Seashells & Cannon Balls: Fort Clinch

AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. —The Earnest family vacation this past summer included a little something out of the ordinary for my clan. We actually did something productive — for one day, anyway.

In between lounging on the beach and around the pool, playing golf and gorging on scores of shrimp tacos, we found time during our week in fabulous Amelia Island, Fla., to spend a morning at historic Fort Clinch State Park. It turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip.

Although it was never a spot of actual fighting or true hostilities during wartime, Fort Clinch has long been an important spot in northeast Florida. It is located on the Atlantic shore northeast of Fernandina Beach at the entrance to the Cumberland Sound. The spot of the current fort was occupied by the Spanish as far back as 1736, and control of the area has changed hands several times over the many decades since. 

At the end of the Second Seminole War, the United States began constructing a coastal fortification that would eventually become Fort Clinch. The pentagon-shaped compound would be comprised of inner and outer walls that took nearly 5 million bricks to achieve. The outer walls have bastions and embrasures, while the large interior courtyard is home to a handful of barracks and other structures — a jail cell, camp store, blacksmith shop, mess hall and ammunition and weapons storage areas among them.

Confederate forces seized and occupied the compound for a short time in 1861, but soon abandoned the fort when it was deemed not safe or protected enough to truly be of use. The Union Army moved in soon thereafter and used it as a base of operations in the area through the remainder of the Civil War. 

Not much happened at the fort until the U.S. Army manned it in 1898 during the Spanish-American War. After that the installation was largely abandoned and fell into disrepair until The Great Depression in the 1930s, when the state of took over the fort, bought the 250-plus acres surrounding it, and put the Civilian Conservation Corp to work building Fort Clinch State Park. The fort was closed during World War II and used for security communications, but reopened during peacetime and was placed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. 

These days, Fort Clinch is set up to look much like it did around the time of the Civil War, and it is open year-round to visitors, who can take a guided tour or stroll the grounds on their own. There is a nice visitor center to welcome guests, and plenty of hiking and nature trails around the fort if you don’t get enough walking in during your tour around the courtyard.

There are plenty of nooks and crannies around the fort to explore, and the views from atop of the walls are spectacular. Some parts of the structures are roped off, so visitors can’t get into every room, but it’s easy to see in through windows and doors. It doesn’t take more than a couple hours to see everything, but Fort Clinch really is a feast for history junkies. If you’re lucky, you might get to see some period-dressed employees doing some “work” — aka living history activities that go on around the grounds fairly regularly.

My family spent a couple hours strolling around inside the fort, taking lots of photos and soaking in the vibes. There were only a handful of other visitors there during our morning, but we did see quite a few cyclists swinging past the visitor center and buzzing through the scenic roads in and around the park. It’s a fun, vibrant place and my family certainly had a good time exploring it. And we all learned a few things about the area in the process.