Santa Elena – Walking with Chester DePratter

Beaufort Tours spent Saturday with 20 archeologists from all over the US who were in Beaufort to celebrate the 450th anniversary of Santa Elena. We shuttled the scholars out to Parris Island, where the Santa Elena settlement by the Spanish began in 1566 and lasted until 1587. Santa Elena was the ORIGINAL capital of Spanish La Florida, until the capital was moved to St. Augustine. At its peak, over 400 people lived in this early colony, which existed before the Lost Colony of Roanoke (1584), Jamestown (1607) and the Mayflower (1620).