>>This program is brought to you in part by the Paul B.

Hunter and Constance D. Hunter Charitable Foundation, a proud partner of WUCF and the Central Florida community.

>>Up next on this episode of Florida Road Trip... >>I think it's a good humored rivalry, and if nothing else, it gets everybody talking about history.

>>We make a pit stop in a city that claims to be the oldest in the nation, not Saint Augustine.

Plus... >>Rule number two is you don't have to make everybody happy but you can't make anybody mad.

>>The city holds a Mardi Gras celebration where everyone is invited.

And.. >>The bays here in Pensacola have one secret ingredient and secret feature.

And that is our deep water pass.

>>That "secret ingredient" attracted the US military and led to the Blue Angels calling Pensacola home.

I think the best part about being a Blue Angel was just being a small part of the history of this unbelievable organization.

>>Strap in, buckle up.

Florid Road Trip is back on the road.

♪♪ Hi there, and thanks for joining us for Florida Road Trip.

I'm your host, Scott Fais.

We're back in the Panhandle again, exploring the history of one of the earliest cities in the state.

In fact, Pensacola has the distinction of being the first settlement in the United States, even predating St. Augustine.

It's a friendly rivalry between two historically significant citie on opposite sides of the state.

>>People came to Pensacola probably 12,000 years ago.

They were here, the Native Americans, for a long time.

But the Spaniards arrived.

About the earliest they could have arrived is about 1528, with an explorer, named Narvaez.

He really, was thrown out of Tallahassee area by the Apalachee Indians and built some escape rafts and rafted along the Gul Coast to the west, trying to get back to Mexico.

>>Before Pensacola earned its current name, the area was referred to as Panzacola and although historians agree on the spelling with a Z, the exact origin remains uncertain.

>>What history shows is that the local Native American populatio here were the Panzacola Indians, and so they named it after the Panzacola Indians.

There are other stories that said that that actually wasn' the Native American tribes name, that that was what the Native Americans who were here called the Spanish, because as long haired people in the Spanish had beards and other.

>>Spanish explorer Don Trista de Luna landed in Pensacola on August 14th, 1559, nearly six years before the Spanish landed, in St. Augustine.

>>Tristan de Luna's mission was to set up starting at Pensacola Bay, because they knew it was a good bay to build a port city here.

They brought a year's worth of food.

They brought 1500 people with them.

And five weeks later a hurricane came and destroyed their ships, destroyed it turned it into a rescue mission.

And Tristan de Luna was a total failure.

After that, Pensacola was kind of forgotten about.

>>The French immediately came in and built Fort Caroline, Jacksonville after the Saint Johns, and also up at Fort Royal.

>>The increasing French presence prompted the Spanish to dispatch Pedro Menendez.

>>We all know the end of that story is that he founded what is now St. Augustine and establishe the first capital of Florida, up in South Carolina, at a place they called Santa Elena, which is at Port Royal on Parris Island.

Over those next 125 years or so, they forgot about Pensacola.

>>Pensacola changed possession several times, which led to its nickname, the City of Five Flags.

>>So you had the Spanish.

They turned Pensacola over to the French, and the French were here fo just a hot minute, as they say, for about six years.

And in 1763 the British came to Pensacola.

The British were here for 21 years, and in 1781 they got a battle here, part of the American Revolution with Galvez, and defeated the British and Spanish once again, is now in control of Pensacola.

The Spanish were here until 1821, when officially Florida became part of U.S. territory.

Right outside of this museum is where this happened.

Andrew Jackson received Pensacola and all of Florida for the United States in 1821, right outside.

>>The fifth flag, a Confederate one briefly flew over the cit during the American Civil War.

>>And you really can't claim something a new land unless you have a presence.

Take our going to the moon.

We have a flag there.

We found it first.

Had there been anything valuable there the moon was ours, and, so it's the same principle.

>>Doctor Ben serves as the president emeritus for the University of West Florida, and holds the distinction of being the area's first permanent archeologist.

>>One of the very neat part of being an archeologist at the University of West Florida is that there were no archeologists before us.

They came in and out, but there weren't any resident archeologists.

To make a long story short, I became a historical archeologist and it was an open niche.

It was a field that was just opening.

And Pensacola is one of the richest archeological sites and areas in the country.

It had never been touched by an archeologist not the historical stuff that, people thought we had great history, but they didn't know all this stuff was left.

Especially downtown.

Downtow has been downtown for 300 years.

And you think, oh, it's all destroyed.

Well, so did I.

But it wasn't.

It's right underneath the streets, right underneath the parking lots.

You pick up the parking lot and there's Colonial Pensacola.

It's, what, 18 inches down?

>>We're here in Historic Pensacola Village, and what we do here i we bring to life Florida history as it was in the early 1800s here in Pensacola.

So at that time, Pensacola was still a Spanish colony.

It was a very diverse city at the at that time period.

And we, we do the things that they were doing here.

We dress in the historic clothing and we do a lot of demonstrations to show people what everyday life was like.

>>And one of the demonstrations that you can enjoy is candle making.

I understand that this right here can take quite a while.

>>It can.

Yeah.

So candle making was a chore that was historically done, usually in the cooler months, in the wintertime, because they were actually making a lot of their candles out of beef fat or tallow, sometimes beeswax, bu that was a lot more expensive.

So we are using modern materials today, but we give people a chance to make those candles, se what it was like for themselves.

We get a lot of school tours here, and this is one of th activities that people can do.

>>Speaking of activities that people can do, this is how it ended.

This is how it's going, how it started.

I still have some work to do on my candle, but there's other things that we can see right inside.

We're here in the kitchen getting a look at cooking demonstrations.

And, Philip, before we start cooking, we're gonna need some fire.

How is this done back in the 1700s?

>>Right.

So all of our cooking is don outside in this outdoor kitchen because like I said we're cooking over an open fire.

All the meals are prepared this way.

So first thing in the morning, we would come outside, get our fireplace all set with the firewood, all of our tinder.

And then we are going to need to start a fire using a steel striker and a flat rock.

>>How does this work?

>>So it's basically a downward striking motion.

What is happening is this rock is actually chipping away small bits of the steel to make those sparks.

We have to get those sparks to land on a small piece of char cloth.

This is, just a bit of, cotton or linen that's been charred a tin can, and then we'll have a little bit of tinder.

So this tinder is not here?

No, no.

>>We just want to-- >>It does look like it.

>>All right.

>>Thi is some dried plant materials.

You can use any kind of dried grasses.

>>So this would have come i from outside.

>>Right.

>>Nice.

All right.

>>So sometimes this goes very quickly.

Sometimes it takes a while.

So let's see what happens.

[STRIKING FLINT] >>Look at that.

Hope you have it.

Where there's smoke there's fire.

Nice job.

>>There we go.

>>There it is.

>>So once you have that fire started, you can then put that in your fireplace and get your firewood going.

And in a little while, you'll have breakfast.

>>Just a little bit.

Now that we have a roaring fire in the fireplace, it's time to talk a little bit about cooking.

We have Melissa Boggs.

Melissa you have a cornucopia of sorts here, full of different produce that you grew right here on site.

Tell us this is what we could have found hundreds of years ago.

>>Absolutely.

A cornucopia is a great way to describe it too.

So we have quite a variety of different options here.

Of cours we have a selection of old world and also new world options that we can choose from.

So oftentimes things that you will see commonly in people's, gardens or even just in their everyday cooking is onions.

It's a great seasoning and just a great way to get some extra nutrients.

Also a new world discovery is the tried and true very favorite potatoes.

Now, gourd are especially important to us.

Not only are we able to eat these, but we can also use them as storage containers.

So this is a common practice that you'll see throughout the colonial period of taking something that has one purpos and giving it another purpose.

Because we're a colony, we hav to utilize every last resource.

Nothing can go to waste here.

So it doesn't really seem like you can use this as a water bottle.

But if you are careful and patient enough, you absolutely can.

But as you guys can see over here, we have quite a variety of cas iron objects with all of these different varieties in our kitchen house.

Everybody in the community is using this kitchen house.

Every single family has their own set of recipes, has their own set of supplies that they would also use, which means they probably would also be sharing these utensils as well.

Melissa, great information.

Thank you very much.

But what would they cook?

Actually we're going to head back outside and take a look at hunting during the colonial era.

Stepping back outside hunting was a way of life.

Philip, tell us what is Fletcher holding here?

I want to stand back.

>>So this is a flintlock musket.

This would have been, the standard, weapons back during the colonial era.

And this was used not only for hunting, but this was also used, in the military.

All the armies at the time wer using these flintlock muskets.

>>So you would find dinner with this as well as protect the colony if you had to.

>>Exactly.

So the way this works, it's, it's a muzzleloader.

So they would have t pour powder and, the lead ball down the barrel, tack it down with this ramrod right here.

And then what makes this actually spark is the same technology that we used to make a fire in the kitchen.

Flint and steel.

>>Gotcha.

>>And so right here you can see we have a flint rock.

And this is called a steel hammer.

So when the trigger is pulled this flint rock springs forward, strikes that metal plate, make sparks that ignites your priming powder which then ignites everything in the barrel.

Now these have a reputation of being, not very accurate.

The this is a smoothbore, so this can shoot accurately, maybe up to 100 yards or so.

>>Okay, that's pretty good.

>>It's pretty good.

But on a windy day on a humid day, on a rainy day.

>>Yeah.

>>That can all get into your, powder.

So you have to keep your powde dry if you want to eat dinner.

>>All right, so if you're a little bit hungry, Hannah over here is making cornbread.

Hanna, tell us, how does the process work?

>>So this process is very, very time consuming, but it is probably one of the more fun chores of the colonial era.

Cornmeal was very, very inexpensive, but you did have to make it yourself.

The technique that we use is actually a traditional Native American method where we take a tree trunk and a tree branch, par of the trunk, whatever you need.

And we actually mak a very large mortar and pestle.

And what we'll do is we will put dried out corn into the center of it, and you're just going to grind it up really, really fine and as fine as you can.

Eventually you'll get to a poin where you get a lot of powder, and what you'll do is you wil take in your colonial colander, you're going to take a really, really large scoop of your cornmeal, your corn mixture.

You're going to hold it over your bowl, and then you're just going to move it all around up until you can separate your powder from your whole dry corn.

It's time consuming, but it's nice.

It's fun.

>>Hannah this could take all afternoon.

>>It does take all afternoon, yes >>But it's worth it in the end.

>>It is very worth it.

>>Fresh cornbread.

>>Cornbread, grits, all of the different things.

And this is actually very commonly used to in the temperature of the oven as well too.

They don't have a meat thermometer.

They don't tell that temperature gauge of any sort.

So what they'll do is they will throw the cornmeal into the bread oven.

And depending on the smell or the color it will become, it actually let you know how hot the oven is which is just such an easy way to kind of, you know, get that temperature figured out.

But.

>>And whose job would this traditionally be, would this be children teenagers, adults, grandparents?

>>Anybody who's available at that time, I suppose.

But and then you get all your nice fine powder into here and then whatever is left over, you throw right back into your mortar and pestle and you will just start back over.

>>Hannah is going to put me to work.

Bill, tell us, when can folks actually visit the historic village?

>>The historic Pensacol Village is open five days a week we're open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. visitors can learn more on ou website HistoricPensacola.org.

>>This is going to take forever.

I think we're probably going to have cornbread next week.

Philip Maher, thank you very much for joining us and sharing living history with us righ here in the heart of Pensacola.

How am I doing?

>>Not good.

>>The Historic Trust manages 30 historic properties in downtown Pensacola.

Museum of History i in the Old City Hall building.

Pensacola Museum of Art is in the old jail.

And then we have the Pensacol Children's Museum in an old bar.

There's the Museum of Industry, which talks about the three major industries of early northwest Florida.

We talk about the importance of industry here, the port, the timber, the natural resources, the clay and the red snapper fishing, which Pensacola in - from about 1905 until 1940s, we were the red snapper capital of the world.

And then across the stree we have the Museum of Commerce, where we've got a reconstruction of Palafox Street, which is our main business street here in Pensacola.

How we would have looked at the turn of the last century, late 1800s, early 1900s.

And we've got storefronts in there and businesses in there that you can go in and take a look at that were here at that time period.

The other part of this, those properties are a collection of historic house and an old and historic church.

Old Christ Church, built in 1832.

>>Not all archeological finds are downtown.

Some lie within Pensacola Bay.

Remember the hurrican that submerged DeLuna's ships?

They remain underwater, nestled in the bay.

>>Archeologists found DeLuna's ships and everybody went ballistic.

The university was great.

I mean, we started underwater archeology program.

It's one of three in the country, and our program really began to grow.

And so the kinds of things that we're finding are what is surrounding us in the Institute Museum here.

>>You'll also find artifacts from the shipwreck at the Pensacola museum of history, including an anchor from one of DeLuna's ships.

>>It's amazing that you come in and you can see this, this anchor.

That's what identifie the shipwrecks out in the bay.

We've got items that we have on display that you can see what they were eating.

You can see what their life was like.

But one of the other very small little item about the size of a 50 cent piece, a little carving of a Spanish galleon that evidently some sailor had carved ou an image of the ship he was on.

They found that in the shipwreck.

>>The museum honors some o Pensacola's more recent history, like this exhibit on the second floor dedicated to Trader Jon's.

>>Martin "Trader Jon" Weissman was a native of Brooklyn, New York, and he was a World War Two veteran.

He was in paratroopers and he had been sent to England to get ready for the D-Day invasion.

His last practice jum that he did before the invasion, he broke his leg and he got shipped back home.

So jump forward to New Year's Day, 1953, Martin "Trade Jon" Weissman had left Brooklyn, New York and came and opened a bar here in Pensacola and called it Trader Jon's.

The name came from his love of all thing aviation, mostly naval aviation.

And because we had Naval Air Station Pensacola here, the trader part came in.

He would trade bar tabs for any sort of naval memorabilia or any Navy related item that you had.

And we all joke and they talk about it was Tradernomics.

He would say, oh, you you brought me in a patch from your uniform.

Well, that's worth a couple beers.

Some of those item you have out there, you a seat that was ejected from a jet, you drink all night for free.

>>On of the more interesting items?

A wooden leg with a bottle opener built right in.

>>He amassed a collection of well over 100,000 items that he had traded out with people that he decorated his bar.

He loved the Blue Angels.

He has many, many things from the Blue Angels.

Unfortunately, he passed away and shortly after that the bar, just - the bar was Trader and once he wasn't there anymore, it just fell apart.

Pretty amazing to see this huge collection of military memorabilia from all over.

And every branch is covered.

>>Combining the museums, the historic village, and the ongoing archeology, it's easy to see how Pensacola is both preserving and still uncovering much of its deep history.

♪♪ The City of Pensacola shares a long standing history with the US Navy.

Naval aviation got its start around 1911, and by 1914, the Navy had centralized its training operation right here in Pensacola.

Thus, the city is oftentimes called the cradle of naval aviation.

And what better place than Pensacola for the National Naval Aviation Museum?

>>One of the reasons that Pensacola is called the cradle of naval aviation because all young aviators, regardles of their commissioning source, Annapolis, Reserve Officer Training Corps, Officer Candidate School, they come down here for their initial flight training and primary flight training.

>>The deep Bay was a big dra for those massive naval ships, and it's centrally located between both the west and east coast.

>>The museum, as you walk around counterclockwise, it's roughly chronological.

>>Throughout the museum, you'll find aviation pieces beginning with World War One and stretching through history to the global war on terror.

But it's not just airplanes.

The museum also highlights personal stories.

>>The real story to nava aviation are the men and women that work on them and fly them, and the tremendous history that they've created over our 113 year existence.

>>One of the challenges the museum faces is how naval aviation history is an ongoing story.

>>There are men and women flying off aircraft carriers around the glob in defense of this great nation that started their training right here.

So to be able to tell their story in an enduring fashion is one of the things we work hard at.

And that's wh one of the recent additions to the museum has been our Nimitz flight deck, which is a one fifth scale replica of a USS Nimitz flight deck.

And those aircraft carrier will be around for a long time.

They made ten of them, the last in the class, the USS George Herbert Walker Bush, was only commissioned in 2009, so she has many years left of service life.

>>World Wa Two aircraft carriers had wooden flight decks, and the museum has a replica of the USS Cabot.

Plus they have 150 airplanes on display.

>>Our rarest artifact here is a Dauntless dive bomber that flew in World War Two, and this particular airplane by serial number flew on 4 June 1942.

In the Battle of Midway.

The Battle of Midway was the most consequential battl in the Pacific in World War Two.

There were greater battles with more bloodshed, but no battle held more consequence for the United States Navy because we've been defeated there.

And remember, this was in June of 1942, just six months after Pearl Harbor.

So a defeat there would have had ominous consequences for the United States.

We won that battle with air power flown from aircraft carriers, and it's really where naval aviation came of age.

Interestingly, as we got newer faster, more capable airplanes, that particular aircraf came back to the United States and it was being used fo carrier qualification training in Lake Michigan, of all things, where we trained our pilots to learn to land aboard an aircraft carrier.

Sometime in 1943, it crashed.

It spent six decade at the bottom of Lake Michigan, is a sole remaining airplane to have flown in the Battle of Midway in the world.

>>As rare as this plane is, you won't find it encased in plexiglass or behind the velvet rope.

That's because the museum want visitors to reach out and touch and feel history.

>>You can put your hands on naval aviation history, and we're very, very proud of being able to offer that to our patrons.

I have an exhibit, fabrication and manufacturing staff.

They're small but almost all of the exhibits that you see on display here were created in-house.

♪♪ >>One of the staff's creation features the recovery efforts in Lake Michigan.

>>In just 59 days.

>>In addition to the Dauntless dive bomber that flew in the Battle of Midway, dozens of other airplanes crashed during th the training in Lake Michigan.

We decided to make an exhibit about it, and we took two airplanes that have been recovered, did not restore them, and put them in an immersive environment such that we could tell that remarkable restoration recovery story.

♪♪ One of the real neat things about this museum is that we're co-located with the Nav Flight Demonstration Squadron.

The Blue Angels.

They practice here at Naval Air Station Pensacola twic a week during their show season.

Tuesday, they practice here at 10:30, Wednesday they practice at 10:30, literally in my backyard.

I have a flight line that sits on about 40 acres and we open that flight line to our patrons.

We average 3 to 4,000 people a show to come watch their own private Blue Angel airshow practice.

♪♪ >>Veteran Memorial Park in Pensacola holds a special place in the hearts of visitors from around the country.

This sacred space is dedicated to American heroes, especially thos who made the ultimate sacrifice defending our country.

Here, visitors will find a place of remembrance, reflection and healing.

>>We have more veterans per capita in the Northwest Florida Panhandle area than any other place in the country.

In 1992, some local veterans decided that, having been influenced by the moving wall that made a stop through the Pensacola area that they wanted to have a half scale replica of the actual Vietnam Memorial that's in DC.

And they started the, the work to get the real estate from the city of Pensacola and to get the funding from multiple resources to put that first anchor monument here in the park.

There are lots of monuments here and memorials.

We have one for World War One World War Two, the Korean War.

We have one for the Revolutionary War.

We have a Gold Star families monument.

We have a monument for Purple Heart recipients.

Every branch of our servic is represented here at the park, in some form or fashion, in one of our monuments.

♪♪ It covers the full gamut of all veterans that have ever served.

The primary reason that this park exists is to honor the fallen fro all of our nation's conflicts.

And that's the the main mission that our foundation has to keep this park in th pristine condition that it's in.

It's a labor of love because I feel a kinship with my fallen comrades and the fact that this particular location is a spot to come and honor them and memorialize them in such a profound and special way, it's worth every bit of my time, treasure, and talent that I can put into it.

♪♪ >>Since every naval aviator begins their journey right here in Pensacola, there's no better place for the Navy's flight demonstration squadron to call home.

♪♪ [PLANES ROARING] >>The flight demonstration aspect of the Blue Angels, which most people are probably the most familiar with, is going to be our six jet F-18 Super Horne demo, referred to as the Delta.

We also have a C-130j Super Hercules, which is affectionately known as Fat Albert, that also performs during the airshows.

In addition to those airshows that we'll do, we also do community outreach when we go to these different cities.

So we'll visit schools and visit hospitals, community centers and really look to interact with the local public.

We went to Hawai for one of our airshows in 2022, and I was stationed in Hawaii.

My family and I were for almost eight years, and during that time our youngest child, was diagnosed with infantile scoliosis.

And he was treated at Shriners Hospital of Hawaii.

And there we were able to go back to Shriners, and we set up an event with him to go and interact with the kids.

And so it was great to be able to go back there and meet with the doctors.

And the staff had done such a great job of taking care of my family to be able to give back to them and, and also to go back with my son, who was with us.

>>The ability for this team to to inspire is really something that's that's unparalleled.

I think in, in my mind, I know when I was a kid growing up in San Francisco, California, I didn't have much exposure at all to to the military or to the Navy.

But one thing that did happen every year was there was an airshow over San Francisco Bay for Fleet Week, and the Blue Angels perform.

I remember thinking, this is the coolest job in the world.

And that inspired me.

You know, as a as a young kid to, to start down this path of really just wanting to be a naval aviator and fly f-18s in the Navy.

The most memorable experience I have is over my hometown in a blue and gold jet that remember looking up at as a kid, and it was a certainly a pinch yourself moment.

I can't believe this is happening.

>>A pinch yourself moment.

Much like the feeling of watching the Blue Angels in action.

[PLANES ROARING] ♪♪ >>You know, when you come to a blue Angel show, you know what you're going to see.

You're going to see that precisio and that power, that excitement.

We're rooted in history.

And like any organization, we evolve over time as well.

But I think the the the core tenants of, of honor, courage, commitment, and a pursuit of excellence are something that have held the test of time over our 77 plus year history.

>>Blue angels were formed in, April 24th, 1946.

The CNO at the time, Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Chester Nimitz formed the team with the idea of making sure that naval aviation didn't fall to the wayside or out of sight, out of mind.

In the waning days of World War Two.

You won't find the iconic name in the Naval aviation history book.

It's actually the name of a nightclub the team heard about while staying in New York City.

>>It was a pretty happenin' place, apparently.

>>Becoming a blue Angel is a lifelong dream for some, but for those who achieve it, it's only a short pitstop in their aviation career.

>>Every member of the Blue Angels is active duty Navy and Marine Corps, and no one is a Blue Angel for their entire career.

It's a very short tour, 2 to 3 years, tops, where you're a member of this team.

All of our members come from the fleet and we all return to the fleet.

So for a brief moment of time we get to represent our brothers and sisters who are out there serving on the front lines for deployed, operating off the aircraft carriers every single day.

>>Because the service with the Blue Angels is so short, there is always someone new joining the team.

>>Every year half the team is new and about a 30 to 40% turnover throughout the team officers and enlisted and a 50% turnover with our Delta our six jets in the formation.

Three out of those six pilots every year is new.

But what you will see in consistency is the same blue and gold jets doing the tightest, the most precise maneuvers that you can go out and see.

A lot of people don't realiz is that there's more than just the six pilot that comprise the Blue Angels.

When we were our tea last year, had 143 men and women maintainers, supply personnel, administrative personnel, medical logisticians, you name it.

>>The Blu Angels is a large team of people all sharing a rigorous schedule.

>>You're flying two times a day, five days a week here in Pensacola in November through December, and then in January, the entire squadron packs up and heads out to, the Blue Angels winter trainin home of El Centro, California.

When we're out in El Centro we're flying 2 to 3 times a day, six days a week, and building up the experience required to really just be able to fly what we consider a safe flight demonstration.

After that first fl demonstration occurs in March, we're hitting the roa and we're on the road from March through mid November, with only a few weekends off.

>>A typical workweek is six days, six days a week.

We'll travel out to our show site either on Wednesday or Thursday, depending on the distance, and then we'll return home Sunday night, debrief, and then finally head head to our home and get some rest with, a Monday day off to to be able to recollect yourself and spend a little time going to get a couple hugs in with the family.

And then we're back at it on Tuesday.

>>With six days a week, i doesn't give you much downtime.

And if a pilot gets sick and can't fly, you'll see fewer planes in the air.

>>The pilots fly the sam position and there's no backup.

So if you're right, wingman is unable to go.

Then you won't go with a right wing.

>>If you can't make it to one of their show sites around the country, you can catch the Blue Angels practicing on Tuesdays and Wednesdays during their season at th National Naval Aviation Museum.

We're the home team in Pensacola.

And you know, tradition being what it is, this is it's a great place to be.

We feel very much appreciated and just, you know, honored to be a part of the Pensacola community.

Blue Angels are not famous.

No one will remember your name if you are doing the job correctly, but they will remember that day at a Blue Angel that will remember that blue and gold suit, and hopefully that will have left a lasting impact that will help to inspire future generations.

♪♪ >>Pensacola hosted one of the earliest Mardi Gras celebrations in the United States.

With a few exceptions, it' a tradition that has continued ever since Spain colonized the Gulf Coast.

Today, organizers make sure that everyone, including families, feel welcome to participate in the festivities.

♪♪ >>The Pensacol Grand Parade is the biggest day in all of downtown Pensacola, maybe in the city limits of the year.

Traditionally, it's 75 o 80,000 people, which is clearly the biggest day in all of downtown Pensacola.

♪♪ It may have been the first Mardi Gras celebration in the country, however, it stopped, went for 2 or 3 years, and then there was a gap.

In that gap period, other cities started Mardi Gras and Pensacola, came back around 189 and has been going ever since.

The Pensacola Mardi Gras organizers in the 1860s, all the way up through about 1900.

The names of the people that are in the history books who are a part of putting that together have streets in and aroun Pensacola named after them Pace, Cervantes, Baylen.

So we get to sort of feel like we really are a part of the history of Pensacola by celebrating Mardi Gras with those folks.

>>Cities and towns in Florida hold parades for all types of holidays, but Mardi Gras in Pensacola stands out because each crew shares a unique passion.

>>For July the 4th, everybody is red, white, and blue.

For many of the other holidays, everybod is celebrating those holidays.

But in Mardi Gras, you get together with a group of people that have the same interests as you and maybe the same group of friends.

So it's like having 10 or 150 clubs that come and meet on parade day and get to do what they have a passion for.

So we have all sorts of different crews, different religions, different sexes, different, all sorts of passions.

And so we're really proud to have that.

And, and the thing that people always tell m is how inclusive it really is.

>>The event's inclusivity extends to both participants and attendees.

>>It's a long parad route, about a mile and a half through our historic downtown, which has one main street, Palafox, which is, listed in Greatest Streets in America.

We have a family area that we're very proud, and we don't allow beverages, adult beverages in there.

And we try to monitor that and have a place for kids to come and families to come with a blanket or a cooler.

>>If you're interested in joining a crew and joining the parade.

Danny has all the rules.

>>We only have two rules.

They're pretty simple.

One is that everybody is welcome.

We're a big tent.

As long as you can live by the rules, you'r welcome to come and participate.

And the other rule is we do this for our community.

And so rule number two i you don't have to make everybody happy but you can't make anybody mad.

♪♪ >>The Pensacola Lighthouse stands as one of America's oldest.

Its original location stood at just about a quarter mile east of here, and during both lightning strikes and cannon blasts, the lighthouse's history continues to shine bright.

Just like the rare lens found at the top.

>>This is the second lighthouse, and the first one was built in 1824.

It was built by Winslow Louis and almost immediately it was built to be insufficient to the needs of the mariners.

The pine trees on Santa Rosa Island were tall.

It was only a 40ft tower compared to this one, which is 151ft.

But the pine trees grew and they and obscured the view of the tower.

>>In 1855, Congress appropriated money for a new lighthouse first order Fresnel lens.

>>It was first lit in 1859, but not even a couple of years later.

We were here to witness the Civil War.

The light witnesse the Battle of Santa Rosa Island.

Pensacola and Florida seceded from the Union.

Commodore Brant, here on base, resigned his commission with the U.S. Navy became part of the Confederacy, and Lieutenant Slimmer, part of the army here took him and approximately 70 to 80 troops and went over to Fort Pickens and fortified themselves over there.

And they had a battle under Braxton Bragg.

During the month of November, they had about 5,000 cannon shells fired back and forth.

The actual lighthouse was struck 3 to 4 times.

>>As for that fancy new lens in the lighthouse it was removed during the war.

>>The lens was removed to keep the Federals from having utilization of the lighthouse during the Civil War, Confederates took it down and it won their ship to Montgomery and stored.

It was stored in place.

After the Civil War, it was shipped up to New York to be refurbished at the depot there, and then brought back down and reinstalled.

>>The lighthouse survived hits from cannons and also lightning twice.

>>We kind of proved those stories by when we were doing the restoration in 2014, we opened it up and found the fasteners for those original lightning straps.

You can see tha it was actually a lightning bolt that just went through the tower.

♪♪ >>Today, you can climb all 177 steps all the way up to the top.

Let's take a look at the light.

One of 13 left in the world.

And then step outside to behold 360 degrees of the Emerald Coast, includin two states and three counties.

>>It's still actually use as an aid to navigation today.

Since its beginning and up until today, the Coast Guard still maintained the bul on the lens and the lens itself.

>>If you visit with someone who can't make the climb, there is still plenty of history to behold.

Housed in the keeper's quarters, built in 1869, awaits a museum with exhibits dedicated to the history of the tower, the women who kept the light, and a glimpse into what life wa like living at the lighthouse.

Plus, there's more on the way.

>>Part of the exterior exhibits.

We've actually doubled our footprint here on base, with an archeological park and a recreation of a historic home that we discovere through archeological research in the woods.

This home was the home of Charles Hart.

He was a formerly enslaved person who worked on the east side at the Naval Shipyard, during the Civil War.

His family moved over here after the Confederates withdrew and built that homestead, and he worked here at the lighthouse for many years.

>>No matter where you shine light in Pensacola, you'll find history.

>>I think Pensacola is uniqu because it has a rich history.

♪♪ >>Gulf Islands National Seashore is just one of more than 400 national park sites across the United States.

This park is know for its nature and its beauty, as well as preserving a significant portion of Pensacola's past.

>>Of all 428 national parks that exist, only ten are called national seashores, and Golf Islands i the largest national seashore.

It stretches for about 160 miles from Fort Walton Beach here in Florida, all the way to Cat Island, a barrier island very close to New Orleans.

>>It's one national park, but located in two states: Florida and Mississippi.

>>Here in the Pensacola area we have beaches, we have forts, we have campgrounds and trails, both on land and trails on water.

In the 1820s, Army and Nav officers, they came to Pensacola and found Pensacola Bay to be for them the gem.

So it would be here that the US Navy would establish the first and only U.S. Navy Yard, the Pensacola Navy Yard.

And because of the significance that the Navy put on the harbor here and because of the presence of a Navy yard, the U.S. Army they had to fortify and protect those two naval, assets.

So beginning in 1829, the Army Corps of Engineers would establish Fort Pickens out on the western end of Santa Rosa Island.

That fort was completed by enslaved laborers in 1834, just a matter of five years.

Upon completion, the Army Corps of Engineers, their contractors, and the enslaved labor force, they went on to what we now know as Perdido Key right off of my shoulder.

In a matter of five years, completed Fort McRae.

Together, Fort Pickens and Fort McRae could protect the shipping channel leading from the Gulf of Mexico into Pensacola Bay.

With the completion of Fort McRae in 1839, the Army Corps of Engineers, their contractors, and the enslaved labor force, they came to where we are now standing.

Here on what is toda the Naval Air Station Pensacola, to begin constructing Fort Barrancas here to my left.

And then a half mile north of us, a smaller brick fort named Advanced Redoubt.

>>During the Civil War, both Union and Confederate troops occupied these forts, with Confederate forces seizing those situated on the mainland of Pensacola.

>>But then in 1862, the spring the Confederate Army withdrawal, allowing for U.S. forces to come back and reoccupy the mainland and Pensacola itself.

Another fight that unfolds within the larger story that is the Civil War, is the struggle for freedom with the US forces so heavily present here in the Pensacola area, they became a magnet for enslaved men, women and children.

So throughout the American Civil War, individuals, enslaved individuals who today we call freedom seekers, they risked their lives and in some cases traveled great distances over land.

And sometimes over water, hoping to reach the US Arm and Navy here on Pensacola Bay, hoping to obtain for themselves and their families freedom.

>>The area had a life changing impact on some individuals, whether ensuring freedom or saving lives.

One of the other lesser told stories, though, is that of the United State Lifesaving Service out on Santa Rosa Island in the 1880s, a station was established, where individuals known as Surf Men were available to rush out into the Gulf of Mexico to help shipwrecked mariners.

This station would continue to function in this form until the establishment of the United States Coast Guard.

In the early 1900s, the U.S Lifesaving Service was merged to form the US Coast Guard, and this service would continue to be provided out there on Santa Rosa Islan to those out at sea in distress.

>>Gulf Islands National Seashore offers a variety of trails suitabl for hikers of all skill levels.

Among them is the trail that once served as the first federal road.

This path linked Pensacola to Saint Augustine, two of the most populous communities in 1821, when Florida became a U.S. territory.

>>The first federal road constructed here in Florida in the mid 1820s, was not a paved road.

Travel could still be difficult.

It could take many days and weeks to get to your destination.

The road surface would have been a mixture of sand and dirt and you can still experience that same road, a few miles of what we now know as the Jackson Trail, the former National Road runs through an area of the National Seashor called the Naval Live Oaks Area.

>>The national park is more than 135,000 acres in size, so make sure you pla enough time to explore it all.

>>Gulf Island can't be experienced in a matter of hours.

It would take a couple of days to explore the reach of this park, and to explore the depth of the places and the stories that are preserved here.

You can go and explore an old fort.

You can get lost.

You can discover your national park, but also discover yourself.

>>Pensacola, a city rooted in history and whose American pride is sky-high.

I'm Scott Fais.

For all of us at Florid Road Trip, thanks for joining.

We invite you to join us again next week as we continue our ride through Florida history.

Until then, safe travels everyone.

♪♪ >>This program is brought to you in part by the Paul B.

Hunter and Constance D. Hunter Charitable Foundation, a proud partner of WUCF and the Central Florida community.