Fort Pickens - Gulf Islands National Seashore

 January 5th, 2023

After a lot of rain, we had a nice sunny day and decided to visit Fort Pickens, on Santa Rosa Island, part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore. 

We have been to Pensacola many times but never got around to visiting this old fort.

Our Lifetime Golden Age Pass got us in for free, but there was a toll road bridge that we couldn't escape. We have to wait for an invoice from that to pay, as there are no longer manned toll booths here.

The old coastal forts that we have seen are very similar.  We love the different colors on the walls and the many corridors to explore, some narrower and darker than others.

There were some children running the tunnels, screaming at the top of their voices. The echo made this a lot louder than it probably was but they were having fun. Their mothers just let them go which I wasn't that sure about as the tunnels were long, sometimes dark and had many twists and turns. As well as the floors being very uneven. For us two old folk it became deafening and we decided to let them go on ahead of us. We climbed some steps to the top of this wall and walked around. 

Back to the tunnels and no-one in sight. Ha!!Ha!!

Gun Mounts

Tree growing out of the wall.

Bryan disappeared into a very dark tunnel and I watched and listened to make sure he didn't fall and scream!! This is where you need a flashlight. Thank goodness for the light on the cellphone.

He took this picture of me watching him. Not that I could see him!!

"In 1886 the US Army exiled over 400 Apaches from the Southwest to Florida and sent most of them to Fort Marion in St. Augustine.  Several Pensacola citizens, however, petitioned the government to imprison Geronimo, a medicine man and warrior, and 15 other Apache men at Fort Pickens instead, separating them from their families. Prisoners worked seven-hour days clearing overgrown weeds, planting grass, and stacking cannonballs. The families were reunited at Fort Pickens in 1887.  One year later all of the imprisoned Apaches were moved to Mobile because of a yellow fever scare and later to Fort Sill in Oklahoma Territory.

After being captured, Geronimo never saw his homeland again.  He died and was buried in 1909 at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He remains a fascinating--and controversial--figure in American history."

Massive Smoothbore

You can see a gun mount in this window.

Iron mounting structure?

This shows the semi circular grooves where the cannons would have been  moved to aim in different directions.

They are restoring this Double Arch

"Notice that this arch is really a double-arch--above and below the floor of this gun chamber.  Since ancient times humans have used arches to support and distribute weight to vertical piers.  Here the weight absorbed by the piers is transferred to the reverse arch in the foundation to minimize sinking into the sand.  Notice also the notch cut into the right side of the upper arch so a cannon could be swung in that direction. These notches were cut out in 1841, when the U.S. Army adopted new gun carriage designs."

Across the bay is Pensacola Lighthouse, which we have visited and climbed on a prior visit.

Close Up of "Massive Smoothbore"

"If you had been here on November 22 and 23, 1861, you would have been in the midst of a fierce Civil War battle.  Union troops at Fort Pickens bombarded Confederate soldiers at Fort McRee straight ahead across the pass and Fort Barrancas and the navy yard on the mainland to your right.  The Confederates fired back, but the Federals, aided by cannon fire from two warships, heavily damaged the navy yard and nearly demolished Fort McRee.  Needing troops elsewhere, the Confederates left the posts in the spring of 1862, and the Union moved most of its troops on Santa Rosa Island to the mainland. Confederate General Braxton Bragg commented "For the number and caliber of guns and weight of metal brought into action it will rank with the heaviest bombardment in the world.""

We made our way back to the entrance and Bryan did some final exploring when he found an entrance gate into some old buildings unlocked.

I stayed outside but walked along to another gate that was shut but you could open. These children came to get out and I asked them for the password. They looked at me as if I was mad, maybe I am. Bryan was behind them and I let them out. He later told me they were the same children that we had encountered at the beginning of our tour!!  

Bryan continued to explore and I met him at another gate further along.

They are working hard on maintaining and restoring this old fort, which was good to see.

"Converting a Cannon" - Feel the grooves inside this rare cannon barrel.  This Rodman cannon was cast in 1861 as a 10-inch smoothbore, which fired round cannonballs.  To keep up with current technology, the US Army in 1884 inserted an 8-inch rifled sleeve into the old cast-iron barrel, because rifled guns had longer ranges than smoothbores. Steel later replaced cast iron, and the old guns were sold for scrap.  The piece on the right is part of a rifled bore."

That was the end of our tour of the main fort but we went to look at a couple of the Battery's.

"Walk to the beach to see two shield guns installed by the National Park Service"

We continued to the next Battery. 

"This battery is camouflaged by an earthen bunker making it invisible looking at it from the waters of the Gulf of Mexico."

Tilly Car in the distance. She misses all the fun stuff!!

Chimney and vents for the bunker below.

With the ocean to the left, you can see how well camouflaged this was from the ocean.

We finished our exploring for the day and headed back home.  

The sand on the beaches here is white.  It's beautiful.

The road had flooded and we had to drive slowly through.  The waves we created came quite high on the car but thankfully not high enough to come in!!! I wished I had taken some pictures on the way in when vehicles were coming in the opposite direction and you could see the waves it created.

Tilly's turn for some fun!!

Back through Pensacola Beach

Well that's it for today. Hope you enjoyed the outing with us.