Nearly five centuries ago, a Spanish explorer, Don Tristán de Luna sailed into the quiet waters of what is known today as Pensacola Bay, and charted what is a largely forgotten and overlooked chapter in American history. Spain’s viceroy of Mexico had charged Luna with establishing a settlement on the bay, which had been discovered by Spanish navigators the previous year.

Nearly a century later, Pensacola’s natural harbor would be described as “the finest jewel possessed by His Majesty…not only here in America but in all his kingdom.” Luna commanded a fleet of 11 vessels and some 1,500 settlers, including African slaves and Mexican Indians, many of them craftsmen. Luna’s contingent arrived in Pensacola six years before Adm. Pedro Menéndez de Avilés reached Florida’s Atlantic Coast, where he would found St. Augustine, still widely regarded as the oldest city in the United States. The Menéndez colony endured. Luna’s colony did not fare as well. On September 19, 1559, only weeks after dropping anchor, a powerful hurricane blew in from the bay, sinking all but three of Luna’s ships. The Spanish were prevented from establishing a foothold in western Florida and that hurricane became “the storm that changed history”. Luna dispatched one of the remaining ships to Veracruz, Mexico, in hopes of enlisting rescuers.
For more than a year, the settlers hung on, their numbers and stores dwindling. At last, vessels arrived to transport survivors to safe haven in Havana. By spring, only a military outpost remained. By August, its handful of soldiers abandoned the site and returned to Mexico. It wasn’t until 1698 that Spain established another garrison in Pensacola, where soldiers began to lay out a colonial town. Over the next century, a succession of competing powers—French, Spanish, British, then Spanish once more—would plant their flags in Pensacola sand until, in 1821, Spain ceded Florida to the United States and it became and remained a part of America.

The three distinct cultures that arrived in North America at the same time with Luna worked together to establish a colony on these fine shores. That more than one culture would arrive at the same time and work together is very unusual in U.S. history, but it’s also just how things were—and still are—in Pensacola. Pensacola has always enjoyed the influence of different cultures living together to make Pensacola the unique and beautiful place it is today.

After the Civil War, The Great Apache Chief, Chief Geronimo was held at Ft. Pickens for a time along with some of his family and followers, before being moved to Mobile, Alabama.
Pensacola, the city that has flown the flags of five countries, is a history buff’s dream. History is everywhere from the historic cemetery where the first settlers were buried to Pensacola Bay, where the sunken wrecks of the de Luna expedition rest. At Ft. Pickens the ghosts of Civil War soldiers are said to still walk. Occasionally one reports sightings of an Apache brave. Pensacola is the legacy of the many nations and cultures which shaped the city and its people.

Today, a historic district of parks and plazas roughly forty blocks square, shaded by old live oaks, reflects the city’s diversity. On streets that recall New Orleans’ French Quarter, early and mid-19th-century houses, constructed of brick or stucco and replete with intricate ironwork verandas and interior courtyards, reflect Spanish and Gallic influences. After succeeding the Spanish in 1763, the British built cottages of traditional timber, clapboard and brick and laid down the street grid visible today. The heart of the old colonial downtown is Palafox Street, running through its center and now boasting a mix of trendy shops, restaurants and galleries. The town’s original wharf was at one end of Palafox.

At St. Michael’s Cemetery, an eight-acre oasis of calm dotted by magnolia trees and crisscrossed by gravel paths, archaeologists are using ground-penetrating radar to map sites of the deepest, oldest graves, most of which are unmarked. The Spanish began conducting burials as early as the mid-1700s at the site, where, evidence suggests, colonialists and slaves lie side by side. Archaeologists analyze artifacts as they surface. During storms, trees have been uprooted, revealing cannonballs and grapeshot, and other artifacts from Pensacola’s past. History abounds every place you look in a city like Pensacola.

Pensacola’s rich history has spawned a passion for the past. For more than 20 years, archaeologists from Pensacola’s University of West Florida have conducted digs at several city sites. Since 2006, the Florida Public Archaeology Network, an education and outreach organization, has participated in excavations. It’s not only scientists who are at work: volunteers—locals and even tourists—can sign on to help for a day or a decade. They are still unearthing Pensacola’s history today.

Pensacola entered the twentieth century with a period of steady growth. Fueled by the building of railroads and bridges connecting Pensacola with Gulf Breeze, and Gulf Breeze with Santa Rosa Island, Pensacola was connected with the region. Throughout the 1900s, Pensacola and this region continued to grow.
The city of Pensacola has become a large regional business, healthcare, and shopping center. The Naval Air Station at Pensacola has provided the city with many jobs and a community of civic-minded families who have been a tremendous resource.
Pensacola ‘s growth spilled over into Pensacola Beach, Gulf Breeze and Perdido Key, beachside communities that have all evolved into vacation destinations of the first order.

Along the twenty or so miles of pristine gulf front beaches, the water is crystal clear. One can wade in the gentle surf and peer down at sand dollars and starfish. Dolphins dance above the waves in unison from time to time. Wildlife as well as sea life is abundant here. Pelicans and other shore birds fly lazily through the summer sky. The sun sets against a horizon where the turquoise Gulf of Mexico meets an iridescent blue sky.
The unspoiled shoreline is virtually unaltered from the time Spanish explorers first made landfall here nearly five centuries ago. Yet this marine wilderness lies only a few minutes’ drive from the center of Pensacola, the lively and historic city of 56,000 at the westernmost tip of the Florida panhandle, bordering Alabama. Pensacola boasts a surprisingly little-known past: it is the site of the nation’s oldest European settlement.

Spanish, British, then Spanish once more—would plant their flags in Pensacola sand until, in 1821, Spain ceded Florida to the United States.