as we go through time, when we are all gone, as bush says, history, we will not know. we will all be dead. [laughter] [applause] note, let very happy me thank bob woodward and ben bradley. thank you. thank you for coming tonight. thank you very much. you are watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. to join the conversation, like us on facebook at c-span history. 2015 c-span student cam

video competition is underway, open to all middle and high school students to create a five -seven minute documentary on the three branches and you, showing how policy, law, or action by the legislative or judicial branch of government has affected you or your community. -- prizesrices totaling $100,000 great for a list of rules and how to get started, go to student cam.org. , c-span is touring cities across the country, exporting american history. recent visit to green bay, wisconsin. you're watching american history tv on c-span3. we are at the historical park in green bay, wisconsin. it is a election of historic buildings important in northeast wisconsin.

in mid-1970's, the park opened in 1977. we have about 43 structures. 25 of which are historic. our older structure is 1803. the oldest wooden house in wisconsin. the buildings surrounding us are the fort howard buildings. he one over here is the detached kitchen. it is a replica. the fort howard hospital on my right, that is 1836 structure. is our newestere construction, restoration project at heritage hill. fort howard was originally located at the mouth of the fox river, at the bay. areairst occupants of that

were french. in 1816, it was commissioned as a united states fort, as fort howard. it was established after the war and812 to protect commerce the for trading industry. wisconsin became a territory and 1836. prior to that, it was part of michigan territory. by 1848, we became a state. , it was following determined by the united states government that the fort had no further purpose here in the green bay area. it was decommissioned in 1853. , it was still865 owned by the united states government. 1865, they sold it to the chicago northwestern railroad. at that time, the railroad at

land -- had planned a track. in 1866, the buildings had been moved. some were disassembled and moved out of state. very few survived. the first ones were brought here in 1875. the fort howard hospital was in two pieces. it's the on a property in green bay. it was used as a museum. it was floated down on a barge in 1975 to heritage chill -- hill. our fort howard guardhouse was brought here in 2009. undercurrently restoration. it was a residence. it was wrapped in more modern materials. it was hard to identify that it

was a historical building. we are approaching what is called the guardhouse complex. left, there is an 1833 original ford howard guardhouse. off to the right is a reconstructed fort howard commander's office. in the far portion of his office there would have been where he would've worked out of. in the closer portion, would have been the fort library. the guardhouse -- the first room as you enter would be the guardroom. is back portion here actually what's called a prison. we built the foundation and put it up on the foundation. the twintructed commanders office. down below, this is the galley port. there are six jail cells per side as you enter.

frontl have gates on the on the back -- and on the back. this is what is called the connector deck arch. it would have been for weather protection for the guards. this would have been looking out over the fox river. it would headache good view of -- it would have had a good view of the bay. -- entrancenterest into historic fort howard. this would be considered second-generation fort howard buildings. the original fort was built of law buildings and 1816. by the late 1820's, the commander was writing washington, d c, stating the buildings were falling into disrepair and recommending that they should be reconstructed. we are now entering the guardhouse. this is 1833, original fort howard building. we just finish the woodwork.

the majority of the laugh is the original fort howard. you can see where we sliced in some areas where later additions had been placed. is the original piece. we try to keep as much of the historic materials as we can. one interesting note is this piece of wood here. real fort this is a howard piece of flooring to this building. fortis actually where howard soldiers at the time. encapsulated inside a wall that was erected later in the buildings history. the construction of the wall

preserved that piece. the flooring that you see next to it is a replica flooring that replaced flooring that we took out that was in bad condition. that was not of the fort howard. we can usually determine the the nail determining holes. when we remove the wood and there are no other holes in that timber below it, indications like that would tell us that is an original piece. you have to be observant when you are taking and removing layers of a structure to get the original material. we don't want to miss anything. you have to question everything you see. little details can tell you a lot. a little speck of paint on a piece might tell you that there

was a piece of trim there. thatlittle details like that you have to pay attention to as you are doing restoration. as i peel away the layers, i am going back in history. knowing that i am going to at some point uncovered the ,riginal fabric of the building that is what makes it interesting and appealing. every piece of material you remove there are exciting things observations,ting like the floorboard we talked about before. it is so interesting because that may not have been seen since the day it was constructed. you think about the people that constructed that these two they were the last people to see that, 1833. that's what makes it very interesting. feel, thative connection to the past is what

really drives me. bet's next is we will working on the interior. we will ultimately painted. this ruling will be opened in june 30, 2015. >> find out where c-span's local content vehicles are going next, online at c-span.org/local content. you're watching american history tv, all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. with the 2014 midterm election just over a week away, c-span's campaign debate coverage continues. >> monday at 7:00 p.m. eastern, the illinois senate debate with digg urban and jim cooper weiss, followed with live coverage of the massachusetts governor debate between charles pegler --

charles baker and martha coakley. at 10:00, the minnesota senate debate with senator al franken and mike mcfadden. at 11 p.m. eastern, the hawaii governors debate. tuesday evening at 7 p.m. and senator cory booker and jeff bell. wednesday night at 8:00, live coverage of the louisiana senate debate between three candidates. maine senate debate. at 10:00, it is the texas senate debate. thann campaign 2014, more