St Augustine Ghosts

This area is often referred to as “America’s Most Sacred Acre.” Commonly referred to as the chapel of Our Lady of La Leche, the Spanish style chapel invites you to spend some time in prayerful reflection.

And around the grounds are buried many Catholic Nuns and Catholic Brothers who served over the years on the mission grounds. It was here on these grounds where the first catholic mass ever said in the America's was said Sept. 8, 1565.

Many people over the years tell of seeing a Nun in Black Habit kneeling inside the chapel at the altar. Many who have walked in and set down have noticed a Nun dressed in a Black Habit kneeling at the front of the chapel. If you approach her or attempt to speak to her she vanishes at once. The same people often see the same Nun walking on the Mission grounds.

Below are some great videos of TAPS Investagation into the Ghosts of the St Augestine Lighhouse.

Castillo de San Marcos

A monument not only of stone and mortar but of human determination and endurance, the Castillo de San Marcos symbolizes the clash between cultures which ultimately resulted in our uniquely unified nation. The Castillo de San Marcos is a Spanish built fort located in the city of St. Augustine, Florida. It was known as Fort Marion from 1821 until 1942, and Fort St. Mark from 1763 until 1784 while under British control.

The Fort came back into Union hands on March 11, 1862 after the USS WABASH, a Union gunboat, took the city and Fort without firing a shot when it found that Confederate forces had evacuated the area and the local authorities were willing to surrender to preserve the town.

During this Second American Period, Fort Marion was mostly used as a military prison. In the 1870s seventy-four Indians from the Great Plains-- Kiowa, Cheyenne, Comanche, and Arapaho-- captured in the west during America's push toward her "Manifest Destiny", were imprisoned in Fort Marion for three years. Ten years later Apache were also captured and brought east. This time, most of the men, including Geronimo, were imprisoned at Castillo de San Marcos in Pensacola, and the women and children were sent on to Fort Marion.

Over the years the ghosts of Plains Indians have been seen both in the Fort and the ghost of one Plains Brave who escaped from his cell in the Fort and ran to the top of the Forts wall has been seen many times over the years. The brave who escaped was killed when he jumped to his death into 2 foot of water. He is seen as he jumps to his death over and over.

During the Spanish American War in 1898, almost 200 court-martialed deserters from the American Army were imprisoned within its walls. With the end of the 19th century, however, the Fort finally completed its long tour of duty. It was removed from the rolls of active bases in 1900, after serving under five flags over 205 years. Fort Marion was named a National Monument in 1924. In 1933 it was transferred from the War Department to the National Park Service, and in 1942, Congress restored the name "Castillo de San Marcos" in honor of its long Spanish heritage.

The city of St. Augustine was founded in 1565. Over the next one hundred years, the city was defended by nine wooden forts. Following the 1668 attack of the English pirate Robert Searle, it was decided by the Queen Regent of Spain, Mariana, that a masonry fortification be constructed to protect the city. In October 1672 construction began on the fort that would become the Castillo de San Marcos.

In 1900, the fort was taken off of the active duty rolls after 205 years of service, under five different flags. In 1924, the fort was designated a National Monument and in 1933 it was transferred to the National Park Service from the War Department. In 1942, in honor of its Spanish heritage the name of the fort was changed back to the Castillo de San Marcos. As an historic property of the National Park Service, the National Monument was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 15, 1966. The fort is co-managed with Fort Matanzas National Monument. In 1975, the Castillo was designated an Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

In January, 1861, Florida seceded from the United States in the opening months of the American Civil War. Union troops had withdrawn from the fort, leaving only one man behind as caretaker of the fort. In January 1861, Confederate troops marched on the fort. The Union soldier manning the fort refused to surrender it unless he was given a receipt for it from the Confederacy. He was given the receipt and the fort was taken by the Confederacy without a shot. Most of the artillery in the fort was then sent to other forts, leaving the fort nearly defenseless.

Since being transferred to the Park Service, the Castillo has been a tourist attraction occupying 2.5 acres (101,000 m²) in downtown St. Augustine.

St. Augustine was founded by the Spanish in 1565, and is the oldest city in the present-day United States of America. The first Christian worship service held in a permanent settlement in the current United States was a Catholic Mass celebrated in St. Augustine. A few settlements were founded prior to St. Augustine but all failed, including the original Pensacola colony in West Florida, founded by Tristán de Luna y Arellano in 1559, with the area abandoned in 1561 due to hurricanes, famine and warring tribes, and Fort Caroline in what is today Jacksonville, Florida in 1564. The city was founded by the Spanish admiral Pedro Menéndez de Avilés on September 8, 1565. Menéndez first sighted land on August 28, the feast day of Augustine of Hippo, and consequently named the settlement San Agustín. Martin de Arguelles was born here one year later in 1566, the first child of European ancestry to be born in what is now the United States. This came 21 years before the English settlement at Roanoke Island in Virginia Colony, and 42 years before the successful settlements of Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Jamestown, Virginia. In all the territory under the jurisdiction of the United States, only settlements in Puerto Rico are older than St. Augustine, with the oldest being San Juan, founded in 1512.

St Augustine also claims to be the most haunted city in North America and with everything that has gone on over the years there you can see why there would be lots of restless ghosts running around St Augustine.