Pigeon Roost State Historic Site

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pigeon Roost State Historic Site is located between Scottsburg and Henryville, Indiana, near Underwood, Indiana. A one-lane road off U.S. Route 31 takes the visitor to the site, where Indians massacred several families in 1812 just as the War of 1812 was started.

The village of Pigeon Roost was built in 1809, led by William E. Collings and consisting mostly of people from Kentucky. It was named Pigeon Roost due to the great number of Passenger Pigeons there. There were no Indian settlements nearby. On September 3, 1812, Indians (mostly Shawnee, but possibly Delawares and Potawatomis) made a sneak attack on the village, coordinated with attacks on Fort Harrison (near Terre Haute, Indiana) and Fort Wayne in the same month. Twenty-four settlers, including fifteen innocent children, were massacred, with only one family escaping the savage attack. Two children were kidnapped as well. Only four Indians died. The Indians escaped before the local militia based in Charlestown could retaliate. It was the first Indian attack within Indiana during the War of 1812. The village was rebuilt, but was eventually abandoned. Most of the victims were buried here to this day, but one ranger under Colonel Dawait, John Zink, was buried in Salem, Indiana's Brock Cemetery.

In 1904 the state of Indiana spent $2000 to build the memorial statue, a 44-foot tall obelisk, on the property, and was made a state historic site in 1929.

Recently, new historic markers were placed on US-31 at the entrance to the site, and a picnic shelter was built. Other than a small parking lot and monument, no other improvements have ever been made to the site.