hey what's up everybody noel ladies here and i'm coming to you from louisiana more specifically fort pike we're gonna go check this place out come join me built in 1827 fort pike has survived a lot over the years of its existence interestingly it shares its name with pikes peak in colorado both were named after general zebulon montgomery pike general pike was born in 1779 and was a united states army officer and an explorer in 1805 he led a team through the newly purchased louisiana territory to find the source of the mississippi river which he incorrectly found to be lake leech in minnesota on his journeys he also made peace treaties with indian tribes and claimed land pike served in the war of 1812 becoming a brigadier general but was killed during the battle of york in 1813 there were several coastal fortification systems built in the united states after the revolutionary war the first system which was somewhere between 1794 to 1808 was mostly forts built of wood and dirt most of these had deteriorated by the time the war of 1812 came around the second system of forts were somewhere between 1808 and 1816. these were also primarily wooden and dirt structures but they were better engineered by the newly formed army corps of engineers however not enough were completed which left many coastal areas vulnerable to attack during the war of 1812. the third system forts fall somewhere between 1816 and 1867 by this time president james madison had appointed a board of directors to oversee the building of coastal forts these would be much stronger fortifications and reinforced with brick heavy masonry and wood these forts were developed because they found there were too many areas vulnerable to attack during the war of 1812.
they didn't want to make the same mistakes prior to the war of 1812 the second system fort petit coquille or little shells was built on a location chosen based on advice from jean lafitte the pirate the location was not far from where fort pike is now and its purpose was to protect new orleans from being taken by the british it was a wooden structure and it was much smaller than fort pike fort petit coquille did not see much action and was deemed to be useless by andrew jackson there's not really anything left of it other than part of the land it sat on the rest is underwater and sometimes parts of the old fort can be seen rising from the water at very low tides the third system fort pike was built nearby fort pike was designed by simon bernard who was a french general under napoleon he was in command of engineers in charge of fortifications made a knight of the empire eventually became colonel and then named aide decamp to napoleon he arrived here in 1816 and was given the rank of brigadier general and made use of his engineering skills to help the united states some of the other forts he designed were nearby fort mccomb fort monroe in virginia fort morgan in alabama and several others fort pike was built to protect new orleans from a naval force entering lake pontchartrain from the rigolese pass if someone were to enter the lake they would have great advantage to attack new orleans it was built to be manned by a garrison of about 400 men during wartime during peacetime the garrison was much less usually around 80 or so but generally was just one sergeant who was a caretaker for the fort when nothing was going on fort pike would be used during several major events though it never saw battle from 1835 to 1842 it was used as a staging area for troops being sent to florida during the second seminole war it was also used to hold several hundred seminole prisoners and their slaves as they were transported to reservations in oklahoma it was used during the mexican-american war from 1846 to 1848 to stage troops on their way to fight at the early ages of the civil war in winter of 1861 a lone ordinance sergeant was left in command and threatened to blow up the fort when confederate sympathizers arrived to take command he ultimately surrendered the fort after a long standoff during the civil war the confederates were in control of the fort until 1862 when the union captured new orleans before the confederate soldiers left fort pike they set fire to the fort and some nearby structures and spiked the cannons making the fort little use to union forces when they arrived the union after making repairs to the fort used fort pike as a base to control water traffic to and from lake pontchartrain it was also during this time that many former slaves and free men of color came to join the military and trained to fight in the war when the war was over troops remained until about 1871 then turned over to a caretaker sergeant in 1884 the fort was put on a list for disposal but ultimately was just abandoned after a marsh fire in 1890 in 1928 the state of louisiana took possession of fort pike it was then added to the louisiana state park system in the 1930s and would open to the public for visitation in 1972 when there was a renewed interest in historic preservation the old fort was placed on the national register of historic places although the fort was slowly deteriorating it was still in shape to have thousands of visitors yearly until hurricane katrina hit in 2005. the entire structure was submerged underwater from the storm surge this further damaged a lot of the old walls after some major restoration though it reopened in may of 2008 but three months later hurricane gustov hit causing more damage to the structure it would reopen in june of 2009 and would stay open until 2012 when hurricane isaac hit which kept it closed until july of 2013.
