Town Model in the Museum

Frederica became a military town on the edge of the British colonies in the Americas.

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Frederica was the name of both a fort and its associated town. James Oglethorpe founded Frederica in 1736 to defend the three-year-old colony of Georgia. This model shows Frederica as she might have looked when her defenses were complete. A palisade wall surrounded the town. Inside the palisade lay well ordered streets and houses, where settlers plied their trades and raised their families; their lives intermingled with the soldiers of the garrison. To them all, this fortress on the Georgia frontier was home.

At the top of the model a small fort guards the river. Look in the mirror at the back of the case for a view of Frederica from the water’s edge.

Georgia, the 13^th English colony in North America, filled the gap between South Carolina and the Spanish colony of Florida. This buffer region, claimed by both Spain and England, was known as the “debatable lands.” Frederica was British Georgia’s first line of defense against invasion by the Spaniards.

Look up from the model through the window for a view of what remains of Frederica today. At first glance, you may see only a clearing in the woods, the trees festooned with Spanish moss. If you look closer at the ground however you see foundations of a house and traces of the town’s earthen palisade. The National Park Service is preserving Frederica’s ruins and archeological resources as they have survived through time. Most of Frederica’s buildings were abandoned or destroyed by fire in 1758, leaving the ruins as an archeological time capsule of life on the colonial frontier.

Against the wall to your left, photos and artifacts highlight the role of archaeology at Frederica. Excavation of the site began prior to 1950. Archaeologists are still at work today piecing together fragments of the town. Exposed foundations, broken tools and pottery, along with journals, letters, maps, and inventories tell all we know today of Frederica.