The Fort Fraser Trail stretches 7 1/4 miles from Lakeland to Bartow. The trail is named after Fort Fraser, the first in a network of forts erected between 1837 and 1856 along a corridor connecting Fort Brooke in Tampa with Fort Meade in Polk County. President Zachary Taylor commissioned Fort Fraser on 1837.
The forts situated along the trail are historically significant because they housed U.S. troops during the Seminole Wars and provided a safe haven for early Polk County settlers. Forts Cummings, Carrol, Blount, Hooker, Clinch, Gardner and Arbuckle comprised the network. An historic marker is situated at the spot along the bike trail a little ways south of this location where Fort Fraser is believed to have stood.
This geocache is a part of the Trek Ten Trails program. Participation in that program, while a lot of fun, is not required to log this cache here. The Trek Ten Trails program is the Friends of the Parks Foundation’s call to explore the outdoors in Polk County. Each nature trail includes geocaches with a self-inking stamp like the one you find in this cache for validating your visits to at least ten of the featured trails. To be eligible for the prize drawings you must find the five new treks for 2011 and any other five from the first three years. You can choose which trails you visit, and of course you may trek them all!
New game cards, which participants stamp and return to be entered into the year end prize drawings are available at the Friends of the Parks website. Validated game cards must be mailed prior to October, 2011 to be eligible for prize drawings and a certificate of completion. Trek Ten maps, game cards and other information about each of the featured nature trails may be downloaded from the Friends of the Parks website. Check out our Profile for more details.
The Friends of the Parks Foundation has formed an alliance with the annual Water Wings & Wild Things event to host our Trek Ten Trails Grand Finale Celebration at Circle B Bar Reserve. GRAND FINALE date TBA
This cache was placed with the assistance of the
Florida Geocaching Association