National Public Lands Day, September 29, 2007

Date: September 18, 2007
Contact: Kim Coons, 912-638-3639

On September 29, 2007, from 9 am until 5 pm, entrance fees will be waived at Fort Frederica National Monument as part of National Public Lands Day. National Park Service sites like Fort Frederica National Monument preserve important aspects of our heritage.  To celebrate the incredibly diverse public lands in the United States, the National Park Service invites visitors to come experience this heritage first-hand.  If you haven’t visited Fort Frederica National Monument lately come learn about the colonial history in your own backyard.  Fort Frederica is located at 6515 Frederica Road on St. Simons Island.  For additional information please contact  912-638-3639.

Background: Fort Frederica National Monument is one of America’s national parks. Established in 1936 and dedicated in 1947, the park preserves the incredibly rich archaeological remains of one of Great Britain’s strongest forts in the colony of Georgia. It was on St. Simons Island in 1742 that British troops from Frederica and Darien decisively defeated Spanish Floridians in the Battles of Gully Hole Creek and Bloody Marsh. Ironically, the very battles that saved Frederica from destruction by the Spanish doomed the town and fort to ruins. Without a Spanish threat, Britain pulled Frederica’s soldiers out of the fort and the settlers left as the town’s economy suffered. All but abandoned, the town of Frederica slipped into history. Time has worn down the earthworks protecting the town, yet the ruins and foundations of the buildings remain as a visual reminder of the struggle for empire on Georgia’s coast. Today, the National Park Service, with assistance of the Fort Frederica Association and volunteers, preserve these symbols of our colonial past and share them with visitors from around the world.