Talk:Kilgore Fort House

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The article currently states that the only surviving Fort "of the original seven". This seems to be a confusion, and probably is a reference to the seven Forts constructed during Dunmore's War. Those forts included

• Blackmore's
• Moore's
• Cowan's
• Glade Hollow
• Elk Garden
• Maiden Spring
• Big Crab Orchard

This list of names corresponds to how the forts are most commonly known to day. Some, however, been known under a variety of names, which leads to some confusion as to their identity.

The existence and names of these forts is well documented in the Draper Manuscript Collection. A particular useful work for this is Thwaites and Kellogg, 1905. Documentary History of Dunmore's War, which is largely based on the Draper Manuscripts. None of these forts survive to day, though a reconstruction of Big Crab Orchard has been made. Construction methods for these forts is often not well documented, but most were probably palisaded structures. The Big Crab Orchard reconstruction shows it as a simple Blockhouse, but definitely not a Forthouse.

In addition to Kilgore's Fort House there were many similar structures created beginning 1773 in the lead up to Dunmore's War, and continuing until 1792 with the cessation of Indian Hostilities. Emory Hamilton carried out extensive research on the history of the area, writing many individual articles for newspaper publication and for publication in local history magazines. His work is readily available in numerous publications, and on numerous web sites. One such site includes his 1968 work "Frontier Forts" presented as publication 4 in the series "Historical Sketches of Southwest Virginia". This work examines both the seven Forts of Dunmore's War, as well as some of the more fortificaitons in southwest Virginia from the 1773-1792 period. About 40 such forts, includeing to the forts of Dunmores' War, are listed. They include palisaded structures, blockhouses, as well as forthouses. Among them is a discussion of the Kilgore Fort House.

Of the nearly 40 defensive strucutures identified by Hamilton in this area, only the Kilgore Fort house survives. Bill 23:38, 27 October 2007 (UTC)