Jean Ribault’s 1562 secret reconnaissance of the Atlantic coast of Spanish Florida was to mark possible locations for a future French colony, but he couldn’t resist Parris Island.
Instead of just marking the location with a marble column —common practice for the French — Ribault built a fort, named Charlesfort, and left a small contingent to secure the location while he went back to France for supplies. But with all their food destroyed in a fire, the crew mutinied, built an open ship, and made it to Europe.
The remains of the abandoned Charlesfort eluded archaeologists until 1996. When Stanley South was excavating a later Spanish fort on Parris Island, he found the remains of the French fort. Surprisingly, after the abandonment of short-lived Charlesfort, the Spanish arrived and used the exact same spot for their fort..
Excavations uncovered French pottery and also revealed the Spanish had dug out the old French moatand built new fort walls. After looking everywhere on Parris Island, it turns out the remains of old French Charlesfort had been hiding in plain sight all along.
