Pupo was first mentioned in 1716 as the place where the trail from the Franciscan Indian missions and the Apalachee, present-day Tallahassee, to St. Augustine crossed the river. The Spanish government built Fort San Fransisco de Pupo on the St. Johns River some time before 1737. Together with Fort Picolata on the eastern shore, it protected the river crossing and blocked ships from continuing upstream. In 1738, after an attack by the British-allied Yuchi Indians, the fort was enlarged to a 30-by-16 blockhouse surrounded by a rampart of timber and earth. During General James Oglethorpe's 1739-40 advance on St. Augustine, Lieutenant George Dunbar unsuccessfully attacked Pupo on the night of December 28th. On January 7th and 8th, Oglethorpe took two days to capture the Spanish blockhouses, then reinforced the fort with a trench that is still visible. When the British retreated from Florida, Fort San Fransisco de Pupo was destroyed. Although it was never rebuilt, the site remained an important ferry crossing, and in the 1820s Florida's first federally built road, the Bellamy Road, used the river crossing on the route between St. Augustine and Pensacola.