Fort King, on its original site in Ocala, Florida, began as a United States military post built in 1827 amid rising conflict with the Seminole and gained strategic importance at the junction of roads linking Florida’s interior with key coastal and river routes. Reactivated in 1832 during efforts to remove the Seminole, it became a major center of the Second Seminole War. On December 28, 1835, the Dade Battle and the killing of U.S. agent Wiley Thompson at the fort sharply escalated the war. Later rebuilt after destruction, it also hosted the short-lived Macomb Treaty and briefly served as Marion County’s first courthouse. The site also preserves archaeological evidence of Indigenous occupation reaching back more than 8,000 years.