The Fort Fisher Visitors Center and Me

I even remember the very first Fort Fisher Visitors Center and Museum which was a maybe 60 by 60 foot metal shed located at Battle Acre by the Confederate monument.  I'm not sure when it was built.  As a matter of fact when I was really young, I liked going to Fort Fisher but not to see the history or museum of it.  There was this really strange man with a long beard and usually shirtless who held court there.  He was known as the Fort Fisher Hermit.

Then came the Civil War Centennial (1961-1965).  This happened right when I was the most interested in the Civil War in my young life (I was 10 to 15 during the centennial.)  Around 1963, they built the structure that served as the museum until earlier this year.

I spent a lot of time in there whenever I was in North Carolina visiting family.  

When I first heard about the new center, I was told that the plan was to immediately tear down the old one and put up a temporary structure to house the museum and center because of parking.  I thought that was not a good move.  Leave the old one up until right before the new one is complete and then move stuff over directly.

Part of the problem was parking, but I figured why not just have people park in the part of Fort Fisher that was torn down for an airstrip during WW II.  This is what they did.

I sure am going to miss the old one, but really look forward to seeing the new one.

--Old B-Runner

World War II Comes to Fort Fisher This Weekend-- Part 1

From the Friends of Fort Fisher Powder Magazine Fall 2017, newsletter  "Fort Fisher to host WW II program Oct. 14 to honor site's anti-aircraft training role."

Eighty years after the two attacks on the fort during the Civil War, the United States Army returned to Fort Fisher.  The fort was expanded to meet World War II training needs for anti-aircraft guns.  Thousands of soldiers trained there and many women (WASPs) flew planes pulling targets.

When the fort was closed at the end of 1944, the anti-aircraft base there covered 1,200 acres and the site had been changed forever.

Bunkers had been constructed (and the famous Fort Fisher Hermit lived in one by where the Fort Fisher Aquarium is located today) and several of the fort's traverses had been leveled for the airfield.

Those days will come alive this weekend.

--Old B-R'er

Big Stage, Big Risk With Fort Fisher Hermit-- Part 2

The play is written by David Anthony Wright "The Hermit of Fort Fisher" explores his story.

Robert Harrill, at the age of 62 in 1955, estranged from his wife and children, moved from Shelby into an old concrete ammunition bunker south of Kure Beach in Fort Fisher.  He continued to live there for years with no amenities and subsisting on what food he could catch, gather or was given.

His mysterious death in 1972 is still believed by many to be an unsolved murder.

The bunker he lived in was left over from World War II when Fort Fisher was once again used by the military, this time for anti-aircraft training.  The bunker can still be seen at the Fort Fisher Aquarium.

--Old Hermit-Runner

Big Stage, Big Risk With the Fort Fisher Hermit-- Part 1

From the July 23, 2015, Wilmington (NC) Star-News by John Staton.

Backers and producers of "The Hermit of Fort Fisher" stage play are taking a huge risk turning it into an outdoor production which is playing from Wednesday to August 2nd at Greenfield Lake Amphitheater.  It has already run inside at Southport and Wilmington and sold well enough to take the risk of the move outside.

Of course, this is about a local character-turned legend named Robert Harrill, the famed "Hermit of Fort Fisher."

His story has inspired books, documentaries and many magazine and newspaper articles.

And the Civil War Navy connection is that he spent his "hermit" years living in an abandoned World War II bunker at Fort Fisher.

--Old B-Runner