RACE TIMES:
Saturday, March 5th at 1100 hours
Sunday, March 6th at 1100 hours
SOCIAL ACTIVITIES:
Friday, March 4th
2000 hours: Dancing at Harpoon Harry’s
Saturday, March 5th
1700 hours: BBQ Buffet at Harpoon Harry’s
1800 hours: Awards and Door Prizes
Sunday, March 6th
1600 hours: Cocktails
1630 hours: Awards and Door Prizes at Harpoon
Harry’s
DAVID HANSEN is the 2005 Chairman of the
Conquistador Cup Regatta
and BOB KNOWLES is co-chairman
Conquistadors will be landing...
Re-enactment of Ponce de Leon and his
Conquistadors Landing in Punta Gorda
March13th at Elks Lodge...
For the 26th year, the Royal Order of
Ponce de Leon Conquistadors will be celebrating the
landing of Ponce de Leon and his Conquistadors by
re-enacting the landing at the Elks. Ponce and his
men will be coming ashore at 1:00pm with cannons
firing and swords drawn.
Ponce de Leon was seeking gold
and the “fountain of youth” when he sailed around
the keys and came to the “Bay of Holy Spirit” (now
Charlotte Harbor) and landed on “a fat point of
land” (Punta Gorda in Spanish). There were two ships
with Catholic missionaries and about two hundred
soldiers, known as “Conquistadors.”
They brought horses, farm
animals and tools to establish a colony. While still
living in tents and building wooden buildings they
were attacked by Caloosa Indians. Ponce was shot by
a poisonous arrow and many others were killed. The
survivors, including Ponce, hastily boarded a ship
and escaped to Cuba. Ponce de Leon died and was
buried in Cuba. Later his body was moved to San
Juan, Puerto Rico and buried beneath a Catholic
Church. His epitaph reads “Here lies the bones of a
lion, mightier in deeds than name.”
This landing in Punta Gorda was
the first attempt by Europeans to establish a colony
in what is now the United States. The people of
Charlotte County consider this landing a major
historical event in the history of the United States
and want to preserve the significance of this event.
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