Fort Frederica National Monument

Fort Frederica National Monument
Fort Frederica National Monument
	St. Simons Island, Georgia, USA
Nearest city	Brunswick, Georgia
Coordinates	31°13′26″N 81°23′36″W / 31.22384°N 81.39324°W
Area	284.49 acres (115.13 ha)
Authorized	May 26, 1936
Visitors	293,041 (in 2011)
Governing body	National Park Service
Website	Fort Frederica National Monument
	U.S. National Register of Historic Places
	U.S. Historic district
	Fort Frederica in 2020
Nearest city	Brunswick, Georgia
Area	218 acres (88.2 ha)
Built	1736
NRHP reference No.	66000065 (original); 100005351 (increase)
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	October 15, 1966
Boundary increase	July 23, 2020

Fort Frederica National Monument, on

St. Simons Island, Georgia, preserves the archaeological remnants of a fort and town built by James Oglethorpe between 1736 and 1748 to protect the southern boundary of the British colony of Georgia from Spanish raids.^[4]

About 630 British troops were stationed at the fort.

A town of up to 500 colonial residents had grown up outside the fort; it was laid out following principles of the

King George II. The monument was listed on the National Register of Historic Places

on October 15, 1966.

History

In the early 18th century, Europeans called the land lying between

Electorate of the Palatinate built Fort Frederica in 1736 to defend their new territory. They named Frederica for Frederick, Prince of Wales, (1707–1751). The name was feminized to distinguish it from Fort Frederick

in South Carolina.

In the 1742 battles of Bloody Marsh and Gully Hole Creek, forces under Oglethorpe successfully repulsed Spanish attempts to invade St. Simons Island. Afterward the Spanish no longer threatened the colony; in 1749 the government disbanded the garrison at Frederica. Soon the village fell into economic decline, and by 1755 it was mostly abandoned. The town survived a fire in 1758, but after a few more years, it was abandoned.^[5] Naturalist William Bartram visited the site in March, 1774. Though it was in ruins he noted that there was still a small garrison there.^[6]

Fort Frederica was documented and authorized as a

National Monument on May 26, 1936, under the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration during the Great Depression.^[7] During this period, the Works Progress Administration

(WPA) sponsored numerous surveys of historic areas and buildings across the country to identify, document and protect the resources for the future, as well as to provide employment.

Starting in 1947, the

archaeological

investigations at the Frederica site. Using information from 18th-century maps and journals as guides, the archaeologists excavated sections of the fort and village. By correlating the archaeological data with the historic documents and excavating remains of structures, the archaeologists have provided important insight into Frederica's past and colonial history, a complex time of international rivalries.

As a historic area under the National Park Service, the National Monument was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966. Fort Frederica is open to the public and admission is free.