Eagle Scout project benefits Fort Mose

Terri Newmans informed local Historic City News reporters that St Augustine resident Griffin Gard, a seventeen-year-old member of Boy Scout Troop 345, has completed a service project for the Fort Mose Historic State Park as part of his quest to become an Eagle Scout.

To achieve Eagle Scout, the highest rank in the Boy Scouts of America, Gard had to plan and complete a service project for a nonprofit organization in his community. The purpose of this service project was to highlight his abilities as a leader and benefit the chosen organization.

Gard’s project consisted of the construction of five picnic tables for the park’s picnic area and the restoration of a park exhibit that was deteriorating.

Working with the St. Augustine Lighthouse LAMP program, he restored a replica of a Spanish flatboat called a barca chata and created a stand and interpretive panel to accompany the outdoor exhibit.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994, Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Fort Mose Historic State Park is the site of the first legally sanctioned, free African settlement in what is now the United States. Although nothing remains of the original fort, visitors may view the site from a boardwalk and learn about the site’s history in the park’s visitor center and museum.