Ghost Tracker Investigations

Fort Pickens 

Historical Data:

Fort Pickens is the largest of four forts built to defend Pensacola Bay, Florida and its navy yard. The fort was begun in 1829, completed in 1834, and used until the 1940s. Built in the age of wooden warships and cannons firing round balls, the fort underwent changes in response to changes in weaponry following the Civil War, Ten concrete gun batteries, including one in the middle of the old fort, were built from the 1890s through the 1940s, each a response to a particular threat. Atomic bombs, guided missiles, and long-range bombers made such forts obsolete by the end of World War Two, and the Army abandoned the forts. Following extensive repairs by the National Park Service, the fort was reopened in 1976.

Pickens supplemented Fort Barrancas, Fort McRee, and the Navy Yard. Located at the western tip of Santa Rosa Island, just offshore t he mainland, Pickens guarded the island and the entrance to the harbor. Its construction was supervised by Colonel William H. Chase of the Corps of Army Engineer. Using slave labor, the fort used over twenty-two million bricks and was intended to be impregnable to attack. Ironically, Chase was later appointed by the state of Florida to command its troops and seize for the South the very fort he had built.

At the time of the secession crisis, Fort Pickens had not been occupied since the Mexican War. Despite its dilapidated condition, Lieutenant Adam J. Slemmer, who was in charge of United States forces at Fort Barrancas, deter mined that Pickens was more defensible than any of the other posts in the area. His decision to abandon Barrancas was hastened when, around midnight of January 8, 1861, his guards repelled a group of men intending to take the fort. Some historians note that this could be considered the first shots fired by United States forces in the Civil War. Shortly after this incident, Slemmer destroyed over 20,000 pounds of powder at Fort McRee, spiked the guns at Barrancas, and evacuated about eighty troops to Fort Pickens. Fort Pickens remained in Union hands throughout the Civil War.

 
Closures
Most of the Fort Pickens and the Santa Rosa areas remain closed due to damages caused by Hurricane Ivan on September 16, 2004.
 

 
Map of Fort Pickens, size 11k [Cover photo] Aerial view of Fort Pickens, Santa Rosa Island, Florida.
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A small cemetery is located just outside the fort.  This family was originally buried on their plantation across the bay near Fort Barrancas.  The markers were moved when the runways for Sherman Field were constructed.  It is unknown if or where the remains were moved, but it is public record that these are markers only, no graves exist beneath the markers.

 
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Unsubstantiated reports of a ghost in the summer houses, converted to offices for the Park Rangers.  One Ranger did admit that he chose not to be in the office alone due to unusual and unsettling events even though he does not believe in ghosts.

 
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Geronimo {jur-ahn'-i-moh}, or Goyathlay ("one who yawns"), was born in 1829 in what is today western New Mexico, but was then still Mexican territory.  Geronimo was the leader of the last American Indian fighting force formally to capitulate to the United States.  To the pioneers and settlers of Arizona and New Mexico, he was a bloody-handed murderer and this image endured until the second half of this century.  The Mexican soldiers that encountered his wrath were heard to appeal to St. Jerome, and thus the moniker of "Geronimo' was born.

He was sent to Fort Pickens at Pensacola, and it was several more months before his family would be allowed to join him.   Over the years, he would have nine more wives after Alope, nearly all of them killed or taken captive by the Mexicans. Research indicates that two wives died while in captivity in Florida. Only one is documented for Pensacola and the grave marker has been located at Barrancas National Cemetery. 

The most famous resident of Fort Pickens, Geronimo, lived in identical rooms along the south wall, which have since collapsed.  From 1885 to 1887, the famous Apache Indian chief Geronimo was imprisoned in Fort Pickens, along with several of his warriors and their families.

This statement found while researching, “The prisoners were made to perform hard labor, which was a direct violation of several treaties signed by the Apaches with the United States” is in conflict with local folklore.  Geronimo was considered a celebrity, citizens of Pensacola would go out to hear him speak; he was consider an entertainer, after he would sell the buttons from his jacket as souvenirs.  It is said that each night his wife would sew on more buttons.   

Geronimo’s popularity was so great that he and his family were moved during the night without notice when he left Fort Pickens for fear the towns people would try to stop the relocation.

Geronimo died on Feb. 17, 1909, a prisoner of war, unable to return to his homeland. He was buried in the Apache cemetery at Fort Sill Oklahoma.

 

This bastion was destroyed on June 20, 1899, when a fire reached a magazine containing 8,000 pounds of powder.  The explosion is told to have scattered debris over one a mile, killing one man.  The explosion and time caused deterioration of this corner, the tumbled remains are said to be very similar to the profile of Geronimo.   IM009746.JPG (319703 bytes)

 

This page last updated September 08, 2006

 

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