Fort Pickens Tour: Stop 4

Fort Pickens Tour Stop 4: Mine Battery Room

Quick Facts

Location:

Fort Pickens, Florida

Amenities

1 listed

Trailhead

Mine Casemate

This doorway leads into the first mine casemate at Fort Pickens. Completed in 1894, this room became one of several onshore buildings used by soldiers to operate an underwater minefield. Long ago, the Army considered underwater mines one of the main weapons needed to defend a harbor.

When engineers began updating Pensacola Bay’s defenses in the late 1800s, they made sure to include mines in their plans. A mine casemate was the heart of a controlled mine system.

This area held batteries that powered the mines. It also housed the controls for setting off the mines. From the mine casemate, electrical cables ran underground, entered the bay, and extended to the minefield.

When an officer gave the command, a soldier at the operating panel flipped a switch and detonated a mine. Because of high humidity, engineers built a new mine casemate outside the fort in 1907. This brick building still stands today. The Army eliminated Pensacola Bay’s mine defense system in 1926.