SW085 Festival at Fort King Showcases 1830s Army Life at Start of Second Seminole War

This week we return to Fort King, located in Ocala, Florida. The fort was a focal point in the Second Seminole War, then it was abandoned and Seminole burned its remains. Then the U.S. Army rebuilt it and...abandoned it again. This time, settlers, not Seminole, picked the remnants apart. Then its location was forgotten and unknown until an excavation in the late 1990s by the Gulf Archaeological Research Institute, whose acting director, Sean Norman, podcasts frequently on such matters. 

Ron Mosby, board member for the Fort King Heritage Foundation, joins us to tell us all about what Fort King today is like -- and what visitors will see when they come to visit as well as a good dose of the history behind the fort.

This weekend, Dec. 4 and 5, the annual Festival at Fort King features a living history reenactment of the Seminole Osceola's assassination of the Indian Agent, Wiley Thompson, just outside the fort in late December 1835. There will also be a mock skirmish and many activities for families coming out. 

 

Host Patrick Swan is a board member with the Seminole Wars Foundation. He is a combat veteran and of the U.S. Army, serving in Iraq, Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Kosovo, and at the Pentagon after 9/11. A military historian, he holds masters degrees in Public History, Communication, and Homeland Security, and is a graduate of the US Army War College with an advanced degree in strategic studies. This podcast is recorded at the homestead of the Seminole Wars Foundation in Bushnell, Florida. 

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