The national memorial commemorates the 1539 landing of Hernando de Soto and the first extensive organized exploration by Europeans of what is now the southern United States.

They arrived in nine ships laden with supplies: two hundred and twenty horses, a herd of pigs, war dogs, cannon, matchlock muskets, armor, tools, and rations.

De Soto made no reference to the landing point but went on to describe the immediate wooded area as swampy and thick with vast and lofty forests.

Visitors can attend living history demonstrations, try on a piece of armor, or walk the nature trail through a Florida coastal landscape similar to the one encountered by conquistadors almost five hundred years ago.

A theater displays the movie Hernando de Soto in America, about the DeSoto Expedition and the area's Native American population.