Today I visited historic Brunswick Town and Fort Anderson along the Cape Fear river in Brunswick County, North Carolina. Brunswick Town was founded in 1726. After a tumultuous history, it was abandonded around the time of the Revolution after being burned down. Later, on the same site, Fort Anderson (first named Fort St. Phillips) was built using largely slave and American Indian labor.
All that is left of the town is the shell of the St. Phillips Church and the foundations of perhpas about 10 buidings, mostly single-family homes and a couple of common buildings. The town only had two roads that were named and a cross street. Originally, the plan called for 1/2-acre lots on the 300 acre property, but the town never grew above 75 buildings. The foundations of the homes are interesting, showing the size of the footprint and hinting as to the purpose of the individual rooms (kitchens, work areas, and so on). Interestingly, the foundations were made from ballast stones that were brought over by trading vessels to weigh down the ship coming to America. When the ships arrived, the stones were thrown out (many line the shore of the Cape Fear River) to make room for the naval stores that were the main export item from this port. People would just bring the stones to the building site and use them for the foundations onto which they built wooden dwellings. The Church is just a shell of brick, but it is clear where the footings were and there are still all of the window openings in the walls. It is quite large and has a number of grave markers in the yard in the old style of large, boxed crypts. The entire area is covered with many oak trees dripping with Spanish moss.
The remnants of the fort are less developed. What is visible are large earthworks that were the main features of the defensive parts of the fort. At the time of its construction, the fort represented the largest earth works in the world. Every bit of the earth works was constructed moving the earth one shovel at a time. The fort was used throughout the Civil War but fell in just three days in January of 1865. Shortly after its fall, Union troops moved up river to Wilmington and captured the last open port in the South.
The visitor center at this historic site is excellent. They have a very informative video presentation and an excellent small museum with a timeline and numerous artifacts from the site excavation which occured in the late 1950's. Numerous topics about the initial exploration of the Spanish, the early American Indian inhabitants, the early settlers, the residents of the town, and the Civil War history of the site are reviewed in great detail. There is also a gift shop that has several good books (in addition to the normal gift shop tripe). All in all, this was an excellent site to visit, especially given that there is no cost to do so. The site is midway between Wilmington and Southport, North Carolina.
