Isaac Bledsoe's Fort was one of eight Cumberland settlements named in the Compact of Government created in 1780 by the pioneers who first came into the Cumberland Valley and settled this land, serving as part of the vanguard of the "great leap westward." Although the fort's location had been passed down by oral tradition, an ongoing archeological exploration in 1994 conducted by Dr. Kevin Smith of the Department of Sociology and Archeology at Middle Tennessee State University confirmed the site, recovered numerous artifacts of the period, and determined the locations of the walls and cabins, with explorations continuing. Families known to have lived at the fort or sought protection there during periods of Indian hostility included those of Isaac Bledsoe, Anthony Bledsoe, William Hall, Hugh Rogan, Gibson, Neely, Donoho, and Clendening. The date the fort ceased to exist as a structure is unknown, but it is surmised that when the Indian Wars ended in 1795, the inhabitants moved out, established their homesteads, and continued settling the land. In his 1852 narrative, "Early History of the Southwest," General William Hall, who had lived at the fort, described it as "an oblong square and built all around in a regular stockade except at one place, where stood a large double cabin." During an Indian attack in July of 1788, Anthony Bledsoe was killed in the passageway of the double cabin. The stockade possibly contained three blockhouses and ten cabins.