Clarksville's history unfolded on this site as recipients of American Revolution land grants built settlements along the Cumberland and Red Rivers and early trade followed. As the Civil War approached, Clarksville, with 5,000 inhabitants, was seen as a prize for Union forces because of its large tobacco warehouses, prosperous businesses and educational institutions, steamboat landings, and railroad crossing. The Clarksville iron works and other foundries could produce small arms, cannons, and shells. After Fort Donelson in nearby Dover fell to the Union in February 1862, Clarksville and the Confederate river defense at Fort Defiance became critical to stopping federal forces from reaching Nashville. But when Union ships steamed toward Clarksville, city leaders chose surrender as the wiser course, and the fort was taken without a shot as the city entered a lengthy Union occupation. Union troops, aided by local blacks seeking federal protection, reinforced the fort and renamed it Fort Bruce after Colonel Sanders Bruce, the Union commander. Efforts to preserve and present this history began in 1982 in preparation for Clarksville's 1984 Bicentenary, when Judge and Mrs. Sam E. Boaz deeded the fort property to the city, faculty and students from Austin Peay State University cleared the site, and Mayor Ted Crozier arranged for its maintenance as a city park. In 2002, Mayor John Piper established the Fort Defiance Commission to devise a development plan, and with a $2.2 million federal grant and city funding awarded during his administration in 2008, an interpretive center and other amenities were created.