Went to Fort Christmas Historical park here. It is an exact recreation of the fort built here in 1837. In 1837 the army sent 2000 men and equipment down this way to build an outpost. They hacked and chopped there way building roads and fording streams and the swamps. They came to a small creek near here, and on December 25th they started to construct there outpost. They finished on Dec 27. Took two days to construct the fort about 80 feet square, with 12′ high walls, and two blockhouses. Had one building, inside for storage ,all the men stayed outside in the elements. A company of about 80 soldiers remained encamped at the fort. They named it Fort Christmas, as it was the day they started construction on it. So that’s how the little Hamlet here of Christmas Florida came to be. This was during the second Seminole war with the Indians. As the war progressed south most things started to be shipped by sea. As a result of this the fort was abandoned 3 months later in March of 1838. It sat that way for over a hundred years, when it was found in decay they made drawings and photos of the fort. There is no evidence of the fort anymore. In 1976 a replica of the fort was built at this park to honor its past. It was pretty neat to see, and to think they had no roads or anything as they made there way down here.

Also at the fort were 10 old houses, if you could call them that from the late 1880’s to early 1900’s. They all have been moved here from there original locations. They show how hard it was to live down here is isolation and eeck out a living.

This is the post office from the late 1880’s, it was added on to the small house where the postmaster lived . The building to the right side is the kitchen and dining room, a luxury in that day ,most kitchens were out side, under the porch or just outside.

Melissa handing over a letter to the post office, telling me how much she love’s me.

Hard to see in this photo but the middle is open on both ends, this is where the cooking and eating was done. There are 2 rooms on either side, one is a bed room, one is a parlor, one is a mans seating area, and one is for the women where there is all her knitting and household items

This house is about 14’x14′. A bed and a few dressers on one end, and the small fireplace and seating area on the other. This house was a little bit of luxury as to the covered carriage area. This was a neat place to visit and learned a lot of the history down here in Florida.