Messerer Trapper Cabin

The Swan Valley was homesteaded in the early 1900s. Many homesteaders relied on income from trapping to pay taxes and to purchase food and supplies they weren’t able to produce on their land.

Fred Messerer lived on the Swan Clearwater ...

Smithsonian Institution, Anacostia Community Museum

Founded as the Anacostia Neighborhood Museum and opened in 1967, the Anacostia Community Museum was envisioned by S. Dillon Ripley, then-Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, as an outreach effort ...

Piers, Ports, and Wharves

During the mid-1880s, 16 wharves reached into Pensacola Bay along a three-mile stretch of waterfront from Bayou Texar to Bayou Chico. A few years later, around 1900, railroad companies invested in Pensacola’s port facilities, improving wharves and piers in an ...

Archaeology in a Maritime Community

Pensacola Bay has been a valuable resource for populations from prehistoric to modern times. The relationship between these people and their environment is often reflected in archaeological sites submerged beneath local waters. In addition to many shipwrecks, other archaeological sites ...

A History Shaped by Hurricanes

Pensacola’s residents have endured more than 450 years of destructive hurricanes. The first historically recorded hurricane overwhelmed Don Tristán de Luna’s 1559 colonization attempt, destroying most of the ships in his fleet. In 1752, another hurricane drove a subsequent Spanish ...

Industry at Sea

Although the American Civil War (1861-1865) hindered much of Pensacola’s early industrial growth, the city rebounded quickly once the war ended. Entrepreneurs from the northern United States saw great value in the area’s deep port and natural resources. By the ...

A New Territory for the U.S.

The success of the American Revolution spurred population growth and movement in the early 19th century. While many Americans moved west to claim new land, some looked south to Spanish West Florida. The flood of new settlers and increased pressure ...

Defending a Coastal Colony

If you flew over Pensacola Bay, you would see that it has many natural forms of protection. Sandy barrier islands defend the narrow entrance into the bay and rolling hills provide excellent vantage points to watch ships arrive. The many ...

Supremacy, Siege, and the Sea

Military and naval conflict dominated the 18th century. France, Spain, and Great Britain were aggressors in nearly constant warfare that often extended into North America. Spain established a fledgling colony near what is now the Pensacola Naval Air Station in ...