Gulf Islands National Seashore is an American National seashore that offers recreation opportunities and preserves natural and historic resources along the Gulf of Mexico barrier islands of Florida and Mississippi. In 2023, it was the fifth-most visited unit of the National Park Service.
Gulf Islands National Seashore, near Pensacola
The color of the sand in the region is exceptionally white, as seen in this 1957 photo at Pensacola Beach, Florida, adjacent to the protected area designated in 1971.
Horn Island (in Mississippi).
Gulf Islands National Seashore geologic cross section
Fort Pickens
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Fort Pickens is a pentagonal historic United States military fort on Santa Rosa Island in the Pensacola, Florida, area. It is named after American Revolutionary War hero Andrew Pickens. It is the largest of four forts built to defend Pensacola Bay and its navy yard. The fort was completed in 1834 and was one of the few forts in the South that remained in Union hands throughout the American Civil War. It remained in use until 1947. Fort Pickens is included within the Gulf Islands National Seashore, and as such, is administered by the National Park Service.
Panorama of Fort Pickens
Engraving of wartime Fort Pickens
Adam Jacoby Slemmer
William Conway Union Navy quartermaster who refused to haul down the American flag when Pensacola Naval Yard was captured. From a sketch by William Waud