Visiting Fort Zachery Taylor State Park

Our plan was to go snorkeling and relax on the beach. The wind is out of the south and kicking up waves on the beach that ended the snorkeling. The water was so clouding we would not have been able to see anything anyway. I was not impressed by the beach. The beach faces south and the Navy radar station is to the east end.

Well, I have not been impressed by any beach in the keys. In Key West, they are almost all artificial and the source of white sand is a crushed coral and is not really sand as much as very small gravel. It is sad to think that some of the people here have never seen Pensacola’s beach.

We decided to use a covered picnic table on the west side of the park. The cover was really neat as it was a traditional build of a cover.

We had a few lizards/iguanas visit us.

It had a rock wall and we saw lots of boats headed to and from the port.

After a little sun, relaxing, and lunch we decided to tour the fort.

More History: I know but I just can’t help myself.

The fort was constructed in 1845 as a defense of the country's coastline. At that time, the fort was 1100 feet off Key West. It looked very different from today's fort. Even as late as 1914, the fort was offshore as shown in the Key West Maps.

Originally the fort was 3 stories tall, had 140 cannons, and 450 soldiers.

I don't have any information on how the area filled between the shore and the fort.  It may have been a storm but could have been deliberately done by the military. By 1945, the fort was no longer surrounded by water. At first just the back of the fort was attached to Key West.  The fort was also modified to two floors and gun emplacements were changed for modern guns of that time.  Even as late as 1960, the fort still had two walls in the ocean but just 10 years later it would never again have the ocean against its walls.

​Today, it is actually over 500 feet inland.

President Zachary Taylor died in office a few months before completion of the fort.  Because of this, it was named to honor him. During the civil war, two other forts were built to defend the Key and keep it under Union control throughout the war. The forts were a major part of the Union blockade of Confederate ships in which 140 ships were captured.

The fort was kept under US control during the entire Civil War.

In 1898, the fort was modified. The top two tiers were removed, and old cannons were used as fill in strengthening the outer walls. Now some of the old cannons are exposed for us to see.

The fort looks very different from its original 3 story tall version to what it is today.

New longer-range artillery was installed. It continued to be used to defend the Key from the Spanish-American war through World War I and II.

In 1947, the fort was decommissioned and became a historic landmark.

Another fact was that the bricks for the fort were made from Escambia Clay and were baked in Escambia County Florida.

Enough history for now.

Fort Zachery is actually further south than the “Southern Most Point” marker. At the beach they have their own version of the southern marker. It reminds me a lot of the one on the TV series, MASH.

The park is nice and the fort is very well maintained.