Fort Christmas was built in present-day Christmas, Florida during the Second Seminole War. Construction began on December 25, 1837, with the arrival of 2,000 U.S. Army soldiers and Alabama volunteers.
Contents
Fort Christmas was built in present-day Christmas, Florida during the Second Seminole War. Construction began on December 25, 1837, with the arrival of 2,000 U.S. Army soldiers and Alabama volunteers.
2,000 U.S. Army Soldiers and Alabama militiamen, 1000 horses, and 70 wagons led by Brigadier General Abraham Eustis arrived at the location of Ft. Christmas on 25 December 1837. The Fort was built in just over week and would become one of 200 such installations built between 1835 and 1847 as part of the Second Seminole War. [1] [2] A fixed garrison of two companies would be maintained at the location until the fort was abandoned in 1845 with the conclusion of the Second Seminole War. [3]
A full-scale replica of Fort Christmas was built by Orange County Parks and Recreation, in cooperation with the Fort Christmas Historical Society in the late 1970s; it was dedicated in 1977. Located just south of Christmas Creek, the site is probably less than 1 mile (1.6 km) from the location of the original fort.
A small museum within the walls of the re-created fort displays US military, Seminole Indian and pioneer artifacts dating from the Seminole War period, including weapons, clothing, tools, household appliances and other items. In addition to the life-size replica of the fort, [4] the park also features a growing number of restored "Florida Cracker" houses and farm buildings furnished with original and reproduction period pieces that show rural Florida life from the 1870s through the 1930s.
Other restored structures in the park include a 1906 school and its lunch room. [5]
Fort Christmas Park has picnic areas as well as facilities for baseball, basketball, tennis and a children's playground. The park hosts a number of events each year, including the annual "Cracker Christmas" in December and a bluegrass music festival in late March. The Fort Christmas Historical Park is operated by the Fort Christmas Historical Society and Orange County Parks and Recreation.
Micanopy is a town in Alachua County, Florida, United States, located south of Gainesville. The population as of the 2020 census was 2,844. The oldest community in the interior of Florida that has been continually inhabited, it has a downtown that is designated as the Micanopy Historic District and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It contains a number of antique stores, as well as several restaurants, a library, firehouse, and post office. The town's unofficial slogan is "The Town that Time Forgot."
Middleburg is an unincorporated area and census-designated place (CDP) within Clay County in the U.S. state of Florida, located 26 miles (42 km) southwest of downtown Jacksonville and 16 miles (26 km) northwest of Green Cove Springs, the county seat of Clay County. As of the 2020 census, the population of Middleburg was 12,881.
Fort Myers is a city in and the county seat of Lee County, Florida, United States. The Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program calculated that the city's population was 92,245 in 2021, ranking the city the 370th-most-populous in the country. Together with the larger and more residential city of Cape Coral, the smaller cities of Fort Myers Beach, Sanibel, and Bonita Springs, the village of Estero, and the unincorporated districts of Lehigh Acres and North Fort Myers, it anchors a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) which comprises Lee County and has a population of 787,976 as of 2021.
Christmas is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Orange County, Florida, United States. It is part of the Orlando–Kissimmee Metropolitan Statistical Area.
Maitland is a suburban city in Orange County, Florida, United States, part of the Greater Orlando area. The population was 19,543 at the 2020 census. The area's history is exhibited at the Maitland Historical Museum; the city also hosts the Maitland Art Center, as well as notable examples of Mayan Revival architecture and Fantasy architecture, the Maitland Telephone Museum, and the William H. Waterhouse House Museum. A SunRail station is located in Maitland on Highway 17-92. The city is named for Fort Maitland.
Sanford is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Seminole County. It is located in Central Florida and its population was 61,051 as of the 2020 census.
Osceola, named Billy Powell at birth in Alabama, became an influential leader of the Seminole people in Florida. His mother was Muscogee, and his great-grandfather was a Scotsman, James McQueen. He was reared by his mother in the Creek (Muscogee) tradition. When he was a child, they migrated to Florida with other Red Stick refugees, led by a relative, Peter McQueen, after their group's defeat in 1814 in the Creek Wars. There they became part of what was known as the Seminole people.
Prospect Bluff Historic Sites is located in Franklin County, Florida, on the Apalachicola River, 6 miles (9.7 km) SW of Sumatra, Florida. The site contains the ruins of two forts.
Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park is a Florida State Park, encompassing a 21,000-acre (85 km2) savanna in Alachua County, Florida lying between Micanopy and Gainesville. It is also a U.S. National Natural Landmark. It is crossed by both I-75 and U.S. 441. It is in the center of the Paynes Prairie Basin. The basin's primary source of drainage is Alachua Sink. During occasional wet periods, the basin will become full. A notable period occurred from 1871 to 1891 when the Alachua Sink was temporarily blocked. During this period, shallow draft steamboats were a frequent sight on Alachua Lake in the center of the prairie. The region was also historically known as the Alachua Savannah. Its drainage has been modified by several canals. Since 1927, Camps Canal has linked the basin to the River Styx which leads to Orange Lake and eventually the Atlantic Ocean through the St. Johns River. That reduced the basins water intake by half. Additional changes to the prairie's environment have been detrimental to its hydrology. In 1970, the state of Florida acquired the land and has been in the process of restoring the environment to a more natural condition ever since.
Hillsborough River State Park is located in the northeast corner of Hillsborough County, Florida near Zephyrhills. It is a popular park due to its proximity to the city of Tampa.
Dade Battlefield Historic State Park is a state park located on County Road 603 between Interstate 75 and U.S. Route 301 in Sumter County, Florida. The 80-acre (32 ha) park includes 40 acres (160,000 m2) of pine flatwoods and a live oak hammock. Also called the Dade Massacre site, it preserves the Second Seminole War battlefield where tribal Seminole warriors fought soldiers under the command of Major Francis L. Dade on December 28, 1835. Each year, on the weekend after Christmas, the Dade Battlefield Society sponsors a reenactment of the battle that started the Second Seminole War.
Paynes Creek Historic State Park is a Florida State Park located on Lake Branch Road one-half mile southeast of Bowling Green, Florida. On November 21, 1978, it was added to the United States National Register of Historic Places, under the title of Payne's Creek Massacre-Fort Chokonikla Site.
Fort Foster is a Second Seminole War era fort in central Florida, located 9 miles (14 km) south of current-day Zephyrhills in Pasco County.
The Henry B. Plant Museum is located in the south wing of Plant Hall on the University of Tampa's campus, located at 401 West Kennedy Boulevard in Tampa, Florida. Plant Hall was originally built by Henry B. Plant as the Tampa Bay Hotel; a 511-room resort-style hotel that opened on February 5, 1891, near the terminus of the Plant System rail line, also forged and owned by Plant. The Plant Museum's exhibits focus on historical Gilded Age tourism in the Tampa Bay area of Florida, the elite lifestyle of the hotel's guests, and the Tampa Bay Hotel's use during the Spanish–American War. As such, the Plant Museum is set up in the Historic House Museum style. Exhibits display artifacts in a manner that reflects the original placement and usage within the related historic building.
Fort King was a United States military fort in north central Florida, near what later developed as the city of Ocala. It was named after Colonel William King, commander of Florida's Fourth Infantry and the first governor of the provisional West Florida region.
Fort Peyton was a stockaded fort built in August 1837 by the United States Army, one of a chain of military outposts created during the Second Seminole War for the protection of the St. Augustine area in Florida Territory. Established by Maj. Gen. Thomas Jesup, it was garrisoned by regular army troops.
Manatee Village Historical Park is an open-air museum located in Bradenton, Florida, at 1404 Manatee Avenue East. The museum is designated as a National Historic Site.
Charles H. Bronson State Forest is located north of Christmas, Florida. It covers almost 11,000 acres in southeastern Seminole and northeastern Orange County and is located just south of Little Big Econ State Forest. The St. Johns River forms part of the eastern boundary of the forest.
Fort Gardiner was a stockaded fortification with two blockhouses that was built in 1837 by the United States Army. It was one of the military outposts created during the Second Seminole War to assist Colonel Zachary Taylor's troops to capture Seminole Indians and their allies in the central part of the Florida Territory that were resisting forced removal to federal territory west of the Mississippi River per the Indian Removal Act.