San Marcos de Apalache Historic State Park preserves the remains of a Spanish colonial fort at the meeting of the St. Marks and Wakulla rivers, a strategic site repeatedly occupied by rival powers. Established by Spain with a wooden stockade in 1679, the post evolved after hurricane destruction into a stone fort begun in 1759. Britain held it after the Seven Years' War, Spain reoccupied it in 1783, and Andrew Jackson's forces seized it in 1818 during the First Seminole War. Later reused for a U.S. Marine Hospital, it also served the Confederacy in the Civil War. Today the fragmentary remains form a nationally recognized historic site.