Batteries and Morning Walks

Fort Pickens National Park has some great hikes, swimming in the gulf or bay, and wandering around several batteries.  In the early 1900’s, harbor defense changed to smaller batteries.  A battery is a group of guns set up to improve communication and control. The guns could shoot up to 9 miles depending on the currently technology when they were built.  These batteries were built between 1898 and 1943.  Some of the batteries are hidden in a hill of sand while others look like a Mayan pyramid with the steps.

Of course I needed to take a morning walk.  I found a heron on the beach along with flowers blooming. 

Fort Pickens

We had to have some electrical wiring at the house this week.  Since the power is off in the house, we moved to the campground at Fort Pickens.  

Harbor defense meant building a fort in the 1800’s.  Forts are spread all along the east and gulf coasts.  The materials vary but I love the brickwork of the forts in this area. 

On a hot summer day, they are cool with breezes though the windows for the guns.

Overtime, the calcium carbonate in the lime mortar leeches out of the brick to form draperies, stalagmites, and stalactites on the walls, ceilings and floor.  I've seen a report online that showed in 1931 a stalactite was measured at 10” long and grew at the rate of 1” a year (www.minsocam.org/ammin/AM19/AM19_429.pdf).  This means that these grow at a MUCH greater rate than in caves (0.0051" per year on average) plus the national park service must be cleaning these up frequently.  It would be cool to allow them to grow in certain spots just to see how big they would get.