The City of Fort Walton Beach's Heritage Park and Cultural Center, along with the Friends of the Museums, Inc., present an original exhibit entitled "Pirates: The Last
Scourge of the Gulf." The exhibit is scheduled to be on display all summer inside the Indian Temple Mound Museum Lazarus Education Center. Two hundred years ago, the Gulf of Mexico was a dangerous and forboding body of water. No vessel was safe from the constant threat of attack from pirate ships who scourged across its high seas. "Pirates: The Last Scourge of the Gulf" recounts the forgotten story of these last pirates of the Gulf of Mexico. "The Last Scourge of the Gulf" is an educational and interactive exhibit that allows visitors to test their pirate knot tying skills, try on clothing real pirates from the period would have worn, raise a pirate flag on a crow's nest, and feel what it was like to stand on a deck and steer the ship. Visitors will also see artifacts pirates used and plundered from merchant ships during the era.
 

Summer hours for Heritage Park is open Monday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and is located at 139 Miracle Strip Parkway SE. The exhibit is included in regular admission to Heritage Park: $5 plus tax for adults, $4.50 plus tax for seniors 55  and active military, and $3 plus tax for children 4 to 17. For further information please contact Museum Program Coordinator Mike Thomin at (850)833-9595.