Fort Zachary Taylor Historic State Park

We drove down the rest of the way to Key West in Toad this morning. I had some letters to mail and knew that the post office would not be open on Monday due to MLK holiday. After stopping at McDonalds for breakfast, we drove out to Fort Taylor, America's southernmost fortress. I was surprised to learn that this fort -- in the very deepest south -- remained in Union hands all during the Civil War. It was literally built at the end of the Keys -- with fill that made its own island!

Like many other decommissioned forts, this one has been inactive since 1947 --

At one time the Fort looked like this, only there were two more stories on top. The three stories of gun batteries held over 140 cannon. When rifled guns made cannons obsolete, the top two stores were removed.

Each of the cannons were housed in one of these bays and shot through the opening in the wall. Note the vaulted ceilings and arches, built by skilled Irish and German immigrant labor.

Now these are the inhabitants of these abandoned walls --

 As we peered down the gun opening of the fort wall, we could see at least three more iguanas basking in the sun --

They are certainly strange looking creatures -- and big!

When we climbed on top of the wall of the Fort, we could look out to the Key West harbor where this huge cruise ship was in port and loading passengers.

We could also look down into the batteries built after the top two stories of the fort were removed and see some of the obsolete 140 cannons that were used as fill in the walls of the new batteries... (These have been coated with paint for protection against the elements and further deterioration.)

The concrete for the new batteries was made with salt water. Now the salt is leaching out and the walls are very unstable --

This is the entrance to one of the forty cisterns that were built with the idea that rain water could be saved and used as the fort's fresh water source. Unfortunately, after two years of drought, the sea seeped into the cisterns, ruining them. Fort Taylor then had the nation's first desalination plant that produced about 7000 gallons of water per day.

This is another good idea that didn't work. Latrines were built that dropped wastes into the ocean with the idea that the tides would keep them flushed out. But, the tide in the Keys does not fluctuate enough, so it didn't do its job. Dysentery and Yellow Fever ran rampant and caused most of the deaths recorded at the Fort.

As we looked down into the portion of the moat left, we could see this tree with its resident Snowy Egret and an iguana that is just as big -- it's over four feet long!

Just look at the size of those back legs!

  The flagpole is a replica of the one that flew in the middle of the parade ground --

At the time the fort was built, the flag had 33 stars --

As we left the Fort, this little guy basking on the corner, opened his eyes long enough to say "farewell!"

Mammoth Cave & a Civil War Battlefield

Beneath the sandstone and shale ridges of Mammoth Cave National Park lies the most extensive cave system on earth. With over 365 miles of surveyed passage ways, Mammoth Cave is over twice as large as any other known cave. There are eleven different tours of the cave available ranging from one and one-quarter hours to six and one-half hours.  They range in difficulty from "Easy" to "Very Strenuous."  We chose to take the Mammoth Passage Tour -- one of the "easy" ones!

The trail down to the natural entrance to the cave is quite steep (and seemed even steeper when we climbed back up at the end of the tour!).  Here is part of our group of fifteen or so heading down --

The transition from the outside to the dark and the rather low ceiling --

These are cribs where slaves piled cave dirt and guano in the cave to manufacture salt petre (to make black gun powder) during the war of 1812.

 Beyond that is an area called the "Rotunda."--

The further we descended into the cavern the darker it got.  I was very glad for the handrails put in many years ago by CCC workers, who made the trails.

The group standing in an area of the cave that clearly shows the layers carved out millions? of years ago by water and carbonic acid --

Here is our Park Ranger explaining that this portion of the cave is a "dry" cave with no active water, therefore no stalactites or stalagmite's.  Many parts of the cave are still wet and are being still being carved out --

Mammoth Cave has been a tourist attraction since 1816 when tour guides were African-American slaves.  It was authorized as a national park in 1926 and fully established in 1941.  At that time, only forty miles of passageways had been mapped. The Ranger estimated that there were still more than three hundred miles of passages that have not yet been mapped.

All I know is that I was sure glad to see the light of the entrance as we came back out!

On our way back to Auntie Violet we saw a road sign pointing to "Civil War Battlefield."  Since we are in the south, we thought we should at least check one out, so we followed it. It took us to a farmstead which is now the "Battle for the Bridge" battlefield site Historic Preserve.  I did not realize that Kentucky had NOT seceded from the Union and joined the Confederacy.  They chose to be a slave state, but to remain neutral (both the Union and the Confederacy established capitals in the state...). 

The Kentucky railroads proved to be too important to both sides and many battles were fought over control of them.  This battle was over control of the railroad bridge that can be seen in the distance from the farmhouse --

The land between the farmstead and the bridge is now in private hands, so you cannot walk over that portion of the battlefield.  The Rowland family submitted claims of $12,000 to the government for the damages to their farmland and buildings, but because Rowland was falsely claimed to be a "southern man," they were denied.  Eventually, they received a little over $4000 to rebuild their house.