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BeaufortLifestyle.com | January 2025 17 His wife, Jane, a retired early childhood educator, and Barney, a West Point professor and vice dean for education, raised their two children, Jennifer and Bryant, at West Point. Now living on Lady%u2019s Island, Barney notes with a smile, %u201cSix other West Point classmates happen to live here in Beaufort, too.%u201d Barney%u2019s historical knowledge of Fort Fremont is apparent as he describes three key components for protecting the Port Royal area. First, three 10-inch disappearing carriage guns were intended to safeguard the Port Royal Naval Station on Parris Island. Second, controlled mines were implemented to mitigate threats to the Naval Station. These mines were not impact-detonated, allowing commercial traffic to navigate the Beaufort River without risking contact with the minefields. The third component was Battery Fornance, which featured two Armstrong quick-fire guns designed to engage any enemy ship that might attempt to breach the minefield by cutting the cables. %u201cIt served as an extreme deterrent which exceeded 35 feet in depth,%u201d Forsythe shares. The mines were deployed only during a few months of the Spanish-American War and then blown in place. In peacetime, they were stored at the federal arsenal in Augusta and would be brought down by rail when needed. They were then deployed in the Beaufort River by the Fort Fremont garrison. The mines served to prevent the passage of enemy vessels past the fort. They were detonated manually by soldiers in the casement on order. Fort Fremont had electricity and a sewer system before Beaufort, but its role decreased as the war ended and the threat to the Naval Station subsided. The last unit was transferred in 1911, and a caretaker contingent from Fort Screven in Savannah kept watch until 1914, when the fort was deactivated. The land was put on sale in 1921, and the guns stayed until World War I, and there was not a lot of participation from the private sector. There was talk of other identities, such as Mr. and Mrs. G. B. Dowling turning it into a hunting and fishing lodge, but that did not come to fruition. Fort Fremont was placed on the National Registry, and in 2004, Beaufort County and the Critical Land Program and Trust purchased the 15-acre site to transform it into a public park. In 2010, additional land was purchased, including 900 feet of beachfront property overlooking Port Royal Sound. In 2006, Pete Richards and a group attended the Master Naturalist course offered on Spring Island, a private Lowcountry waterfront community and nature preserve. The Master Naturalist program is the flagship of the Spring Island Trust's (SIT) educational initiatives, first established by Beaufort County Clemson Extension Agent Jack Keener. After Keener's retirement, Clemson asked Spring Island to continue the program. The program's vision is to provide specific training for understanding natural landscapes, including underlying geology and the impact of human activities on the environment. It emphasizes the importance of conserving natural habitats. The education aims to prepare participants to become Master Naturalists involved in various volunteer projects. This class was held in 2006 and attended by many of his friends and people who had previously worked on projects Richards had initiated. Richards lived with his wife and two daughters in Port Royal, and was known for starting and bringing community projects to success. A leading salesman with an incredible concentration in public relations in Atlanta, GA, Richards had a revelation: His respect for Fort Fremont was unyielding, and he immediately thought he could help. Pete was in the Navy during the Vietnam War and served in the brown-water navy on the Mekong River. His exposure to Agent Orange triggered the cancer that would prove fatal. Richards decided to create a 501(c)(3) and call it the Friends of Fort Fremont Board. Richards, known for his energetic interest in exciting projects, also had the gift of finding the right people to join him in his pursuit. As Betsy Richards, his wife, adds, %u201cPete was charged with working on a 40-hour-a-year community project required from the Master Naturalist program. Calling on some of his fellow class members, he asked for help on the unkempt state of the fort and started to put together a group with different yet strong skills to help, including engaging the County.%u201d She continues, %u201cPete has always been rooting for the underdog, and this project was a gem.%u201d Many surrounding Richards and on the Fort Fremont team were the following: Wendy Wilson has lived in Beaufort for 24 years. She moved to the town after serving as the Director of Marketing for a company in Alexandria with a contract for the Department of Homeland Security. Marion and Ray Rollings, retired Corps of Engineers and Air Force civil engineers with extensive experience, met while working on their dissertations at the Corps Geotechnical Engineering Lab in Vicksburg, Massachusetts. They frequently collaborated and lived in Beaufort with their extended family. Although not on the Board but always there for support, Betsy Richards, Richard's wife, was a retired childcare consultant who