New display highlights Fort Fremont’s role in the defense of Port Royal Sound
From staff reports
A new display at the Fort Fremont History Center depicts how technology and world events converged to select remote St. Helena Island for the site of one of the most sophisticated defense structures at the turn of the 20th century. Three new panels answer the question “Why Fort Fremont?”
Port Royal Sound with its deep natural harbor played a strategic military role in the history of the area since the Spanish arrived in the 16th century. Three hundred and fifty years later, Fort Fremont marked the final chapter of coastal fortifications on Port Royal Sound.
The Fort was built to protect the U.S. Naval Station at Parris Island which had a dry dock and coaling station critical to the Caribbean and Atlantic naval fleets during the Spanish-American War. The battleship USS Maine made one its last stops for provisions here on the way to Havana, Cuba, where its sinking ignited the start of the war with Spain.
Historian and author Larry Rowland said, “[Fort Fremont] is a magnificent artifact of an era — an era that has been neglected at the turn of the 20th century. It is a piece of history that is disappearing. The Friends of Fort Fremont and Beaufort County have preserved it for the use of the public as a memorial to that moment in history.”
The Fort Fremont History Center is located on the Fort Fremont Preserve at 1124 Land’s End Road, St. Helena Island. The preserve and fort were purchased by Beaufort County through the Rural and Critical Lands Preservation Program in 2004 and 2010 and encompass 18-acres of mixed hardwood forest facing the Port Royal Sound. In 2021, Beaufort County opened the History Center to showcase the rich history of the area.
The Friends of Fort Fremont work with Beaufort County to preserve and promote Fort Fremont’s historic, natural, educational, and cultural resources through public tours and displays at the history center.
The Preserve is open daily from dawn to dusk. The History Center exhibit hall is free to the public and open every Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. A self-guided walking tour app is available at www.fortfremont.org. For more information visit www.fortfremont.org or www.beaufortcountysc.gov.
