The Spanish Fort Shooting Gallery at Jay Street
Exhibit by staff at UNO ARC, with contributions from Matt Rozzo
In New Orleans the amusement park at Spanish Fort operated in various forms from the early 19th century when it was bought from the Louisiana government by Harvey Elkins. The hotel and resort with a theater attracted the likes of Oscar Wilde, and eventually it became an amusement park for the people of New Orleans. It was often called “The Coney Island of New Orleans."
Archaeologists found two deposits related to the property's use as an amusement park. The first originated in a burn pile that likely originated from the 1895 fire at the resort. The soils around the deposit were black and charred, and within this deposit, archaeologist also uncovered other material manufactured around this same period. The area where these artifacts were found was probably a low-lying, wet area that was filled with debris from the fire. The fire in 1895 slowed attendance to Spanish Fort until the early twentieth century.
When it opened the next decade, it was named "Spanish Fort Amusement Park". While some say amusement parks are linked to traveling carnivals, or to regional festivals, like the Ponchatoula Strawberry Festival just outside of New Orleans. Others say that amumsement parks are an extension of pleasure gardens - recreational areas established in the antebellum period of the United States or Europe.
By the 1920s, Spanish Fort Park offered various amusements on land and in Lake Pontchartrain, including a roller coaster, rides like the Ferris Wheel and the Merry Go Round, a water slide, a bath house, dance halls, food options, and fun for the whole family.
Hover above the map of Spanish Fort Amusement Park
At Jay Street, archaeologists recovered a deposit of artifacts that belong to the time and operation of the Spanish Fort Amusement Park, ca. 1920s. An assembly consisting of clay tobacco pipes in various stages of damage and hundreds of lead pieces mixed in with the clay pipe fragments. Initially, the team did not know why there was a mass collection of clay tobacco pipes and lead chips collected in one assemblage. Still, through research into the site, the team discovered it was linked to an attraction that was common in America at the time: the shooting gallery.
Courtesy of GNO ARC
Shooting galleries were a typical game at an amusement park where a person would pay to shoot targets. In this case, the clay pipes were targets, likely along with cast iron targets (see photo above), usually set on spinning wheels to make it a more challenging shot for customers. The thrill of shooting a target that would actually break when hit must have been a big factor in this shooting gallery, so much so that they would need to replace them multiple times a night, explaining the mix of broken clay pipes and lead bullets. Periodically or at the end of the day, an employee at the gallery must have swept up all the debris on the floor and thrown it in the same place together.
Historic newspaper advertisements for Spanish Fort from 1924.
One historic newspaper confirmed that the shooting gallery at Spanish Fort at one time was pagented to reenact a scene from World War I. Another article is about a man who was accidentally shot and died next to the gallery. “While watching the loading of a small caliber rifle in a shooting gallery at Spanish Fort Sunday afternoon Charles Cook, 52 years old…was shot in the right shoulder and right breast.” Both accounts confirmed the use of live ammunition, and underscored the large amount of .22 caliber bullet casings in the assemblage found under Jay Street.
Live fire shooting galleries remained common at fairs, carnivals, and amusement parks for many decades into the 20th century. Most amusements eventually replaced the .22 rifles with a bb air rifle, and eventually after that those were replaced with other options as well. As time went on the clay pipes became less popular in all aspects of life including as targets for shooting galleries and are now mostly found in heaps of trash much like this assemblage. The excavation at Jay Street is a snapshot into the way people used to live and the things they would see when they went out to enjoy themselves. The shooting gallery was a key factor in the Spanish Fort Amuseument Park, the "Coney Island of New Orleans".
