Fort Frederica National Monument

How to Get There

Overview

Fort Frederica National Monument on St. Simons Island preserves the archaeological remains of a fort and planned town built by James Oglethorpe between 1736 and 1748 to protect the southern edge of the British colony of Georgia from Spanish raids. At its peak the settlement held about 630 troops and up to 500 colonial residents. In the 1742 battles of Bloody Marsh and Gully Hole Creek, Oglethorpe's forces turned back a Spanish invasion, ending the threat to the colony. The garrison was disbanded in 1749 and the town was abandoned by the early 1760s.

Named for Frederick, Prince of Wales, the site became a National Monument in 1936, and decades of archaeological digs have revealed the foundations of homes, shops, and the fort itself. Admission to the monument is free.

Things to Do

Tour the Colonial Town Ruins
Walk among the foundations of homes and public buildings and the remains of the fort, with interpretive signs explaining daily life in the town.

Visit the Visitor Center
Exhibits, artifacts, and maps tell the story of the fort, colonial settlers and soldiers, and the archaeology of the site.

Learn About the Battle of Bloody Marsh
Exhibits explain how the 1742 victory over Spain secured Georgia as a British colony.

Stroll the Frederica River
A short riverside walk looks out over coastal marshes and explains the waterway's importance to the town's defense and trade.

Walks

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Fort Frederica National Monument", released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0, along with visitor information from the National Park Service.