Well, last time we left you we were in Savannah, GA and on our way to Brunswick, GA and the “Golden Isles”. The last day we were there, the rain finally let up and we were able to drive out to Jekyll Island to do a few caches, but seeing as we had stayed here last year there weren’t many new or interesting caches to do.

We then packed up the next day and headed for a week’s stay in St. Augustine, FL. It has been 39 years since we have been to St. Augustine when we used to camp in our tent camper at the Kon-Tiki Campgrounds right on the ocean with our 4 boys. I still wear a hand carved wooden cross that I had made for me by a wood carver who had a shop right on the beach.

On to some caches… Our first cache was GC1MVYP “Florida Geocache Benchmark Project” and was located at the St Augustine Visitor’s Center where you went in asked for the geocache container and they gave you the ammo box in which the cache was located. After we signed the log we copied the coords for the only geocache benchmark in the state of Florida and walked outside to find the actual benchmark. This benchmark is 4 inches in diameter and has a stud on the bottom that is 3 inches long that protrudes into the concrete. The concrete pedestal is approximately 5 foot deep and 12 inches in diameter with the lower part of the base approximately 24 inches in diameter.

Next cache was a virtual cache located a beautiful old church in the city GCNH8C “Cathedral Basilica”. This church dates back to the late 1700’s when the Spanish crown ordered the construction of a new parish church for St. Augustine. The property bounded by St. George Street on the west, Treasury St. on the north and the plaza to the south was chosen as the site. The cornerstone was laid in 1793 and the church was completed in August 1797. The first Mass was celebrated on December 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. The church was “America’s First Parish and continues to serve the residents and visitors of St. Augustine today.

Next was another virtual cache GCB34B “Hot Shots” which was located outside the walls of the Castillo San Marcos which is the Spanish built fort in the city. It was known as Fort Marion from 1821 until 1942, and Fort St. Mark from 1763 until 1784 while under British control. The Castillo is a masonry star fort made of a stone called coquina, literally “little shells”, made of ancient shells that have bonded together to form a type of stone similar to limestone. Workers were brought in from Havana, Cuba, to construct the fort. The coquina was quarried from Anastasia Island across the bay from the Castillo, and ferried across to the construction site. Construction lasted twenty-three years, being completed in 1695. The cache was located at the Hot Shot Furnace which was a structure for heating cannon balls to be shot at wooden vessels and to set them on fire.

Another very interesting cache in St. Augustine was GC1WM3Y “Old Spanish Quarry Earthcache. Castillo San Marcos Fort and the quarry where the stone was taken to build the fort. First we had to visit the fort and take a picture in front of it. Spanish colonists had built the fort from coquina rock quarried from Anastasia Island. It is the oldest masonry and only extant 17th century fort in North America. Next part of the cache was we had to go to the quarry where the coquina was taken and take some pictures and answer 3 questions about the site. The history of the coquina we felt was very interesting.

Coquina rock links Anastasia Island to the charismatic architecture and history of St. Augustine. More than 300 years ago, Native American Indians, enslaved Africans, and the Spanish worked coquina quarries of Anastasia Island to construct the Castillo de San Marcos fortress. In Anastasia State Park you may take a short walk down a shaded and signed trail to view the site of these labors.

When the quarries were active, St. Augustine (founded in 1565) was a struggling outpost of Spain’s American empire. Spanish soldiers built their homes and forts out of local pine, palm, and palmetto, but these wooden settlements were repeatedly destroyed or burned by pirates and raiders. Soon the Spanish discovered a better building material on Anastasia Island: coquina rock.

Acquisition of coquina rock was difficult, but resulted in durable and solid buildings. The workers hewed out squares of the relatively soft, wet stone with hand-tools and loaded them onto carts. Oxen dragged these heavy loads to the water, where the blocks were barged across Matanzas Bay to the town of St. Augustine.

Finally, in 1671, large-scale quarrying began in the stone pits. Anastasia Island was even called “Cantera”, Spanish for “quarry”. Early on, quarrying was limited by manpower, engineering skills, and money. In 1598 workers had cut out enough coquina blocks to build a gunpowder storage magazine. Finally, in 1671, the Spanish embarked on large-scale quarrying on Anastasia Island. At this time, the island was called “Cantera,” Spanish for quarry.

The people of St. Augustine didn’t realize they had happened upon an amazing defensive material. As the soft stone was exposed to air, it hardened. The Spanish waterproofed coquina stone with plaster and paint, so the coarse rock structures you see today, such as the Castillo de San Marcos and city gates, would have looked more refined. However, when besieging ships bombarded the Castillo, the walls simply absorbed the cannon balls. The Castillo de San Marcos was never captured in battle, thanks in at least part to the rock made of tiny shells, coquina.
Spanish, British, and Americans in turn prized coquina as a building material and went to great lengths to obtain it. By the late 1700s, Native American Indian populations were decimated and the Spanish primarily employed enslaved Africans to work the quarries. The quarries were not exhausted and today some coquina is still quarried commercially.

Coquina rock is part of a sedimentary formation that underlies much of the Atlantic shore of Florida.

The story of coquina rock begins in West Africa, where a similar rock formation is found. Coquina forms a sedimentary structure underlying much of the Atlantic shore of Florida, and geologists believe eons ago, before the continents drifted apart, these formations were connected. Sand and Donax variabilis clam shells accumulated when sea levels were higher and the area was underwater. Later, during a glacial period about 125,000 – 100,000 years ago, the sea level dropped. Rain dissolved calcium carbonate from the shells, cementing the mix of quartz and shells together into coquina rock.

The word “coquina” means “tiny shell” in Spanish. It was the name they gave to the Donax variabilis clam that was abundant on the northeast Florida beaches. It is the predominant shell in the rock. As you might have read it is very interesting how they mined it and built the fort from it. It was quite interesting reading about the coquina and wondering how they had gotten all of it from where they mined it to where they built the fort without all the machinery that is available these days.

Another piece of history we visited was another virtual cache GCGMAE “WOW That’s Big”. It was at the location of The Old Senator a over 600 year old oak tree. The tree has stood there as a testament to Ponce de Leon’s discovery of Florida and the Fountain of Youth which is about 600 feet away.

The rest of our stay in St. Augustine consisted of a few NRV caches and a lot of walking and sightseeing. One of our walking tours was Aviles Street which was named after the city of St. Augustine’s founder, Aviles, Spain and holds much more interest when its story comes to light. Many of the homes scattered along both sides of this narrow cobble stoned street are well over two hundred years of age, and the shopping is simply wonderful. The first thing you’ll notice if you’re starting from the main entrance is the huge wooden archway quaintly stating the name of the street. To your left will be a huge pink (yes, pink, no matter what color the original inhabitants chose to call it) house with wooden balconies. This is the Seth Wakeman House, a historical home easily noticed along the main thoroughfare. The Wakeman House is just one of the old homes you will see along Aviles Street. The Father Miguel O’Reilly House, completely restored and filled with period furnishings, is a great stop. Another stop was St. George Street which at one time was the main street of the colonial city. The Oldest House, located three blocks south of the Plaza at 14 St. Francis Street, is another traditional Spanish Colonial residence built circa 1706 and is the oldest surviving residence in the city’s history. This area south of the Plaza is the oldest part of St. Augustine, and there are several other original structures along narrow St. Francis, St. George, Aviles, and Marine Streets. Many are private residences, but some are open to the public. The street are closed to vehicles so you are able to walk up and down them freely and look in the many many shops and historical sites. On both sides of the street, old houses provide some beautiful photo opportunities with their overhanging balconies. Many historic homes are filled with shops of all kinds. One other interesting thing we saw across from the Cathedral Basilica was an archeological dig. It was in a small park across from the church and supposedly someone had found some old old old buttons there so the locals were exploring to see what else they could find.

After our stay in St. Augustine we headed to Lake City, FL, Mexico Beach, FL, Robertsdale, AL, Bay St. Louis, MS, Waveland, MS and Gulfport, MS on our way to “The Big Easy” New Orleans.

So until next time from New Orleans, this is Tweety and Coach saying HAPPY CACHING to all our friends in Myrtle Beach and around the Grand Strand!

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