Old Fort Pierce Park

Old Fort Pierce Park is the site of Fort Pierce, a military installation constructed by the U.S. Army in Florida with the purpose of being a main supply depot for the army during the Second Seminole War. The modern town of Fort Pierce derives its name from this installation.

This article is about the fort in Florida. For other uses, see Fort Pierce (disambiguation).
Fort Pierce Site
LocationS. Indian River Drive (CR 707)
Fort Pierce, Florida 34950
Coordinates27°26′11″N 80°19′14″W
Built1838[1]
NRHP reference No.74002181[2]
Added to NRHPJanuary 11, 1974[2]

Fort Pierce, named for its first commander Benjamin Kendrick Pierce, was built in 1838 as a defensive position in the Second Seminole War. During the war, then second-lieutenant William Tecumseh Sherman was stationed at Fort Pierce.[3] It was abandoned in 1842 at the end of the war and burned down the following year.

Today, the site is a park along the Indian River. The park is also the site of an ancient burial mound of the Ais Indian tribe which extended from Cape Canaveral to the Saint Lucie inlet.

This site once had a natural spring which made it a popular location for the Ais Indians and later for Spanish sailors who would stop here occasionally to refill their water jars before making the transatlantic crossing back to Spain. (1500-1750) It is not uncommon to find Spanish relics mixed with Indian potsherds in the river at that location.

References
  1. "Fort Pierce Site". Florida Heritage Tourism Interactive Catalog. Florida's Office of Cultural and Historical Programs. 2007-04-08.
  2. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. January 23, 2007.
  3. Sherman, William (1990). Memoirs of General W.T. Sherman (2nd ed.). The Library of America. p. 17. ISBN 0940450658.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.