Starting at approximately 2,400B.C., Native Americans, known today as the Timucua, began to occupy the region that spreads from present-day Central Florida to Southwest Georgia. The Timucua were a loosely-knit confederation of tribes that shared a common language, but were not bound politically as a common people with a common governing body or headman. They would trade with one another, but also go to war against each other.

In Timucuan villages, there were usually two kinds of houses. One type of home, referred to as a long house, was built using poles for the frame, bark for the walls, and branches from palmetto palm trees for the roof. The other type of home was round and covered with leaves of palm trees.

The Timucua were known to have more permanent villages than the other tribes. Each family had their own home but the cooking took place in the village and meals were held daily in a central location. They wore clothing made from deerskin and woven cloth. The men wore their hair long with a topknot. Both men and women were said to have decorated their skin with elaborate geometric designs. Like other indigenous people encountered by the Spanish, they were considerably taller than the Europeans.

Like other Native Americans, the people called Timucua were skilled hunters and fishermen. The men made tools for hunting and fishing; they used spears, clubs, bows and arrows, and blowguns, to kill their game. Game included bear, deer, wild turkey, and alligators. They smoked the meat over open fires, and women would clean and prepare the animal hides and use them for clothing. Timucua also caught fish, clams, and oysters. Farming was another important means of obtaining food for the Timucua. The main crops harvested were maize (corn), beans, squash, pumpkins, and melons. Women cooked the meals and gathered roots, nuts and wild berries to eat.

While there are no official records, historians believe that Juan Ponce de Leon was born in 1460 in San Tervas de Campos, Spain. In 1493, de Leon sailed with Christopher Columbus on Columbus' second voyage to the Americas. On Hispaniola, Ponce became a military commander and was appointed deputy governor.

In 1506, Ponce de León discovered a nearby island called Boriken by the native Taino people. While there, he found large deposits of gold. In 1508, on orders from the king of Spain, he further explored the island, and renamed it Puerto Rico. He was the island's governor for two years until the king replaced him with Columbus' son.

Hurt by the King's action, Ponce de Leon sailed again, this time north through the Bahamas. He was in search of new lands and treasures, including a mythical fountain of youth. The Taino, spoke of a legendary, magical spring whose water was believed to make older people young again. De Leon explored many areas, including the Bahamas and Bimini, for both gold and the mythical fountain, but he never found either.

While searching further north and west in spring of 1513, Ponce de Leon came ashore at a Timucua village tucked safely into a small harbor off the Atlantic Ocean. Believing the area to be an island, Ponce so named this beautiful “new land” La Florida because it was sighted during the Festival of Flowers at Easter time. The village of Seloy was centered on the land that later became the Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park and extended about one mile to the north and one mile to the west, up to the San Sebastian River.

Pedro Menendez de Aviles was born in 1519. He became an officer in the Spanish navy, and in 1549, the king of Spain commissioned him to fight pirates. He did such an outstanding job that Philip II, who became king in 1556, granted him permission to start a colony in Florida to try to drive out the French. Before long, Menendez and over 2,000 sailors, soldiers, and their families set sail in 11 ships for La Florida.

Menendez and his crew planned to sail up the St. Johns River to Fort Caroline, a French settlement, but Menendez discovered that French ships blocked the mouth of the river. He withdrew and sailed to the smaller harbor where Ponce de Leon had discovered. He set up a camp at Seloy, and with the help of the Timucua Indians, he and his men built a fort. On September 8, 1565, he officially named it St. Augustine. This became the first permanent settlement in the United States. He then claimed all of Florida for Spain. Menendez would remain at this site for nine months before growing hostilities between the Spaniards and the Timucua would lead him to move his fortifications across the river to what is now Anastasia Island.

He was successful in signing a treaty with the Calusa Indians to trade gold for food and other supplies his troops needed. Menendez was a staunch Roman Catholic, and one of his goals was to convert Native Americans to the Catholic faith. He requested that all ships coming from Spain carry priests. These priests became missionaries, which led to the period of Spanish missions in Florida history. Menendez went back to Spain to collect more settlers, but died on September 17, 1574, before he could return to Florida.

In 1868, Henry H. Williams purchased a large piece of land just outside of St. Augustine from Paul Arnau for $2,500 (2017 value of $41,533). Williams was familiar with the history of Ponce de Leon and experienced his first visitors that same year. A cross made of coquina, 15 stones long x 13 stones wide, was unearthed by B.A. Pacetti, an employee of H.H. Williams in 1874. Pacetti signed a legal deposition as to the circumstances under which he found the cross. Unfortunately, Williams was told that coquina was not available on the mainland in 1513, and had the cross re-buried.

Mr. Williams sold the property to Luella Day MacConnell, who made her fortune in the gold fields of the Yukon in 1898. Mrs. MacConnell, who told everyone in St. Augustine that she had acquired the nickname Diamond Lil while in Alaska, aggressively marketed the property as the Fountain of Youth. In 1908, an employee of Mrs. MacConnell rediscovered the cross of coquina, as well as a silver casque containing severely worn documentation that has since been proven to be of a parchment and ink that was contemporary to the era of Ponce de Leon’s landing in Florida. With this event, Mrs. MacConnell begins a quest to verify the find and prove, once and for all, that she owned the site Ponce de Leon’s fabled Fountain of Youth.

Louella Day MacConnell died in a car accident on June 23, 1927. On August 15th Walter B. Fraser purchased the Fountain of Youth properties from Edward McConnell for $100,000 (2017 value of $1,406,816). Much to the chagrin of the St. Augustine Historical Society and Scientific Institute, Mr. Fraser maintained the property as an attraction to educate the public about Juan Ponce de Leon and the Fountain of Youth. Mr. Fraser believed in the historical traditions of the property and sought to secure this site’s rightful place in American history.

A few years after purchasing Ponce de Leon’s Fountain of Youth in 1927, Mr. Walter Fraser elected to plant some citrus trees in the southern part of the area. In 1934, a gardener was planting orange trees when he discovered a skeleton. The police were called, and it was quickly established that the remains were that of an aboriginal Native American. Further research by the Smithsonian Institution revealed that the entire area was covered with the graves of the first Christianized Native American burials in the United States. Some estimates place the number of burials at over 4,000. Over forty years later, the pattern of burials revealed the location of the 1587 Franciscan Mission of Nombre de Dios, the First Christian Mission in the United States.

Over time, a large number of Timucua burials were exposed in the Park, and the “Indian Burial Ground” became a part of the memories of tens of thousands of Florida schoolchildren. Many people might have seen the image of the exposed burials on postcards and tourism promotional materials, but increasing sensitivity to the customs and cultures of Native Americans prompted the reinterment of the remains in 1991, together with a full solemn Catholic Mass.

Archaeologists have been excavating at Ponce de Leon’s Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park for over 80 years, and in that time the discoveries have rewritten history textbooks time and time again. Since 1934, archaeologists have made a long list of major finds at the Park, and excavations continue to this day. Since the mid 1970s, the major contributor to the work is Dr. Kathleen Deagan, Distinguished Research Curator Emeritus, University of Florida Museum of Natural History, who generally digs at the Park in the spring months. Her major area of excavation is in the first Settlement of St. Augustine, located on the eastern end of the Park property.