dade battlefield

Fort Armstrong: The Forgotten Fort Built After the Dade Massacre

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Historic monument and interpretive map marking the site of Fort Armstrong near Dade Battlefield in Florida, surrounded by palmettos, moss-draped oaks, and dense Florida wilderness beneath a bright blue sky.

Florida doesn’t always reveal its history easily. Sometimes it hides it beneath pine needles, roadside traffic, and stretches of land that seem too quiet to have witnessed anything terrible at all. The road near Dade Battlefield Historic State Park looks ordinary now—just another patch of rural Florida where palmettos sway beneath the morning sun and … Read more

Walking the Ground That Started a War: Dade Battlefield Historic State Park

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Entrance arch at Dade Battlefield Historic State Park in Bushnell, Florida, the site of the 1835 Dade Massacre that sparked the Second Seminole War.

On a quiet stretch of pine forest in central Florida, history once erupted with shocking violence. Today, the trails at Dade Battlefield Historic State Park wind peacefully through tall pines and palmetto scrub. The breeze rustles through the branches, and the landscape feels almost serene. But on the morning of December 28, 1835, this same … Read more