Fort Morgan and Fort Gaines

HobieMarty · 07-02-2023, 03:41 PM

My family and I spent all last week in Fort Morgan, Alabama. We had a nice time relaxing on the beach with family and friends but I just cannot sit around in the sand for too long without getting bored so some of us went exploring. At the end of the peninsula in Fort Morgan is an actual fort named "Fort Morgan" which was completed in 1833 and was active from the Civil War through WWII. Fort Gaines is on Dauphin Island and is a short ferry ride from Fort Morgan. It was fun to explore such historic places and I was amazed at how such places of war and violence could now be places of peace and beauty. I could only imagine what it was like during a battle.

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HobieMarty · 07-02-2023, 03:43 PM

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Chocaholic · 07-02-2023, 03:50 PM

Were planning a vaca at Ft. Morgan this fall (cooler). Will follow your footsteps. Only a short drive now that we’re in Fairhope.

HobieMarty · 07-02-2023, 03:54 PM

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HobieMarty · 04:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chocaholic

Were planning a vaca at Ft. Morgan this fall (cooler). Will follow your footsteps. Only a short drive now that we’re in Fairhope.

Oh yeah, not far at all. Be sure to take the ferry over to Dauphin Island.

This Seagull hitching a ride made me laugh.

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KevinTodd · 07-03-2023, 04:02 AM

I spent countless hours there as a kid, riding my bicycle around the top of the perimeter walls and exploring deep into each and every battery. They were all open at that point; sometimes filled with water and sometimes dry and accessible. I can still remember some very specific areas, such as a small cistern that still bubbled to the surface with natural gas, a set of marble steps stained with blood, the salty deposits all over the interior walls, and the museum on the property that held some interesting artifacts. I feel fortunate to have grown up close enough to have visited as mush as we did.

We had tons of Forts near us too--Pickens, McRae, Barrancas, etc.....all fascinating to me as a kid.

HobieMarty · 07-03-2023, 07:35 AM

I was amazed at all the calcification along with the algae on some of the walls giving such a textured look. There were stalagtite like formations hanging from the ceiling in places and below some of these were little mounds of the same substance from dripping down and collecting for a hundred or more years. On our visit to Fort Morgan, some of Battery Duportail was blocked off because of deteriorating concrete with exposed and rusted rebar so we weren't able to explore the inside of that one too much.
The pictures from Ft Gaines showing that one room with about a half a foot of water in the floor just looks beautiful to me, like a cathedral. I'm glad my Sister-in-law took the pictures, I had only looked in and saw that it was flooded and went back up the spiral stairs. That is cool that you got to explore the fort as a kid, that would have been awesome. This was my first trip to either fort and now I would like to explore the forts in Pensacola as well. I grew up on the Florida panhandle coast but have never been to any of the forts in the area.

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GH85Carrera · GH85Carrera's Garage

Up in Maine, south of Bangor, Maine just across the river from Bucksport, Maine is a neat old fort on the river.

It is Fort Knox, no gold storage there, just a well preserved neat old place to visit.

Nice and cool in the summer!