Located at the confluence of the St. Marks and Wakulla Rivers, Native Americans used the site of Fort San Marcos de Apalache for thousands of years. The fort was built by the Spanish in the 1600s to protect Spanish missions in the area. The park museum displays pottery and tools unearthed near the original fort and explains the history of the San Marcos site, a National Historic Landmark.

It is the site of successive wooden and masonry fortifications occupied throughout the Spanish and British colonial periods, and by U.S. troops during the Second Seminole War. Capture of the Spanish fort by Andrew Jackson in 1818 was instrumental in events leading to the American acquisition of Florida in 1821.

Information provided by the National Register of Historic Places, a program of the National Park Service and the Florida Department of State.