Fort Stanwix, Rome, NY: A Great Park!

Fort Stanwix in Rome recently celebrated it’s 75th anniversary as a state park and National Historic Site! This week is National Park Week, and Fort Stanwix has some special events at the park. This is from National Park Service:

“We are excited about this coming year and celebrating the 75th birthday of Fort Stanwix National Monument and National Park Week,” said Mike Kusch, Chief of Interpretation and Resource Management. “We earnestly wish to thank the people of Rome for their efforts and their patriotism to establish and keep an important National Park Service site within their community. We at Fort Stanwix National Monument are proud to serve the people of Rome and the people who visit the park from all over the United States and the world. Thank you very much.”

Fort Stanwix National Monument is open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission to the park is free. Activities are ongoing unless noted. For more information about upcoming events please call the park at (315) 338-7730. Please visit the park’s web page at www.nps.gov/fost for additional information about the park and up-to-date news about park events.

We absolutely adore Fort Stanwix. We visit nearly every year. We think it’s one of the greatest parks and historic sites we have ever visited, and everyone who works there is incredibly friendly, cheerful, and knowledgeable. Here are some photos of one of our visits.

For a more detailed history of the fort, see this earlier post I’d written about the fort and the Visitors Center.

This visit was relaxing and exploratory. It began with a lovely walk around the park, from the Marinus Willet Visitor Center and all around to the entrance of the fort.

On the walkways, there are large, informative plaques. Read more

Fort Stanwix, Rome, NY: Summer 2007

Have I ever mentioned that we absolutely adore Fort Stanwix? We’ve been there many times over the years. This is one of the greatest parks and historic sites I have ever visited, and everyone who works there is so friendly and knowledgeable. Plus, they keep updating and adding new things.

For a more detailed history of the fort, see this earlier post I’d written about the fort and the Visitors Center.

We visited in summer 2007 (we visit almost every year). This visit was relaxing and exploratory. It began with a lovely walk around the park, from the Marinus Willet Visitor Center and all around to the entrance of the fort.

On the walkways, there are large, informative plaques.

I let the kids wander wherever they desired. We are quite familiar with the grounds. Here’s an aerial view of the fort. Forts were built this way in New York State. Some forts date back to the French and Indian War, before 1754!

I love the skyline from the top of the fort’s embankments.

The boys like the bombproof– a place under the berms where stores and ammunitions are kept. It also served as a hospital during times of siege.

The girls and I like learning about life back then. Therefore, the quarters and bunk rooms interested us.

All around the fort, the rooms in the long wooden dwellings are open for exploration. They are filled with genuine and replica articles that were common for this time period and for military barracks during the Revolutionary War.

There is always something neat to play with at the fort.

At the fort, we got to sit in the theatre this time, to watch a movie. The park service has, in the past several years, produced some excellent films about the fort. We’ve seen ones on the Battle of Oriskany and another about the Oneidas’ contribution to the war. Today was another great film about life at the fort during times when fighting ceased. It portrayed a soldiers’ experiences at the fort during times of monotony between battles. We recognized many of the actors in the movie– employees of the fort who have been so informative and friendly during our visits.

We also enjoyed a instructive presentation about popular music during the fort’s heyday. The instructor was a very talented fife player and made the presentation fun!

Although our visit was briefer than other visits, we still loved seeing Fort Stanwix again! And no doubt, we will see it again this summer! Since they keep adding new things, I’m sure it will not fail to interest us. Hopefully, we can make it to a re-enactment this year!