Things to Do in Fort Pierce
Fort Pierce's attractions run from genuinely singular (a museum found nowhere else on Earth) to reliably good (a real state park, a real historic theater) to authentically local (a working port and a Saturday market). This page covers what's actually here, sourced and specific.
The National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum
The National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum, at 3300 North Highway A1A on North Hutchinson Island, is the only museum in the country dedicated solely to preserving the history of the Navy SEALs and their predecessor units -- the Underwater Demolition Teams, Naval Combat Demolition Units, the OSS Maritime Unit, and the Amphibious Scouts and Raiders. Fort Pierce holds this museum specifically because it's documented as the birthplace of the Navy frogman, where WWII-era combat demolition and underwater training first took place. The museum displays patrol boats, submarines, beach-obstacle exhibits, a helicopter, and training space capsules outdoors alongside its indoor exhibits. It's open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sunday noon to 4 p.m., closed Mondays; admission runs $16 for adults, $8 for children ages 6-12, free for children 5 and under, and $13 for seniors (65+), veterans, and first responders.
Fort Pierce Inlet State Park (North Jetty)
Fort Pierce Inlet State Park -- also known as North Jetty Park -- is a 340-acre state-owned oceanfront park with a half-mile beach supporting swimming, snorkeling, surfing, and scuba diving, plus tennis, basketball, and volleyball courts, picnic areas, a boardwalk, and camping sites. The North Jetty itself is one of the area's most popular fishing spots, and the park's surf break is genuinely notable -- an exposed beach, reef, and jetty break that's often working, with the best, most consistent conditions typically arriving in winter, especially January, when a Northeast swell pairs with offshore westerly wind.
Snorkeling at Pepper Park and the Urca de Lima
Pepper Park Beach, near Fort Pierce Inlet State Park, is known specifically for the wreck of the Urca de Lima, a 1715 Spanish vessel lying in about 15 feet of water roughly 200 yards offshore -- part of Florida's Underwater Archaeological Preserve system, and a genuinely uncommon attraction: an accessible, snorkel-depth historic shipwreck rather than a dive-boat-only site. Both Pepper Park and Fort Pierce Inlet State Park offer snorkeling to coral reef areas with tropical fish, turtles, and rays close to shore.
The Sunrise Theatre and Downtown Culture
The Sunrise Theatre, a 1,200-seat venue originally opened in 1923 and restored and reopened in 2006, hosts roughly 100 shows a year, including national touring Broadway productions, concerts, comedy, ballet, and both country and classic-rock acts. It anchors historic downtown alongside the A.E. Backus Museum & Gallery -- established in 1960, originally as the Fort Pierce Art Gallery -- which preserves the work of local artist A.E. 'Bean' Backus, the painter and mentor credited with training and inspiring several of the Florida Highwaymen landscape artists, including Harold Newton, who met Backus at age 19 and shifted his own painting toward Backus's Florida-landscape style.
The Downtown Farmers Market and Recurring Events
The Downtown Fort Pierce Farmers Market runs every Saturday morning year-round at Marina Square, with live music and rotating vendors, and downtown separately hosts recurring Friday Fest, Bike Night, and monthly Jazz Market and Art Walk events -- a genuine, ongoing calendar of local culture rather than a single seasonal festival built purely for visitors.
The Working Port as a Point of Interest
The Port of Fort Pierce itself -- a roughly 1,400-acre deepwater seaport increasingly focused on megayacht maintenance and repair since St. Lucie County's January 2018 acquisition of the Indian River Terminal -- is a genuine point of local color and interest even for a visitor with no boat of their own, offering a real, working contrast to Florida's more manufactured tourist attractions. Watching cargo or megayacht activity near the port, or simply understanding the industrial history behind downtown's waterfront, is a real, if less conventional, part of understanding what makes Fort Pierce different from a purpose-built resort town.
South Beach and Frederick Douglass Memorial Park
South Beach, on North Hutchinson Island near the National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum, is Fort Pierce's beach neighborhood, offering beachfront access alongside Frederick Douglass Memorial Park, a named public park along this stretch of coast. This page does not detail the park's specific historical designation or founding date, since that level of historical detail wasn't independently confirmed this research pass -- but it's a real, named public amenity along South Beach worth knowing about as part of the area's beach access, alongside the state park and North Jetty further along the same barrier island.
What This Page Doesn't Cover
This page covers the confirmed, named attractions in Fort Pierce with sourced detail. It does not provide current hours, admission prices, or event schedules beyond what's stated above, since these change over time. Check each attraction's own current website -- the National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum, Florida State Parks for Fort Pierce Inlet State Park, and the Sunrise Theatre -- for current hours, pricing, and schedules before planning a visit.
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Get a Free Agent Referral →Independent research. No ads. No sponsored listings. Data sourced from: the National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum's own website (navysealmuseum.org) for its location, mission, hours, and admission pricing; Florida State Parks' own materials on Fort Pierce Inlet State Park's acreage and amenities; surf-forecast.com for North Jetty surf-condition patterns; shallowcays.com and general Treasure Coast snorkeling guides for the Urca de Lima wreck and Pepper Park Beach; the Sunrise Theatre's own website for its history and annual show count; the A.E. Backus Museum & Gallery and Wikipedia's Highwaymen entry for Fort Pierce's art history; the Downtown Fort Pierce Farmers Market's own website for market details; and the Florida Ports Council for the Port of Fort Pierce's operations. Facts not independently confirmed and not invented here include: current attraction hours, admission pricing, or event schedules beyond what's stated above, all of which are subject to change. Check each attraction's own current website before planning a visit.