying 713, 720, or "750 acres [300 ha] more or less". According to park literature, most of it has been taken back over by forest; the structures and grounds of the park now comprise approximately 60 acres (24 ha). Evidence of pre-Columbian Timucua life is on the island, as are the remains of a Spanish mission named San Juan del Puerto. Under British rule in 1765, a plantation was established that cycled through several owners while Florida was transferred back to Spain and then the United States. The longest span of ownership was under Kingsley and his family, a polygamous and multiracial household controlled by and resistant to the issues of race and slavery. The principal business at the Kingsley Plantation was slaves: buying, selling, and training them. Kingsley's slaves commanded a premium in the market. Raising salable cotton was a secondary business. As they were very isolated they also had to raise their food, in small gardens. By the standards of the day Kingsley treated his slaves well —he married one—, and they were loyal to him. Free blacks and several private owners lived at the plantation until it was purchased by the State of Florida in 1955. It was acquired by the National Park Service in 1991. The most prominent features of Kingsley Plantation are the owner's house—a structure of architectural significance built probably between 1797 and 1798 that is cited as being the oldest surviving plantation house in the state—and an attached kitchen house, barn, and remains of 25 anthropologically valuable slave cabins that endured beyond the U.S. Civil War (1861–1865). The foundations of the house, kitchen, barn, and the slave quarters were constructed of durable tabby concrete. Archeological evidence found in and around the slave cabins has given researchers insight into African traditions among slaves who had recently arrived in North America. Zephaniah Kingsley wrote a defense of slavery and the three-tier social system that acknowledged the rights of free people of color that existed in Florida under Spanish rule. Kingsley briefly served on the Florida Territorial Council. Kingsley Plantation was not Kingsley's only or even his primary plantation. His plantation on Drayton Island has not been studied. "At the other end of Fort George, now Batten Island, he built himself a house of some size, which is now [1878] in ruins; there lived Flora, his black mistress. He divided his time about equally between the two places.": 845  "In the 1830 census he owned only 39 slaves at the present Fort George site, but 188 at a little-known San José plantation, in Nassau County.: 69  In 1836 he moved his entire family from Florida, since Kingsley's free Blacks were ever more unwelcome and insecure, to a plantation called Mayorasgo de Koka, at the time in Haiti but from the 1840s in the Dominican Republic. Little remains of Mayorasgo de Koka.

Little Talbot Island State Park is a Florida State Park located on Little Talbot Island, 17 miles (27 km) northeast of Jacksonville on State Road A1A. The park covers the entire 2,500-acre (10 km2) island. Big Talbot Island State Park lies to the immediate north. The park contains maritime forests, dunes, and salt marshes on the western side of the island. Wild life includes river otters, marsh rabbits, bobcats, and a variety of native and migrating birds. Activities include camping, fishing, hiking, swimming, canoeing, nature watching and surfing. Erosion on Big Talbot Island, coupled with sand deposition on Little Talbot, have resulted in Little Talbot Island becoming the larger of the two Talbot Islands. The largest continuous section of the Machaba Balu Preserve lies just to the west of Little Talbot Island. Amenities include a full–facility campground, as well as a youth/group tent campground and beachside picnic pavilions. The park also has bath houses, a small boat ramp, a nature trail, and a playground. Bicycles and canoes can be rented at the campground. The park is open from 8:00 am till dark.

For the island in James Bay, Canada, see Chisasibi. Fort George Island is an island of some 500 acres (200 ha), about 5 miles (8.0 km) long,: 840  near the mouth of the St. John's River, in far northeast Duval County/Jacksonville, Florida. Part of the island is part of the 46,000-acre (190 km2) Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, celebrating the Native American population that was largely wiped out by infectious diseases brought by the Europeans. Fort George has the highest point along the Atlantic coast south of New Jersey. In prehistoric times it was a center of the Native American Timacua people, who left huge oyster shell mounds, which were used in the nineteenth century to create tabby concrete, present in the foundations of several island buildings. The Spaniards founded a mission to Christianize the natives; a friar there, Francisco Pareja, studied their language and left in his writings most of what we know about it. Under Zephaniah Kingsley, who farmed much of the island from 1814 to 1836, it was a slave training and trading center. Later in the nineteenth century it hosted the luxurious Fort George Hotel as well as a club for locals. In the twenty-first century it contains an important historical site, the Kingsley Plantation, on federal park land (part of the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve), and a small state park hosts the Ribault Inn Club, which serves as a visitors' center for the Kingsley Plantation and the island as a whole.

Fort George Island State Cultural Site is a Florida State Park located on Fort George Island, about three miles (5 km) south of Little Talbot Island State Park on SR A1A. It is home to the Ribault Inn Club, constructed in 1928 as a winter resort and now used as a visitor's center. The 46,000-acre (190 km2) Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, in Jacksonville, Florida is nearby. Fort George has the highest point along the Atlantic coast south of Sandy Hook, New Jersey, and contains Timucua oyster shell mounds. The park is part of the Talbot Islands GEOpark complex. The park contains features that represent distinct periods in history. During the early historical period Fort George Island was known as Alicamani. It was the location of the village of Alicamani, a major village of the Timucua chiefdom known as the Saturiwa. Timucua influence is noted by the presence of middens, large mounds consisting of massive quantities of shells and discarded food byproducts. On Fort George Island, the shells were primarily oysters. The island was later home to the Spanish mission of San Juan del Puerto, the primary mission to the Saturiwa. Under British rule in 1765, colonists developed a plantation on the island. It is now known as Kingsley Plantation, after Zephaniah Kingsley, who held it for 25 years. The main house, kitchen and numerous slave quarters have survived. Activities include off-road bicycling, hiking, boating, canoeing, kayaking, and fishing. Amenities include a 4.4-mile (7.1 km)-long loop bicycle trail, boat ramp, a 3-mile (4.8 km) hiking/biking trail, and a beach. The park is open from 8:00 am until sundown year-round.

The Ribault Club is an historic building on Fort George Island near Jacksonville, Florida. It is now home to the Fort George Island Visitor Center. The building was designed in a Colonial Revival architecture style and is credited to Maurice Fatio and Mellen Clark Greeley. It was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on May 11, 2000, and is located on Fort George Road. It was built in 1928 for winter recreation and is considered a legacy of Fort George Island's resort era. Winter recreational opportunities included golf, tennis, hunting, fishing, and yachting. The building is listed as a Historic Landmark by the City of Jacksonville. It became part of the Fort George Island Cultural State Park in 1989.

Pumpkin Hill Creek Preserve State Park is a Florida state park, located 12 miles north of Jacksonville, west of Big and Little Talbot Islands. From 1949 it has been part of the Talbot Islands State Park Complex.

Saint George Episcopal Church is an historic Carpenter Gothic style Episcopal church located at 10560 East Fort George Road on Fort George Island in Jacksonville, Florida in the United States. Built in 1882–1883, it was designed by architect Robert S. Schuyler of nearby Fernandina.On August 9, 2002, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places as St. George Episcopal Church. It was a mission of the Diocese of Florida until 1990 when it became active parish.

Boneyard Beach is a mile-long beach in Big Talbot Island State Park, near the city of Fernandina Beach, Florida, south of Amelia Island down the First Coast Highway. The "boneyard beach" is so called because of the bleached skeletons of oaks along the beach. By coincidence park archaeologists have also found fossilized mammoth bones on the beach nearly as big as the trees. Big Talbot's Boneyard Beach is not recommended for swimming but is popular with photographers. The beach lies beyond a 20-foot bluff.

San Juan del Puerto was a Spanish Franciscan mission founded before 1587 on Fort George Island, near the mouth of the St. Johns River in what is now Jacksonville, Florida. It was founded to serve the Saturiwa, a Timucua tribe who lived around the mouth of the St. Johns. It was organized by separating them into nine smaller villages. It has an important place in the study of the Timucua, as the place where Francisco Pareja undertook his work on the Timucua language.

The Napoleon Bonaparte Broward House is a historic home in Jacksonville, Florida. It is located at 9953 Hecksher Drive, and was the residence of Florida governor Napoleon B. Broward. On December 27, 1972, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

The Saint Johns River Ferry, also known as the Mayport Ferry, is an automobile ferry between Mayport and Fort George Island, two areas within Jacksonville, Florida. The 0.9 miles (1.4 km) voyage crosses the Saint Johns River about 2.5 miles (4.0 km) inland of the river's mouth and travels in an east-west direction for approximately 2,000 feet (610 m) on State Road A1A. It departs every half-hour. The alternate driving route uses the toll-free Dames Point Bridge on I-295 but is 28 miles (45 km) long. The ferry has been operating since 1874.These vessels operated in the ferry fleet: primary: Jean Ribault, built 1996, 40 vehicles, 206 passengers. stand-by: Blackbeard, built 1956, 42 vehicles, 207 passengers.Additional ferries which were in service included the Jean LaFitte which was a 26-car ferry, the Reliance, the Sirus. U.S.Coast Guard documents these vessels; some of the older ferries have been renamed to pass inspection. The history of the ferry dates back to 1874 according to the New York Times and the Library of Congress. The Florida Department of Transportation, which had always operated the service, had the Mayport Ferry line item budget vetoed by Governor Charlie Crist for 2007-2008. The City of Jacksonville had been contributing $200,000-300,000 for several years, so instead of allowing the service to end, the City of Jacksonville assumed full responsibility. However, they lost over $1 million in one year, and Mayor John Peyton announced that there was insufficient money available in the new budget. The Jacksonville Port Authority took over operation of the ferry for 2007 and lost $500,000 each year, but uses port revenue, not tax money, to underwrite the operation. After taking over, the JPA decided to cut costs and sell the Blackbeard, the backup vessel built in 1956. That meant that whenever the Jean Ribault had problems, ferry service would be suspended. On February 5, 2009 the ferry was put into dry dock for routine maintenance, but hull corrosion required an extra week of repairs, and there was no service for a month.On March 31, 2016, the Jacksonville Transportation Authority took over permanent ownership and operation of the ferry. The ferry helps connect segments the East Coast Greenway, a 3000 mile long system of trails connecting Maine to Florida.

Mayport is a small community located between Naval Station Mayport and the St. Johns River in Jacksonville, Florida. It is part of the Jacksonville Beaches communities. The only public road to Mayport is State Road A1A, which crosses the St. Johns River Ferry to Fort George Island. On June 3, 1909 through action of the state legislature, Mayport was incorporated as a city.