During the 1600s, the Island of St. Simons was the site of two
Spanish missions. The land that would eventually become the site of Fort Frederica was at one point inhabited by members of the
Guale, who sided with the Spanish, yet due to aggression by the English and their Native American allies, the island was abandoned by 1683. In the early 18th century, Europeans called the land lying between
British South Carolina and
Spanish Florida the "Debatable Land". After the
philanthropist James Oglethorpe founded the colony of Georgia in 1733 to provide a place where poor debtors could settle, colonists from England and Scotland, as well as refugees from the
Electorate of the Palatinate, built Fort Frederica in 1736 to defend their new territory. They named Frederica for
Frederick, Prince of Wales (1707–1751), although the name was feminized to distinguish it from
Fort Frederick in South Carolina. The site is also notable as the home of
John Wesley, founder of the
Methodist Church, during several brief periods between 1736 and 1737. His brother,
Charles Wesley, was the minister of the fort between March and May of 1736, before leaving in part due to a poor relationship with Oglethorpe and the settlers. 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. Naturalist
William Bartram visited the site in March of 1774 and though it was in ruins, he noted that there was still a small garrison there. Fort Frederica was documented and authorized as a
National Monument on May 26, 1936, under the
Franklin D. Roosevelt administration during the
Great Depression. 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
National Park Service and the Ft. Frederica Association, a citizens' interest group, sponsored a series of
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. ==Gallery==