As my final post on Fort Frederica this year, I wanted to continue the tradition of sharing Letters from London. As you may remember, the Fort Frederica Jr. Ranger program is different from most parks. One of the activities in the Jr. Ranger program is writing a letter home, as if you are a colonist …
From National Parks
Spiffing Up Fort Frederica National Monument
The last two years, when we have arrived at Fort Frederica, we had to do damage control. The first year was the damage to the live oaks from Hurricane Matthew. We spent hours putting limbs into a chipper. The second year we had Hurricane Irma followed by an ice storm that knocked lots of pines …
Seen Around Fort Frederica National Monument
We are back in Ohio, so I am going to use the blog posts this week to finish out our time of working at Fort Frederica. Today is kind of a hodge-podge, with each paragraph something different that we have seen or done around Fort Frederica. We worked a lot with various school groups this …
Living History Food at Fort Frederica
On Saturdays and Sundays, Tom and I do living history at Fort Frederica. We dress out in our historic outfits and do things like colonial people would do. Because it is only the two of us doing living history this year, we change what we do the two days. On Saturdays Tom blacksmiths and I …
Nature Trail at Fort Frederica National Monument
Two years ago when we were working at Fort Frederica, they were putting in a one mile nature trail. They had just finished clearing the trail in April and were getting ready to put up trail markers and signs. Then, that fall, another hurricane hit the Fort. So many pine trees were uprooted that when …
Rock Star Tom Hartley in the News
I like to tease Tom that he is a rock star at Fort Frederica. When he dresses in his British soldier uniform, people flock to him. We can have five people in the park, but Tom starts talking about his musket and suddenly there are 30 people standing around listening to him. I think there …
Friends of Fort Frederica Celebration
The day after our third Colonial Day, we had another big event here at Fort Frederica. Most parks have a Friends group where local people work in partnership with a National Park site. Last year, the Friends of Fort Frederica was reformed into a partnership with the National Park service and the Fort. So last …
Third Colonial Day at Fort Frederica
Because it is our third year working at Fort Frederica, it is also our third Colonial Day at Fort Frederica. Colonial Day is the celebration of the colonists arriving at Fort Frederica in March of 1736. So we have lots of living history people, demonstrations, and hands-on activities at this special event. Our third Colonial …
FLETC Training at Fort Frederica
At Fort Frederica we have a wonderful view of the Marshes of Glynn on the other side of the Frederica River. Directly across the marsh from Fort Frederica is the Glynco site of FLETC, the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. FLETC trains National Park Service Law Enforcement Rangers, but 90 other Federal agencies also send …
Table Loom Weaving at Fort Frederica
Last summer I learned how to weave on a floor loom at Pipe Spring National Monument. When I told the Volunteer Coordinator at Fort Frederica, Ranger Michael, about it, he decided to buy a small table loom. After pricing them (even small looms can be expensive) he bought a Tumbleweed table loom for Fort Frederica. …