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Fort Hawkins Archeological Site
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Fort Hawkins (reconstructed)
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| Location: | Macon, Georgia |
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| Built: | 1806 |
| Governing body: | Local |
| NRHP Reference#: | 77000410[1] |
| Added to NRHP: | November 23, 1977 |
Fort Hawkins was a fort built in 1806-1809 in the historic Creek Nation by the United States government under President Thomas Jefferson and used until 1821. Built in what is now Georgia at the Fall Line on the east side of the Ocmulgee River, the fort overlooked the sacred ancient earthwork mounds of the Ocmulgee Old Fields, now known as the Ocmulgee National Monument, and the Lower Creek Pathway. A trading settlement and later the European-American city of Macon, Georgia developed because of the fort. During this period, the fort was important to the Creek Nation, the United States and the state of Georgia for economic, military and political reasons.
The fort originally had a tall log palisade surrounding a 1- 2-acre (8,100 m2) complex. It had living and working quarters as well as two blockhouses on diagonal corners. A replica of the southeast blockhouse was constructed in 1938 after an archeological survey excavations showed the appropriate site. It has become an icon of Macon. The Fort Hawkins Archeological Site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is included within the boundaries of the Fort Hill Historic District, also listed on the NRHP.
The Fort Hawkins Commission directed archeological excavations in 2005-2007, which found evidence of a second palisade on the site as well as several brick buildings. In addition, the work recovered nearly 40,000 artifacts, indicating a more complex history of Native American and European-American interaction than had been known. Historical research by the archeology team has also added to new knowledge about the fort, its characteristics and significance. In 2008 the Commission completed a Master Plan for development of the site, eventually to include reconstruction of the entire fort complex. It will display and interpret the thousands of artifacts found at the site, which represent the many tribes of American Indians and pioneer European Americans whose lives met in the area through complex trading and living relationships. Excavations are continuing at the fort site.
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Fort Hawkins was built by the United States in 1806 and through 1821, it was a place of "relatively great economic, military, and political importance."[2] For the Creek Nation, it was a center of the deerskin trade with European Americans, who had a trading post or factory there, but for them it was most important as related to their sacred grounds at Ocmulgee Old Fields. This continued to be a significant social and ceremonial center.[2]
The US government used the fort as a military command headquarters on the southeastern frontier, "a major troop garrison and bivouac point for regular troops and state militia in several important campaigns, and a major trade factory for regulating the Creek economy." [2] President Thomas Jefferson had forced the Creek Nation to cede its lands east of the Ocmulgee River, except for the sacred Ocmulgee Old Fields. The fort was built at the fall line of the river, about a mile uphill, at the end of navigable water from the Low Country to the Piedmont. It was to be a point for the government's "civilization" of the Creek through introduction of European-American farming and cultural practices. To the north of the fort passed the Lower Creek Pathway, which was improved as part of the Federal Road to connect Washington, DC with the ports of Mobile, Alabama and New Orleans, Louisiana.[3] This change encouraged the travel of many more troops, settlers and tourists to the area and encroached on the Creek Nation territory.[2]
The fort was named for Benjamin Hawkins, who was still serving as the General Superintendent of Indian Affairs (1796–1816) south of the Ohio River, as well as principal US Indian agent to the Creek. A former US Senator from North Carolina, Hawkins had been appointed by President George Washington to deal with the Choctaw, Cherokee and Chickasaw in the larger territory, and helped gain years of peace between the Creek and European-American settlers. He married Lavinia Downs, a high-ranking Creek woman, and learned the language well. Their several children were born into her clan. He wrote about the Creek and related societies.[4]
The fort was used during US military campaigns of the War of 1812 against Great Britain. General Andrew Jackson visited the Fort and used it successfully as a staging area for the War of 1812's Battle of New Orleans, as well as the following Creek and Seminole wars. After the frontier moved further westward, the military threat in inland Georgia essentially ceased. Through the treaties of 1825 and 1826 signed with the US, the Creek were forced to remove west of the Chattahoochee River the following year.[2] The city of Macon was founded in 1823, and the Fort was decommissioned in 1828.[3]
During the active years, Georgia used the fort as a state militia headquarters and muster ground. It was a point of interaction with "the US Army, the Creek Nation, the Georgia militia and the Georgia government."[2] The fort helped reinforce Georgia's western frontier until the state took control by getting the Creek removed to the west, and filling lands with European-American settlers.
Ancient cultures of indigenous peoples had long settled near the river. Evidence of 17,000 years of continuous human habitation has been found at Ocmulgee National Monument.[5] Historically, American Indian peoples from the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Muskogee, Choctaw and Seminole nations; ethnic European Americans from England, Germany, Ireland, Scotland, and Spain; and African-descended peoples originally speaking numerous languages from a variety of ethnic cultures of West Africa, are all represented at the fort. Nearly 40,000 artifacts from trading and residence have been found in 21st-century archeological excavations at the fort site.
From 1928 the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Macon Kiwanis Club began fundraising to create a replica of one of the blockhouses to memorialize the fort. In 1933 the government began archaeological excavations at the Ocmulgee Old Fields, supported by workers and funding of the US Works Progress Administration (WPA) under President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Great Depression. In 1936, one of the archeologists, Gordon R. Willey, did enough work at Fort Hawkins to establish the original footprint of the southeast blockhouse. Construction of a replica of the blockhouse was done as a WPA project in collaboration with the DAR, and was completed in 1938. Some of the original stones were recovered to be used in the basement section. The upper floors were made of concrete formed to simulate the original wood timbers, intended to be more durable at a time of uncertain funding for historic work.
Because historical records had been destroyed when Washington, DC was burned during the War of 1812, in 1971 the city authorized limited archaeological excavation to establish the original dimensions of the fort.[6] An area of the excavation revealed many ceramic artifacts, remnants of English-American styled dishes used by residents, dated from c. 1779-c. 1834.[6] In 1977 the Fort Hawkins archeological site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NHRP).[1]
The City of Macon acquired the historic site in 2002, with help from the state's Greenspace Program and funds from the Fort Hawkins Commission and the Peyton Anderson Foundation. After redevelopment, the city and Commission plan to use the fort site as a greenspace park and a historical center of the city. The southeast blockhouse, which is occasionally opened to the public, has become an icon of the city. Archeologists were concerned that construction of the Fort Hawkins Grammar School and a road on part of the site in the mid-20th century had destroyed the archeological record. Since 2005, archeological excavations at the fort site have shown that extensive artifacts and stratigraphy have survived and can be interpreted.[7]
From 2005-2007, in a cooperative project supported by the city, the Fort Hawkins Commission (est. 1990), the Society for Georgia Archaeology, and the LAMAR Institute, the archaeologist Daniel T. Elliott led a team in extensive excavations of the fort site. The work revealed evidence of two forts having been constructed there.[3] The final fort had several brick buildings and only one of wood, making it a more substantial complex than originally thought by the limited historical descriptions.[7] In 2007 additional palisades were found, and research indicates it is likely the outer area was built from 1809-1810 by the US Army's Regiment of Rifles.[8]
By creating a public website for the fort and the archeological work, the Commission and Society for Georgia Archeology have done extensive education on the finds already. They have also used numerous public venues to educate a variety of audiences about the fort, its role as a military and economic center, and its many peoples.
In addition, the team recovered nearly 40,000 artifacts from the fort era (1806–1821), which show the complex lives of the different peoples on the American frontier.[7] This evidence has shown a more complex and significant history at the fort than previously known. It has provided evidence that the fort was more important than earlier understood, and the artifacts must be studied and interpreted.[9] The Fort Hawkins Commission developed a Master Plan in 2008 for the site, which includes development to reconstruct the entire 1.4 acre (5,700 m²) complex.[9]
Another field season of excavation is planned for October 2011 under Daniel T. Elliott. It will concentrate on the west wall of the former stockade.[10]
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