Last updated: January 23, 2021
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Build Your Own Fort
Pretend it's 1565. You’re a Spanish settler or soldier who just arrived in Florida. You need to build a fort to protect yourself from the enemy, weather, and animals. You have to decide what materials to use and how to use them, but you don’t know much about the area you've landed in. Will you build by the water or inland? What do you think the first fort was built out of?
The first fort in 1565 was built out of dirt and wood. They built it near the water, so they could travel. Back then waterways were like our highways and ships were like our cars.
Now imagine, you’ve been living here for about 100 years and you’ve lost nine wooden forts to fire, weather, pirate attacks, and rot. Are you ready to put in the time, effort, and money it would take to build a stronger stone fort? Think about what skills and materials you would need to build a fort.
The Spanish, Native Americans (Timucuan, Guale, Apalache), free and enslaved Africans, and European prisoners built the fort on the Atlantic coast of Florida across from Anastasia Island where they found coquina rock. Coquina is naturally composed of fossilized seashell. From 1672-1695, they built the fort in the shape of a star.
They finished it before the first major attack. During the Siege of 1702, the entire town of over 1,500 people came inside the fort for protection. The cannons could fire one to three and half miles away. After they were attacked again in 1740, they decided to build Fort Matanzas, a coquina watchtower guarding the "backdoor" to the city; the southern entrance of the Matanzas River (1740-1742). St. Augustine has been attacked several times, but never defeated! Castillo de San Marcos is the oldest stone fort in the continental United States and St. Augustine is the oldest, permanent European settlement in continental United States.
There are lots of different ways to build forts and lots of different forts in the world. Fort construction depends on who, what, when, where, why, and how. Today you’re going to pretend to be a military architect and design your own fort. Think about what makes a fort strong. Brainstorm the best design, find the available materials, and build.
Materials Needed:
Use pencil, eraser, paper, colored pencils, markers, or crayons. Don't forget to measure, label, and add your flag!
Use your favorite paint or sketch program or app on your mobile device, computer or laptop.
Use play-doh or clay and toothpicks or popsicle sticks. Shape it like a star, a circle, a square, or a triangle.
Use chairs, couches, pillows, and blankets. Is your furniture going to be a retaining wall, used to create a tunnel, or connected together to create a series of "rooms"?
Do you want your fort to look like a coquina fort? Make a batch of Rice Krispie treats. Cut them into the shapes you need to build your fort. Use toothpicks to hold the blocks together.
Take your shovels and buckets to the beach and build it in the sand. Is there going to be a dry or wet moat around your fort?
Photograph Courtesy of Kara Bonn