SW0159 Fort Foster Volunteers Rip Out Rotten Timber Planks to Restore Replica Post for Public Visits

Seminole Wars Authority

Twenty volunteers entered the shuttered Fort Foster at Hillsboro River State Park May 6. They ripped out rotten planks from a boardwalk encompassing the inside of the palisade walls confines. This brings the replica post one step closer to re-opening when state officials re-certify it is safe to the public to do so.

In this episode, Louie Bears Heart, a living historian portraying a Seminole of the period, witnessed the operation and joins with his observations and assessment. But first, some background on the fort.

Fort Foster Historic Site is part of the Hillsborough River State Park (HRSP), located 9 miles south of Zephyrhills, Florida, on U.S. 301 across from the park. The fort is a reproduction of a fort originally built on the same grounds in 1836 by Col. William S. Foster and his 430 men. It is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

Fort Foster was utilized during the Second Seminole War to defend the bridge crossing at the Hillsborough River and served as a resupply point for the soldiers in the field. The fort was garrisoned on and off from December 1836 through April 1838

In recent years, park staff and re-enactors provided living history demonstrations of life at Fort Foster. Each year the site has presented living history events: Fort Foster Rendezvous in January and the Candlelight Dinner experience at Fort Foster during the winter months. The park staff has also conducted weekly tours of the park, allowing visitors the opportunity of touring the fort and grounds.

The HRSP Preservation Society set up a site for citizen donations to cover restructuring costs. https://www.gofundme.com/f/restoration-of-fort-foster Hillsborough River State Park Preservation Society Inc. is a volunteer citizen support organization founded in 1993 to support the needs of Hillsborough River State Park and Fort Foster Historic Site. For more information on them and to contact, go to http://www.historyandnature.org/ and [e-mail]

Hillsborough River State Park’s Fort Foster Rendezvous is a living history reenactment featuring military, Seminole, and civilian re-enactors, sutlers, traders, and craft demonstrations of the time during the Second Seminole War (1835-1842) in Florida.

Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Fla.

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