Cannons in Cement

[Doug Potter]

If you ever get the chance to go to Key West Florida make sure you take the time to visit Ft Zachary Taylor, they have one of the best collections of sea coast artillery to be seen, also during the Cuban missile crisis they reinforced the sides of the FT facing Cuba by taking the old Civil war cannons and using them as fill inside the walls, there are these large cannons just sticking out of the cement,
They do A living history there every winter to raise funds to dig these old cannons out of the cement and to restore the Ft, I went for the first time this year, and will go back every year, The National park service really rolled out the red carpet, they fed us three meals a day and I don’t mean hot dogs, they roasted a hog 4 turkeys and 3 hams for about 25 of us, they really like having the living history and it draws in a crowd and helps raise funds for the restoration of the Fort and the Artillery,
On Saturday they had three large tall sailing ships, reproductions of blockade runners, each about the 100 ft long under full sail came by and fired on the Fort, and anyone that wanted to go out on the ships could go out for no charge, and help fire on the Ft while the blockade runners attempted to get by the Fort,
There were some uniform guidelines, that were not too strict but the goal for the weekend was to bring the Fort back to life,
A great time was had by all that went and money was raised, where else can you go to Key west Florida spend the weekend, they allowed us to stay in the Ft or for those that wanted were allowed to park campers in the overflow parking and stay on site before and after the event for no charge. So that we could have the time to Enjoy the other sites and sounds in Key West.

[Matt Woodburn]

Re: Cannons in Cement

Doug,

I too went to Key West and the fort this year. I had no idea they had this kind of event put on though. When do they do it and how can one get involved? Can anyone serve on the ships? I've crewed on a field piece twice, but to get a chance to be a gunner on a ship that fires on a fort seems like a great experience. I'll bet modern day Navy service men who are in the hobby would love the chance to actually go out and serve on a small fleet of ships. You said uniform requirements were minimal. It would be great to put a group of guys together and have period sailors shirts and hats. It would be great to have British goods on board that we unload at a dock. I'd love to have some of the British blankets I'm making "brought in on a blockade runner." I just got back from Bermuda studying British commerce and blockade runners originating there. Let me know more about this event.

Best Regards,

[Doug Potter]

Re: Cannons in Cement

Matt they do the event In January every year anyone that wants is wecome to go out and serve on the ship, I would have went had I known before hand that we could go out on the ships but I get seasick real easy so If I had known I would have had the dr write me a script for scoplamine, which I will do next year, They would love to have more people get involved all you have to do is know the date and show up the park takes care of the rest, there are a bunch of us going again next year, Thay have been doing it every year for the last 18 years it's called the Ft Zachry Taylor Heritage festival, I will post the information for this years event I believe it has the contact information.

[Doug Potter]

here is the information

Here is the information for this years event
I am not sure of the date for next year but you can call them or shoot them an e-mail and they will let you know the date,
Hope to see you there next year.
January 23, 24, 25, 18th Annual Heritage Festival at Ft. Taylor (Key West, Florida) Potrayal of life in the keys in the mid 1800's Period craftsman and performers. period dance saturday night, Meals Fri Sat and Sun provided for reenactors, Camping inside the Ft, no Registration fee but sutlers need to call in advance, Ft Taylor has one of the largest collections of coastal artillery in the country.
Sutlers and reenactors contact Capt. Brass at nbforest10@juno.com
or Ft. Taylorat fttaylorfriends@aol.com or call (305)-292-6850

[yeoman]

Re: Cannons in Cement

Wow, the Cuban Missile Crisis, what a story.
I see the excavations are on hold at this time.

http://www.forttaylor.org/today.html

The image gallery link on this page to the ordnance disposal video was alright.:thumbs_up
Sir, thanks for the post.

[10TnVI]

Re: Cannons in Cement

Cuban missle crisis? I think someone is mixing their history up-confusing the 1960 crisis with the 1898 Invasion of Cuba during the Spam-Am War looking at the pictures, It's unlikely the dumping of the cannons took place during the early 1960's. I'll have to check my coast artillery info, but I suspect it occured in what's known as the Endicott period of coastal fortification running from 1898 to around 1942, when the last of the series of forts was completed. The army made use of many existing brick forts of the "third system" period, like Taylor and built gun batteries and associated fire control structures in them. A similiar situation as occured at Sumter, when while infilling to protect the new disapearing gun battery, they buried three CW period 150 pound Parrots, still in position and on their carraiges.
Another factor pointing to Endicott period burial is that if these guns had been accessable until 1960, they probably wouldn't have survived the scrap metal drives of WWI and WWII, when most of their brothers were destroyed.
Lastly, why would you have needed to re-enforce Ft. Taylor during the Cuban crisis, the batteries there were already dismantled and I'm pretty sure the post was inactive, plus what threat would such action counter? Soviet invasion of Key West:-) and I don't think it would have done much good against a nuke missle.

From the above website-
Fort Taylor was transferred to the Navy in 1947 following the abolishment of the Coastal Artillery Corps. While under Navy control, the property was utilized as a scrap metal yard. The Navy transferred the property to the Department of the Interior in 1970. Fort Taylor was nominated to the Federal National Historic Places Registry in 1971 and in 1973 was declared to be a National Historic Landmark. The Florida Park Service acquired Fort Taylor from the Department of the Interior in 1976. The fort opened as a Florida State Park in 1985 and is still managed by the Florida Park Service.

Why reenforce a scrap metal yard;-)

[john duffer]

Re: Cannons in Cement

Stich counting history nazi. :D

[OldKingCrow]

Re: Cannons in Cement

I have done the Ft. Taylor event and it takes farbdom to a new level.

We had discussed getting one of the boats and doing a history heavy Naval event but even though those boats look good from a distance they are full of anachronisms.

Too bad. I put some effort into research and sewing a CS naval kit.


Matt.....we think alike.... I was stoked about this....they are good people down there but I was let down. Anyone can get on the ships if you pre-register and pay I think it was $10 for the ship. The only cannon are farby little "naval cannon" folks bring on the ship themselves. Most bring and fire small arms. I spoke to the captain of the ship I was on about doing a post war event as Federals taking Dr Mudd out to Ft. Jefferson which is 4-6 hours by boat ...he said he would do it if we could get enough folks. Federal naval is pretty easiy to put together.