The new Fort Fisher visitor center, opening Sept. 27, will tell a wider story. Crews at the North Carolina Civil War site are rushing to finish recreated earthworks

New visitor center, Civil War map along staircase to the second floor and a colorized version of a Timothy O'Sullivan photograph of a damaged Fort Fisher traverse (FFSHS)

(Editor's note: The park announced Sept. 20 the opening is indefinitely postponed due to flooding damage from a tropical system)

A new and larger visitor center at Fort Fisher below Wilmington, N.C., will provide a broader and more people-centric history than the previous venue, officials said.

The state historic site near Kure Beach recently announced the two-story visitor center and its museum will open on Sept. 27. The park closed in April for construction of the 20,000-square-foot visitor center and for an usual rebuilding of earthworks.

“There are a few more items in the Civil War section, but the new sections covering the time before Fort Fisher as well as the span of time between the Civil War and WWII are where we had to bring in the most new artifacts,” assistant site manager Chad Jefferds told the Picket.

Fort Fisher was built on the peninsula between the Cape Fear River and the Atlantic Ocean, south of Wilmington. It is best known as a crucial coastal bastion for the Confederacy.

A Whitworth gun on the first floor of the visitor center (FFSHS)

On Jan. 15, 1865, after a naval bombardment, the Federal army attacked from the western, river side while Marines pushed in from the northeast bastion. The fall of the “Gibraltar of the South” cut off blockade runners and the last supply line through Wilmington to Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. U.S. Colored Troops were among those taking part in the attack.

Essentially everything between Shepherd’s Battery on the western end of the fort’s land face and the center sally port were the scenes of intense fighting during the US Army’s assault. The fighting went from along the traverses from west to east and was often hand-to-hand.

Fort Fisher’s use during World War II helped the Allied cause but destroyed some of its familiar defensive traverses. They were removed to make way for an airstrip when the area was used for training anti-aircraft and coastal artillery units.

Construction crews are working to complete recreations of three traverses, bombproofs, a magazine and the sally port, Jefferds said. “The dirt being brought in has to dry out to a certain level before it can be used, but the weather has not been conducive. Hopefully it will be ready for our grand opening, but it’s no guarantee at this point.”

Sally port tunnel on far left during traverse reconstruction. At far right is historic traverse (FFSHS)

With the three traverses will come two gun emplacements, which will each have a heavy cannon, along with two 12-pounder Napoleons in the center sally port.

The new visitor center stands about 100 yards from the fort wall. It is just north of the east-west line mounds of earth known as traverses that were part of the defenses. Much of the eastern part of the fort has been claimed by the ocean. 

“Not only will visitors be able to see the majority of the remaining traverses from the second floor, they will also be able to see them as they approach from the parking lot. This is one of the main reasons for the first floor being perpendicular to the second floor,” said Jefferds.(bombproof recreation, below)

The visitor center’s first floor has a welcome desk, gift shop, restrooms and staff offices.

The second floor houses the main exhibit gallery as well as a temporary exhibit gallery that will change regularly. It  is home to an information desk, an orientation theater, restrooms and a multipurpose room that can be used for a classroom space, banquets or wedding receptions.

Among the wall displays is a colorized Timothy O’Sullivan photo of the fort taken shortly after its fall.

“That particular photo is of the 4^th traverse along the land face of the fort, likely where the fort’s commander Col. William Lamb was wounded,” said Jefferds. “It really shows the carnage that abounded here after the U.S. Navy’s bombardment and ensuing land battle, with the broken cannons and debris scattered all around.”

I asked him whether the venue will tell the same story, with some twists.

“The story is the same and Fort Fisher is obviously the central theme, but the way it’s told is different. We’ve tried to tell the story of Fort Fisher through the eyes of the people who lived, worked, fought and died here. We’ve also enhanced the coverage of the time before the Civil War as well as the time after, all the way through WWII when the fort served as a training facility for antiaircraft and coastal artillery units.”

Parking and admission at the site is free. Hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. The building is wheelchair-accessible and an elevator goes to the second floor.

Mysteries of the not so deep: More dives ahead on blockade runner Agnes E. Fry

Knife handle and deck light found on Fry (NCDNCR)

For having endured so much – being run aground, shelled by the enemy, partially salvaged and decapitated by a giant wire – the wreck of the blockade runner Agnes E. Fry still has a precious story to tell.

Archaeological divers with the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources will return, likely in May,  to the Confederate shipwreck about a half mile off Oak Island.

In water where visibility of 2 feet is a rare treat, they’ll continue to explore the Fry and collect data to create a 3D model. The vessel ran aground on Dec. 27, 1864, while trying to reach Wilmington.

“The Fry is not a difficult dive. It is fairly easy to get to. We can drop buoy right on the wreck,” says dive supervisor Greg Stratton.

But once in the shallow water, it’s easy to get disoriented.

The Llama resembled the Agnes E. Fry 

“Light cup of coffee with creamer” is the description Stratton uses to describe the underwater environment.

This will be a big year for assessing the state of the Scottish-made Fry and what cargo remains in its two holds.

Bill Ray Morris, North Carolina deputy state archaeologist, said his office has filed a report on its work thus far to the National Park Service, which provided a research grant through its American Battlefield Protection Program.

“We have received another grant, from NC Sea Grant, to revisit Fry this spring and create a research design and methodology for further investigation and recordation of this significant site,” he told the Picket.

Wreck of the Agnes E. Fry (NCDNCR)

Last year, officials announced “unprecedented detail” captured by sector-scanning sonar. A mosaic image shows the broken iron hull, smoke stack sections, I-beam frames, outer hull plating and more.

Stratton has made five dives for the project. “There is tremendous amount of structure scattered throughout the wreck.” He estimated the debris field to be 239 feet long and 50 feet wide.

Divers, since the discovery of the Fry in early 2016, have removed a chunk of coal, a deck light and remains of a handmade knife “literally laying on the deck.”

Stratton said sheet lead was rolled as a handle for an iron blade. There are thumbprints on the handle; just a small piece of the iron remains. The intact deck light is a 6-inch circle. “They put these small glass pieces on the deck or bulkhead to allow light into the cargo spaces.”

Agnes E. Fry

Officials said the cargo holds are in cavities under the structure. While machinery was removed, there are no records of the cargo being taken;  no one really knows what the Fry carried on its voyage from Nassau, Bahamas.

Blockade runners carried an odd mix of war materiel and goods intended for Southern civilians. Enterprising owners wanted to offset the risk of running the gauntlet of U.S. Navy ships trying to keep them away from vital ports, including Wilmington, N.C.

In mid-1863, the Confederacy ordered captains to carry 50 percent in war goods, such as uniforms, rifles, artillery and munitions. Most items came from Europe via the Bahamas and Bermuda.

Joseph Fry

Serving on the fast blockade runners was tough duty, and full of risks. According to a timeline, the Fry tried seven times in autumn 1864 to get through the blockade, but was unsuccessful until Nov. 5. “She also deals with a bad sickness aboard that kills several of her crew members.”

Records for the ship are scattered or nonexistent, but the end came a few miles below Southport, below Wilmington.

“While running down the shoreline toward the Cape Fear River entrance, another ship was sighted in front of the Fry, the pilot panicked and turned toward shore to miss it,” said Stratton. “Instead, he ran her aground. He was later court-martialed for this and for extorting Capt. (Joseph) Fry for more money to make the run. We think the vessel in front of her was the wreck of the Georgiana McCaw, as no Yankee vessels made mention of being there until the next day.”

For years, the top of the ship was above the water line and it was considered a navigational obstruction for the Cape Fear River.

To counter that, two tugboats anchoring a large wire 10 feet below the surface ran over the wreck site, slicing off the top of the Fry.

The National Park Service grant isn’t just covering the Fry. The state is working to locate and study other historic shipwrecks around Wilmington, including two other blockade runners that went down near the Fry. Several are just offshore and in water 14-16 feet deep.

You can just make out a porthole (NCDNCR)

“The wrecks were way more uncovered than they have ever been,” said Stratton.

Officials hope scuba divers one day will be able to visit some of the vessels. Archaeologists want to open the first state dive park off Kure Beach, featuring the well-preserved Condor.

The divers hope to complete a full assessment of the Fry this year, and apply for other grants to further the research. But don’t expect a rush of artifacts to be brought to the surface.

“For every dollar you spend in the water, you will spend 30 and 40 dollars conserving it,” Stratton said.