Today, Fort Massac is a captivating reminder of days gone by, a fascinating excursion through the entire course of American history, and the perfect place to relax in soothing natural surroundings and explore life as it was lived when our country was young.

The reconstructed timber fortification -- a replica of one built in 1794 -- provides a unique hands-on opportunity to explore our national heritage, while a museum presents the engrossing tale of its history with actual artifacts, archive photographs, period costumes and a short interpretive video presentation. The original French fort from 1757, outline is based on archeological digs.

Actual re-creations of pioneer life of the 1700s during the annual Fort Massac Encampment and 11 living history weekends each year bring the past to life, letting you experience it yourself.

With all this, and the picnicking, camping, hiking, boating and hunting opportunities available in the rest of the 1,450-acre area, Fort Massac State Park is an alluring, complete and self-contained family vacation spot.

HISTORY | Chronology

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 and his soldiers constructed a primitive fortification here to defend themselves from hostile native attack.

The recorded history of Fort Massac prior to the 1750's is limited, but we do know in 1745 the French drew up plans for a stone fort.  They had selected the site because of its strategic location on the Ohio River.  The stone fort was never erected because of the lack of funds and no nearby source of stone.  With the beginning of the French and Indian War and threatened by British encroachment into the French-held territories in the Ohio Valley, the French sent men and supplies from Fort de Chartres to construct a small wooden fort at a site where the lower Ohio River could be continually monitored for several miles up and down stream.

The French built Fort De L'Ascension on the site in 1757, during the French and Indian War, when France and 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 the Marine, and came under fire only once, when unsuccessfully attacked by a group of Cherokee.

Following the end of the French and Indian War in 1763, the French abandoned the fort and a marauding 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 and in 1778, during the Revolutionary War, Colonel George Rogers Clark led his "Long Knives" regiment into Illinois at Massac Creek and 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 and the fledgling United States.

In 1794, President George Washington ordered the fort rebuilt, and for the next 20 years it protected U.S. military and commercial interests in the Ohio Valley.

U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr and Gen James Wilkinson, who allegedly drew up plans to personally conquer Mexico and the American southwest, met at Fort Massac during the summer of 1805. Edward Everett Hale later used the setting of Fort Massac and 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 garrison troops for the war of 1812.  Fort Massac was used as a training base for recruits for the defense of the western frontier.  By late 1812, the fort's garrison was rapidly increasing in number, but vital winter clothing and badly needed supplies were non-existent.  Several companies of infantry, bound for St. Louis from Nashville, were forced to spend the winter of 1812-1813 at the fort due to lack of proper clothing.  The winter proved to be very harsh;  the nearly 600 soldiers were forced to make shelters outside the fort walls or along the river bank as the fort was designed to hold one-tenth their number.

In April 1814, orders were received to abandon the fort, moving troops and all public property to St. Louis to aid in the defenses of that area.  The caretaker and local citizens dismantled the fort for timber, and 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 and 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 and on Nov. 5, 1908, it was officially dedicated as Illinois' first state park.

Although archeological and historical excavations were conducted on the site from 1939-42 and attempted again in 1966 and 1970, actual reconstruction of the 1794 structure was not begun until 1971.

In addition to the fort itself, a museum facility also has been constructed to house and display many of the findings of earlier excavations, re-creations of historical clothing and implements. There also are video presentations highlighting the area's diverse historical significance.

DIRECTIONS | MAP

Take Exit 37 off Interstate 24 through Metropolis.
Highway 45 through Metropolis. Follow the signs.

For more information on state parks write to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Office of Public Information, 524 S. Second St., Springfield, IL 62701-1787, or call (217) 782-7454

For Camping/Reservation Applications/Park Rules and Regs visit the Division of Land Management

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