Fort Pickens, Florida

“Wanderlust: n. - A strong desire for or impulse to wander or travel and explore the world.”

Florida is such a beautiful state and April is a great time to go visit. The weather can be great for getting in the ocean and exploring the area, but cool enough at night for fire pits, and camping weather. Joe and I have been going to the Pensacola area for the past few years and the weather is just perfect. We did have a little spring rain but I love a nice rainy day. I will touch on many places in my upcoming blog notes but today I want to just write about Fort Pickens. We have seen it from a distance many times but had never had the chance to go. My brother, Howard and his lovely wife, Linda Lee wanted to go and check it out and we gladly said we would go with them. It was nice having Howard drive so we could sight see on the way. We drove through the cute town of Pensacola. It is a lovely small town with a cute downtown with many restaurants and stores. We didn't have time to stop so we kept going and drove over the Bob Sikes Bridge to Pensacola Beach. There are many beach shops and many neat restaurants to check out as well as beautiful hotels. It became more residential with condos and lovely expensive homes. We drove for quite a while, or should I say my brother drove for quite the while and then the houses disappeared and beautiful white sand dunes appeared. They were on both sides of the narrow road with ocean on one side and the bay on the other. How beautiful. We entered the National Park and noticed there is a campground. I bet at night time the stars must be beautiful from here. We kept on driving to the end of Santa Rosa Island where the Fort is located about a seven or eight mile drive. It was an overcast day making for very comfortable weather to explore.

What an impressive structure, made of brick and built in 1830. They moved 21.5 million tons of

bricks to use on this fort that was built in a pentagonal shape. Slaves were the main workers who put this fort together. The fort was built in 1830 and used as a US military fort to defend the Pensacola Bay. It was named after Andrew Pickens who was a Revolutionary War hero. This fort was used from 1834 to 1947. Geronimo, an Apache war chief, was a prisoner here from October 1886 to May of 1887. There were guards stationed here to keep out a bunch of local civilians who wanted to occupy the fort. Some historians say the first shots fired during the Civil War were fired here. There are interesting plaques to read about the history of this fascinating place.

Climbing up the stairs to the overlooks you can see the ocean and bay. What a great vantage point for those guards many years before. When we walked back to the lower level, a gentleman walked by us as we were looking at the steps leading to the top of the fort and he explained how the steps are in a V shape but now the bottom 5 or 6 steps are covered with sand from storms and erosion. If we dug down we would be able to see how the steps connected. Walking through the dark hallways that dripped water, you could hear yourself breath in the silence. You can see the officers' and prisoners' quarters and feel the eeriness of the place. I could feel the spirit of the people who were stationed there so many men who served here so many years ago.

Beside this fort, there were two other forts in Pensacola; Fort Barrancas, and Fort McRee – all were

used to strengthen defenses at the bay following the War of 1812. Fort McRee was on an island is no

more since the elements took it away. Both other forts are located on the Pensacola Naval Air Base. Continue to follow my blog and see information on Fort Barrancas another amazing fort.

Go see this amazing fort. This is so worth the visit and I highly recommend it. Let you mind take you back to the days when it was a working fort. It really must have been something to see when the canons were firing and all the men were at their post. I'm so glad we had the chance to see this fascinating national historic site.