OLogy Cards > St. Catherines Island

The Mission that was Lost and Found
In the 16th century, Spanish missionaries built churches along the southeast coast of the U.S., including one on St. Catherines Island. It was called Santa Catalina de Guale, after the Guale Indians who lived there and whom the mission was built to serve. In 1597, a small group of Indians led an uprising against the Spanish, and the mission was burned. The Spanish rebuilt the mission, along with many others along the coast. Over the next 80 years, the Spanish and British colonists fought over the island. Finally, in 1680, the British attacked the mission, and it was soon abandoned. Over the years, the mission fell into ruin and the remains were overgrown with forest. It was lost to history until it was rediscovered in 1974 by an archaeologist named David Hurst Thomas.