On the north side of Jacksonville, this 46,000-acre preserve protects one of the last unspoiled coastal marshes on the Eastern Seaboard — a mosaic of salt marsh, tidal creeks, and ancient maritime hammock — along with Fort Caroline National Memorial, the site of the first French colony in North America, established in 1564. The preserve takes its name from the Timucua people who inhabited these marshes for thousands of years before European contact.