Fort Pike: closed on weekends.

Would have been nice to know this while I was prepping for last weekend's road trip.

The fort's State Parks web page:

Admission to Fort Pike SHS is by appointment only. Please call ... to schedule your visit between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

The reply to my email, 2 days after my trip:

We are usually here Monday through Friday from 0800-1600 and would be
able to accommodate your request at short notice; however, I do not have
staff available on the weekends and it would take advance notice of
several days for me to re-arrange schedules.

Weekends are Big Money for tourism...and the State closes the park on weekends? That's just ass-backwards. Alabama's got two forts in their State Parks system. BOTH of them are open 7 days a week--probably because they know that tourists aren't necessarily going to look for a website while they're out on the road. Last weekend was the Jazz Fest kickoff, too--imagine people driving east into New Orleans via Highway 90 or bumming around in the area. They see the fort but can't get in. The State is losing out.

Yeah, I'm still pissed off about driving all the way out there for nothing. I should have gotten more pictures--and some video--of the fence around the park. Very nice fence. The only thing marring its perfection was the rusty chain and lock on the gate. They couldn't shell out for new stuff? Show some PRIDE.

Maybe if they had spent the money on a little gift shop/ticket counter instead of the fence, they'd have enough money to run the damn park on weekends.

Or maybe they'd at least have a sign somewhere prominent with phone numbers so people like me can call up and tell them that a hundred bucks rolled into and out of that parking lot over an hour and a half.