Michael B Thomin

On December 6, 1828, the American sloop-of-war USS Erie captured a privateer schooner within the harbor of the Swedish colony of St. Barts. The incident and resulting court case tried in Pensacola highlight the continued efforts of the U.S. Navy to protect its commerce during the “Age of Revolutions,” and demonstrates the geo-political complexities U.S. naval personnel faced while navigating neutrality during armed conflicts that relied on private ships of war.

Since 2011, the Florida Public Archaeology Network (FPAN) Coordinating Center office in Pensacola, Florida has partnered with the National Park Service staff at Gulf Islands National Seashore (GUIS) to develop and implement a public program called Tour de Fort. This guided bicycling tour was created by FPAN with the goal to promote the public appreciation for the many terrestrial and underwater archaeological resources located within the GUIS Fort Pickens Area. Tour de Fort has remained a popular and well attended program over the years. Based on public demand, other guided tours were developed using Tour de Fort as a model. However, until recently the actual quality and impact of this public archaeology program on audiences was not well understood. This article examines how Tour de Fort and other guided archaeology tours provided by FPAN are organized; highlights specific interpretative techniques implemented; and provides the methods, results, and recommendations from a formal assessment conducted to measure its impact on participants.