Whenever I go camping, I always talk about the morning coffee. It could be my favorite thing about camping. I know that seems weird, but it is sense memory. Going camping with my dad, uncle,and brother (there were other people that joined at various times, but it was at least the four of us 90% of the time), the smell of coffee was always mingled with the fresh morning dew in the morning. Before, I started drinking coffee, I would sit on the ice chest, pick out a sugary cereal, and enjoy my pick me up as the adults would enjoy there stimulating breakfast. When older, I started partaking in this ritual with coffee. From the time of a small child, you got up, without a sound, enjoyed your stimulus, and felt this sense of calm. It wasn't a calm-before-the-storm feeling, but a feeling of peace. No one really talked, and you would sit in silence allowing the natural beauty of the landscape to hold your attention. Even in large camping areas where the campsites are very close together, I am able to simply enjoy that morning. It is as though the coffee triggers that calm feeling behavioral modified all those years ago.
Here is Eric's view from his tent in the morning and enjoying his coffee.
I had told Eric that there was a path not far from our campsite to the beach on the bay side of the peninsula. After the ceremonial coffee, we decided to stroll along the beach. Actually, I took a cup with me for good measure. With the tide, many jelly fish ended a washed on the beach. They were huge.
Here is a picture of me walking across a "bridge" back to the campsite.
When we arrived back at our campsite, a Park Ranger swung by and told us to go make sure we register and pay our fee. It was pushing on 10 a.m. We put on our gear and headed to the station. I'm not sure if some one had reserved the space prior, or we waited so long to register, but the site that we were currently in was not available for another night. After a few minutes of finding spot from a poorly hand-drawn map, we picked a spot not far from where our current was located. It made the move very easy.
After moving, we headed to actual Fort Pickens. If you don't enjoy your history, you might want to scroll down. Also, for brevity, I'm going to refer to certain people and elements in there American colloquial form.
Some quick facts about Fort Pickens:
-It was started in 1829 and completed in 1834
-It is the largest of the four forts built in the area to defend the bay/naval yard
-It took 21.5 million bricks and a plethora of slaves.
- It was named in honor of Major General Andrew Pickens, a Revolutionary War Hero, who was referred to by Cherokees as "Wizard Owl" (I think they were making fun of him because owls are stupid, nocturnal creatures).
-Designed by French Engineer Simon Bernard
-Helped create wicked kill zones with Fort McRee and Fort Barrancas
-Imprisoned many Native Americans from varying tribes in the area, but most notably it imprisoned Apache leader Geronimo from October 1886 to May 1887.
I am not familiar with Military history, but other cultures in relation to historical context is interesting. I have mentioned in previous posts, that I had a real fascination with Native American culture. One of the things that interested me while meandering around Fort Pickens was that Geronimo (his Chiricahau name has been written as Goyahla, Goyathly, or Goyaale) who was born in the Southwest (present day New Mexico), was a prisoner at Fort Pickens for a period of time. This had me wondering, "Why would they bring Native Americans from the west to the east? Weren't European settlers pushing the native tribes onto reservations and westward?" I did a touch of surface research, and did not find a direct answer, but drew my own conclusions. A note: this is not real in-depth research. This is some Google searches and reading a couple of passages from some books.
Fort Pickens was a fort that had been out of use from about 1850 (after Mexican-American War) until 1861 when the Union saw it as a highly defensible post during the U.S. Civil War. For about 10 years, the fort was neglected. When it was once again put in use it was reported to be dilapidated, but still a better position than the other two forts in the area. Then came the fighting with confederate soldiers. I'm sure this created more damage to the unkempt fort.
It is difficult to summarize Geronimo's place in history. He fought against the encroaching Mexican and American armies respectively. He helped to create treaties that would be later ignored by Americans. He was a fierce warrior. He became the most famous Native American of his time due to eluding capture. There is controversy over Geronimo's surrender. I won't go into all of that, but Geronimo surrendered to the US army on September 4, 1886. He stayed at Fort Sam Houston for 6 weeks before being shipped to Fort Pickens with other Apache "prisoner's of war." This is twenty years after the end of the US Civil War.
My supposition is that the US used Native Americans that were deemed "war criminals" and turned them into slave labors to fix, update, and renovate Fort Pickens with minimal cost. I think it probably took longer to repair after the US Civil War because the fort was in dilapidated conditions before the bombardment. During that period of time there were improvements and more batteries installed with larger cannons as seen above with Eric. Slave labor is really cheap- just food to keep them going. Geronimo stated in his autobiography, "Here [Fort Pickens] they put me to sawing large logs. For nearly two year we were kept at hard labor in this place and did not see our families until May, 1887." The 'we' that Geronimo referred to was other Apaches, but I wonder if there were other Native Americans from that area 'helping' with upkeep and continuous restoration.
The minimal research that I have done does not state directly my thoughts on the use of Native Americans as slave labor, but there are a lot of indications that they were. I think it is important to take a critical look at how the actions of European settlers shaped our current cultural climate, and for us to recognize that our ancestors (those of us of European descent) were not always wonderful or great people. They did some horrible things, and to lose site of that is to lose site of making things better for everyone from all walks of life today.
THUS ENDS THE HISTORY PORTION
I honestly, enjoyed roaming around fort and learning more about a history that I am not as well versed. There is more to come concerning this day of leisure and fun, but this post is getting long, and I will save the rest for later.
More to come.
Until I ramble on again. . .
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