Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park

The Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park is a privately owned 15-acre (61,000 m2) park in St. Augustine, Florida, located along Hospital Creek, part of the Intracoastal Waterway. It has been touted as the likely 1513 Florida landing site of Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon, although no evidence has been found to substantiate this claim. Recent research by amateur historian Douglas Peck has placed another possible landing site in the vicinity of Melbourne Beach in Brevard County.

Fountain of Youth Archaeological Park
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Entrance to the Fountain of Youth Park (2010)
Location11 Magnolia Ave.; St. Augustine, Florida
Coordinates29.90731°N 81.31614°W / 29.90731; -81.31614
NRHP reference No.16000361
Added to NRHPJune 13, 2016

The park contains a well claimed to be the freshwater source referred to by Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas in his Historia general de los hechos de los castellanos en las Islas y Tierra Firme del mar Océano and supposedly sought by Ponce de Leon, but there is no supporting evidence. Archaeological excavations made by Dr. Kathleen Deagan on the park's grounds in the 1990s uncovered remains of the first Spanish settlement and its fortifications in St. Augustine.

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