1/27 Hillsborough River State Park, Fort Foster

I was here getting together with about 20 other women who drive motorhomes.  Most are widowed or divorced and travel alone, and a few have husbands or "signifigant others" with them. 

I took a tram tour today that was guided by a park ranger to the reconstructed old Fort Foster.  This fort was built to protext a bridge over the Hillsborough River from the natives during the Seminole Wars in 1837.  The bridge was part of an old road that carried supplies across the middle of the state of Florida.  Here is the original old road, the river, and the bridge:

 

 

 

 

There is really nothing left of the old fort, but they have built this one on the same layout and following the original plans and use it for educational purposes.  Here is the outside of the reconstructed fort:

And the inside, including the storehouse and the small powder storage building:

We were told most of the soldiers slept in tents outside the fort, but a few would have slept in this building.  No screens or windows in those days, so the bugs must have been horrible, even in winter. The ranger is showing us a cannon.

And here is the storehouse:

And finally, the infirmery.  In reality, this fort was only staffed in the winter and only for a very few years.  Too many of the soldiers became sick with yellow fever and cholera in Florida's summer, and the Seminoles were too busy with their crops to bother the bridge, so it was left empty in the hottest and buggiest weather.

This was only a re-creation of the original fort, but it was well done with native materials and pretty realistic.