| Experience the scenic splendor of Southern Illinois with plenty of outdoor fun & time-telling events at Fort Massac State Park. Overlooking the mighty Ohio River from the southern tip of Illinois, this majestic location has been preserved & maintained since 1908, when it became Illinois’ first state park.
Today, Fort Massac is a captivating reminder of days gone by, a fascinating excursion through the entire course of American history, & the perfect place to relax in soothing natural surroundings & explore life as it was lived when our country was young.
The historic site is a replica of the 1802 American fort that was on site. The historic fort area contains two barracks, three block hourses, officer quarters, well, stockade along with a fraise fence. The site also has the archaeological outline of the 1757 French Fort. There is also a visitors center/office complex along with an area for the museum.
Actual re-creations of pioneer life of the 1700s during the annual Fort Massac Encampment & several living history weekends each year bring the past to life, letting you experience it yourself.
With all this, & the picnicking, camping, hiking, boating & hunting opportunities available in the rest of the 1,450-acre area, Fort Massac State Park is an alluring, complete & self-contained family vacation spot.
History
The rich history of this site begins before recorded history, when native Americans undoubtedly took advantage of its strategic location overlooking the Ohio River. Legend has it that Europeans took this same advantage as early as 1540, when the Spanish explorer Hernando DeSoto & his soldiers constructed a primitive fortification here to defend themselves from hostile native attack.
The French built Fort De L’Ascension on the site in 1757, during the French & Indian War, when France & Great Britain were fighting for ultimate control of central North America. Rebuilt in 1759-60, the structure was renamed Massiac in honor of the then French Minister of Colonial Affairs, & came under fire only once, when unsuccessfully attacked by a group of Cherokee.
French & American MarinesFollowing the end of the French & Indian War in 1763, the French abandoned the fort & a band of Chickasaws burned it to the ground. When Captain Thomas Stirling, commander of the 42nd Royal Highland Regiment, arrived to take possession, all he found was a charred ruin.
The British anglicized the name to “Massac” but, despite the counsel of their military advisers, they neither rebuilt nor regarrisoned the fort. This oversight left them vulnerable & in 1778, during the Revolutionary War, Colonel George Rogers Clark led his “Long Knives” regiment into Illinois at Massac Creek & was able to capture Kaskaskia, 100 miles to the north, without firing a shot-thus taking the entire Illinois Territory for the State of Virginia & the fledgling United States.
In 1794, President George Washington ordered the fort rebuilt, & for the next 20 years it protected U.S. military & commercial interests in the Ohio Valley.
U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr & Gen. James Wilkinson, who allegedly drew up plans to personally conquer Mexico & the American southwest, met at Fort Massac during the summer of 1805. Edward Everett Hale later used the setting of Fort Massac & the Burr-Wilkinson plot as basis for his classic historical novel, “The Man Without a Country.”
Although ravaged by the New Madrid earthquake in 1811-12, the fort was again rebuilt in time to play a minor role in the War of 1812, only to be abandoned again in 1814. Local citizens dismantled the fort for timber, & by 1828 little remained of the original construction. In 1839 the city of Metropolis was platted about a mile west of the fort.
The site served briefly as a training camp during the early years of the Civil War, marking the last time U.S. troops were stationed at the site. The fort was abandoned after a measles epidemic in 1861-62 claimed the lives of a substantial number of soldiers of the Third Illinois Cavalry & the 131st Illinois Infantry, who were using the fort as an encampment.
In 1903, through the efforts of the Daughters of the American Revolution, 24 acres surrounding the site were purchased by the state & on Nov. 5, 1908, it was officially dedicated as Illinois’ first state park.
FortArcheological & historical excavations were conducted on the site from 1939-42 & attempted again in 1966 , 1970, & during 2002. In the early 1970's a replica of an American fort at Fort Massac was reconstructed off the original site of the forts. The replica was based on the 1794 American Fort. This reconstruction was brought down in the fall of 2002, to rebuild another replica of a 1802 American fort. The original site, where all the forts were built has the archeological outline of the 1757 French Fort.
The historic site is open to the public seven days a week. Contact the site interpreter to arrange special programs for educational, scouting, civic or tour groups. |
Fort Massac - State Park Campground Web Site
Driving Direction GPS Coordinates:
37.145032, -88.714928
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Campground: Fort Massac - State Park in Metropolis Illinois *