Fort Mose will offer educational travel trunk

Park Service Specialist Terri Newmans informed local Historic City News reporters in St Augustine that an application for $1,662 in grant funding to create educational materials about Fort Mose, for use by local area K-12 students, has been accepted.

The grant was awarded through the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, made possible by the National Park Service, National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Fort Mose Historic State Park tells the story of the first legally sanctioned free African settlement in what is now the United States.

Once received, the funding will provide for the creation of an educational “travel trunk” that will include activities, photographs, posters, maps, reproductions of period items and games.

The trunk, along with a teacher’s guide providing lessons for students of varying ages, will be available for local educators to utilize free of charge.

Although nothing remains of the original fort today, visitors may view the site from a boardwalk and learn about the site’s history in the park’s visitor center.