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UER Forum > Archived US: Mid-Atlantic > Fort Armistead Maryland (Viewed 783 times)
jlm21221 


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Fort Armistead Maryland
< on 2/1/2006 1:54 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Fort Smallwood road leads to Fort Armistead which is the fort itself. I've been there plenty of times and only had cop trouble once but they checked us out and didn't care as long as we were just checking the tunnels out, which are still open except fot like 2, one is flooded out and one is filled with stuff, my friends and I think the one flooded out leads to Fort carrol but of coarse you can't go in there.

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[last edit 2/1/2006 1:55 PM by jlm21221 - edited 1 times]

JLM21221
Vinny 


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Re: Fort Armistead Maryland
<Reply # 1 on 2/1/2006 2:44 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Beautiful photos and great place! Thanks! We recently spent some time exploring the open tunnels at Fort Howard-- Fort Armistead looks even larger, with more tunnels. I must check this out!

[Late note: Please see my newer note below about possible confusion on which fort bears which name!]
[last edit 2/2/2006 1:59 PM by Vinny - edited 2 times]

with care,
--Vinny
jlm21221 


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Re: Fort Armistead Maryland
<Reply # 2 on 2/1/2006 3:37 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
its under the key bridge

JLM21221
SpookyDan 


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Re: Fort Armistead Maryland
<Reply # 3 on 2/1/2006 6:30 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
I was just there last week, beat up but still cool. You can see my gallery at www.urbanatrophy.com

I fart clouds of asbestos!
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jlm21221 


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Re: Fort Armistead Maryland
<Reply # 4 on 2/1/2006 7:40 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
COOL THANKS

JLM21221
Vinny 


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Re: Fort Armistead Maryland
<Reply # 5 on 2/2/2006 2:17 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Okay, I have been looking at my maps and at Google Earthm and at the city/county park websites, and there may be some confusion here (in this thread so far) about the names of these fort parks in and near Baltmore. Fort Armistead Park is a Baltimore City park, and it is the one which is very near to, and just below (south-southwest of) the west end of the Key Bridge on Rte. 695 below Baltimore. Fort Armistead is located at the end of Fort Armistead Road, and the park address is usually gfiven on the city park websites as 9400 Fort Armistead Road, although a few webpages list it as 4000 Hawkins Point Road, despite the fact that technically, Hawkins Point Road is really a different road (for the most part; they are congruent along one leg) but very close by. This fort does have a number of batteries (fortified buildings which had housed gun emplacments) and some do have tunnels and hallways which are not closed or locked. The photos which the original poster shared in his post were all -- to my best knowledge -- photos of locations at Fort Armistead Park.

Please note what I mentioned above, that Fort Armistead is at the end of Fort Armistead Road, and NOT at the end of Fort Smallwood Road. And now, please see below...

Yes, there IS also a Fort Smallwood Park, located on the same western shore of the harbor, but a few miles further south, and it is located at the end of Fort Smallwood Road, at 9400 Fort Smallwood Road. Fort Smallwood Park has only one battery left, and the few doorways and tunnels have long since been closed and sealed to all public access. Thus, Fort Smallwood Park is largely a park-like setting, with some forest and some open areas and fields.

AND -- MOST IMPORTANTLY!! Please note that Fort Smallwood Park is totally closed and shut to the public until at least late April, and likely until June 1. The parklands had been so badly neglected for the past 45 years that the Anne Arundel Recreation and Parks department shut down the park a while back for some much-needed maintenance (such as removing 200 downed trees and repairing paths and trails...) Once they get the maintenance done, they will re-open the park. I know this for a fact because I called a senior adminstrator for this park this morning to discuss a possible extreme geocache placmement there, and he informed me of the above (and also, sadly, of the fact that there is only one remaining battery and that all doorways are fully sealed!)

Fort Smallwood Park is a really odd one in terms of ownership and operating authority: It is owned by the city of Baltimore, but they could not afford to maintain the place and operate it, so they signed a 45-year management contract with nearby Anne Arundel County to operate the park and perform maintenance. Thus, it is a Baltimore city park which is fully operated and managed by Anne Arundel county and its Parks Department, and Batlmore city residents are charged the same low admission rates as Anne Arundel county residents! Very odd!

BTW, the small island bearing s US Coast Guard maritime beacon a few hundred feet off Fort Smallwood Park is not owned nor operated by the parks department, but is apparently leased and operated by the US Coast Guard.

The ownership/managmeent of all these old fort parks is funny and spread across many agencies -- one example, in additon to the two above -- is that of Fort Howard Park, which has also been discussed on another thread on this forum; Fort Howard Park is operated by Baltimore County Parks department.

[last edit 2/2/2006 2:43 PM by Vinny - edited 1 times]

with care,
--Vinny
c1rc4 


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Re: Fort Armistead Maryland
<Reply # 6 on 2/2/2006 2:23 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
This place actually looks neat, I might have to check it out sometime.

jlm21221 


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Re: Fort Armistead Maryland
<Reply # 7 on 2/2/2006 2:42 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
some of the tunnels have a few inched of water on the floor wear the proper shoes

JLM21221
Vinny 


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Re: Fort Armistead Maryland
<Reply # 8 on 2/3/2006 5:12 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Sue and I spent much of the afternon at this fort today. We met several of the locals who often visit the site, including a 45-year old local man who told me that he spent many of the summer days of his childhood exploring this fort. He said that in those days, the two now-closed-off tunnels which extend downward and point to the east-southeast toward Fort Carroll were open, and he and his friends more than once had climbed/walked/crawled down these tunnels to a point at just about the water's edge, where the tunnels appeared to dip deeply below the bay toward Fort Carroll, but the tunels were sealed off by large vertical steel columns filled with concrete at this point. He said it was "common knowledge" amongst the elder locals in those days that those two tunnels traveled under the bay all the way to Fort Carroll.

This same man also told me a rather incredible story about Fort Carroll, which has been owned by a private owner (an older man, if I remember the web articles). He claims that he and his girlfriend had used his boat to travel out to Fort Carroll this past summer, whereupon he swam to the fort entry and spent one-half hour exploring it. He claims that at that point a Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Police boat pulled up, ordered him out via bullhorn, and arrested him for trespassing. He claims that he was subsequently convicted in court of trespassing and was fined $50,000 and given 6 year's suspended sentence. Several aspects of his story sound a bit unbelievable to me. First, I cannot understand why DNR police would be involved in policing the now-privately-owned island. Second, the claim that he was arrested rather than simply warned does not make much sense. Lastly, the amount of the fine and the length of the suspended jail sentence sound way too high to make much sense.

with care,
--Vinny
SpookyDan 


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Re: Fort Armistead Maryland
<Reply # 9 on 2/3/2006 12:06 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Posted by Vinny
Sue and I spent much of the afternon at this fort today. We met several of the locals who often visit the site, including a 45-year old local man who told me that he spent many of the summer days of his childhood exploring this fort. He said that in those days, the two now-closed-off tunnels which extend downward and point to the east-southeast toward Fort Carroll were open, and he and his friends more than once had climbed/walked/crawled down these tunnels to a point at just about the water's edge, where the tunnels appeared to dip deeply below the bay toward Fort Carroll, but the tunels were sealed off by large vertical steel columns filled with concrete at this point. He said it was "common knowledge" amongst the elder locals in those days that those two tunnels traveled under the bay all the way to Fort Carroll.

This same man also told me a rather incredible story about Fort Carroll, which has been owned by a private owner (an older man, if I remember the web articles). He claims that he and his girlfriend had used his boat to travel out to Fort Carroll this past summer, whereupon he swam to the fort entry and spent one-half hour exploring it. He claims that at that point a Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Police boat pulled up, ordered him out via bullhorn, and arrested him for trespassing. He claims that he was subsequently convicted in court of trespassing and was fined $50,000 and given 6 year's suspended sentence. Several aspects of his story sound a bit unbelievable to me. First, I cannot understand why DNR police would be involved in policing the now-privately-owned island. Second, the claim that he was arrested rather than simply warned does not make much sense. Lastly, the amount of the fine and the length of the suspended jail sentence sound way too high to make much sense.


Yea sounds a bit fishy to me. A terrorist setting up a missile aimed at the inner harbor on fort carroll wouldnt even get charged like that

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Proteus617 


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Re: Fort Armistead Maryland
<Reply # 10 on 2/3/2006 3:14 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Posted by Vinny
Several aspects of his story sound a bit unbelievable to me. First, I cannot understand why DNR police would be involved in policing the now-privately-owned island.


I have heard elsewhere that DNR polices the island and that you can contact them for a permit to visit if you pose as a bird-watcher. Supposedly some endangered species nest on the island and this fact has been and issue in some of the half-assed development schemes that have been proposed over the years. The Baltimore City Paper had an article on ownership and plans for the island a few years back, but the their site seems to be down at the moment.


Vinny 


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Re: Fort Armistead Maryland
<Reply # 11 on 2/3/2006 4:21 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Posted by Proteus617

I have heard elsewhere that DNR polices the island and that you can contact them for a permit to visit if you pose as a bird-watcher. Supposedly some endangered species nest on the island and this fact has been and issue in some of the half-assed development schemes that have been proposed over the years. The Baltimore City Paper had an article on ownership and plans for the island a few years back, but the their site seems to be down at the moment.



Thanks much for that information! The island has apparently been owned since the 1958 by a private ownder named Benjamin N. Eisenberg, a local lawyer; the article I found said that he paid about $10K (US dollars) for it! I seem to recall reading in a couple of web articles the other day that Bill Struever, the "eco/green" developer and co-founder of the Canton Kayak Club, signed a 4 or 5 year lease with the family for the property in the early 2000s, hoping to to somehow clean it up a bit and perhsps put a restaurant or some other mild/mellow tourist attraction out there, so that people could visit the island regularly; his stated interest was not very commercial but rather more of an interest in aesthetics and historical value, and he had mentioned in interviews that it was unfortuate that people coud not visit the island. However, those vague "green" plans seem not to have gone anywhere.

Supposedly one reason why all previous plans to put some shops or restaurants, or even a park (indeed, Google Earth to this day shows the island as a park) on the island is that the entire island has been slowly sinking since the day it was built, leading to major structural and stability problems, and apparently making cleanup or restoration very diffcult.

I have a good relationship with some divisions of MD DNR because of my work with geocaches in state parks, and I do some volunteer research work for them, and I may quietly ask if I can wrangle a permit from the appropriate division to visit the island.

I may have mentioned this before, but there is a nice web article by a young scientist named Gene Feldman who works for the oceanic research division of NASA, and who is also an avid kayaker. Apparently, a couple of years ago, his curiosity got the better of him, and he launched his kayak from the boat launch ramp at Fort Armistead, and made the precarious trip in his kayak across shipping lanes over to Fort Carroll. After arriving, he got up his courage to ignore the "PRIVATE -- Keep Off - Guard Dog" sign, and entered the fort and prowled for a few hours with his camera. His webpage article is titled "My Life in Ruins - A Visit to Fort Carroll, Maryland" and has some photos as well; the article may be found at http://oceancolor....ne/ft_carroll.html


[last edit 2/3/2006 6:52 PM by Vinny - edited 2 times]

with care,
--Vinny
Roland 


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Re: Fort Armistead Maryland
<Reply # 12 on 2/3/2006 5:19 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Guess we got lucky last summer...

Buildings have two natural enemies- water, and bears.
robofuture 


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Re: Fort Armistead Maryland
<Reply # 13 on 2/3/2006 5:21 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Yea this place looks nice let me know if anyone is goin I would like to come with

Help
Vinny 


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Re: Fort Armistead Maryland - An Update
<Reply # 14 on 2/3/2006 6:56 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
I did a bit of a web search today, and found a good article which gives an update on old Fort Carroll. The article is entitled:
"No plans have taken wing at old fortress"
and subtitled:
"Despite string of ideas, Fort Carroll is still vacant, home only to the birds"
and may be found at:
http://www.baltimo...bal-md.fort02aug02,1,6849354.story?coll=bal-local-headlines

The article confirms the earlier report by Proteus617 that the biggest obstacle now facing anyone wishing to do cleanup or rehabilitation of the buildings is that opportunistic wild trees have grown up, providing the most divers and rich wild bird rookery within 100 miles, and numerous environmental protection laws prevent anyone, even the owners, from removing any of the trees. And, unfortunately, it s those trees, along with their branches and roots, which are slowly aging the fort even far faster than the earlier-noticed settling problem.

with care,
--Vinny
Roland 


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Re: Fort Armistead Maryland
<Reply # 15 on 2/3/2006 10:47 PM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
I think they're peach trees, they planted them years ago in an attempt to make the fort into a nice little picnic spot.

Buildings have two natural enemies- water, and bears.
BlackMorrigan 


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Re: Fort Armistead Maryland
<Reply # 16 on 3/31/2006 1:21 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
Ft Smallwood reopens tomorrow. It's free admission for the day, then they'll charge after that. I took a bunch of pics there last year when it was still a run down city park. I'll post he link in a new thread soon.

Morrigan
BlackMorrigan 


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Re: Fort Armistead Maryland
<Reply # 17 on 3/31/2006 2:21 AM >
Posted on Forum: UER Forum
 
For anyone who's interested here's a link to the Ft Armistead photos I took today. Just click on the Yahoo photo folder on the right side of the page.http://360.yahoo.com/morrigansylvan
[last edit 3/31/2006 2:21 AM by BlackMorrigan - edited 1 times]

Morrigan
UER Forum > Archived US: Mid-Atlantic > Fort Armistead Maryland (Viewed 783 times)



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