Fort Christmas, 14th February 2017


Orlando Wetlands Park is not far from a place called Christmas, and we decided to visit the historical site.
On December 25th 1837 a wooden fort was built here, called naturally Fort Christmas. The area had received numbers of white settlers who demanded that the native Seminole Indians move out. When they refused to do so conflict broke out and 2,000 soldiers and volunteers constructed the fort as part of the 2nd Seminole Indian War, 1835-1842. It was one of around 200 forts built in Florida, but it was only in use for about 3 months.
There is a wooden palisade structure that has been constructed as a facsimile of the original fort, but of more interest are the original houses that were built as a settlement around the fort site.
There is a school house and the building where the children had their lunch  and a number of wooden houses. There was a sugar cane crusher and a building where the crushed cane was boiled to release the sugar. Very hot work in Florida. 
Unfortunately we arrived after closing time so were not able to go inside the houses.
A number of sandhill cranes were feeding on the grass around the site. They were extremely tame and took very little notice of us. They are quite charming creatures.




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