Pirates: The Last Scourge of the Gulf - Opening May 29th

Pirates: The Last Scourge of the Gulf

Fort Walton Beach - The City’s Heritage Park and Cultural Center, along with the Friends of the Museums, Inc., present an original exhibit entitled “Pirates: The Last Scourge of the Gulf” opening on Saturday, May 29, 2010. The exhibit is scheduled to be on display all summer inside the Indian Temple Mound Museum Lazarus Education Center.

Two hundred years ago, the Gulf of Mexico was a dangerous and forboding body of water. No vessel was safe from the constant threat of attack from pirate ships who scourged across its high seas. “Pirates: The Last Scourge of the Gulf” recounts the forgotten story of these last pirates of the Gulf of Mexico. It was the worst outbreak of piracy in the Gulf and Caribbean Basin since the age of the most notorious pirates such as Blackbeard and Black Bart.

The exhibit examines the real pirates who swept across the Gulf of Mexico in the early 19th century and wreaked havoc on American shipping along the Gulf coast from Texas to Florida. “Pirates: The Last Scourge of the Gulf” is an educational and interactive exhibit that allows visitors to test their pirate knot tying skills, try on clothing real pirates from the period would have worn, raise a pirate flag on a crow’s nest, and feel what it
was like to stand on a deck and steer the ship. Visitors will also see artifacts pirates used and plundered from merchant ships during the era.

This exhibit was made possible by the generous support and sponsorship of Friends of the Museums, Inc., a non-profit organization founded in July 1995, with the goal to foster and advance educational and scientific research to preserve, protect, and promote the rich cultural heritage of this area. The organization is dedicated to supporting the Indian Temple Mound and Museum, the Camp Walton Schoolhouse Museum and the Garnier Post Office. Additional sponsors for the exhibit include the Florida Department of State Bureau of Archaeological Research and the Museum of Florida History in Tallahassee.

Summer hours for Heritage Park is open Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and is located at 139 Miracle Strip Parkway SE. The exhibit is included in regular admission to Heritage Park: $5 plus tax for adults, $4.50 plus tax for seniors 55 + and active military, and $3 plus tax for children 4 to 17. For further information please contact Museum Program Coordinator Mike Thomin at (850)833-9595.