Fort Cooper was constructed in April 1836 during the Second Seminole War when General Winfield Scott instructed the First Georgia Battalion of Volunteers under Major Mark Anthony Cooper to build two bastions and a blockhouse on the western shore of Lake Holathlikaha at the time of the Battle of Withlacoochee. On April 5, a skirmish between Seminole warriors and Cooper's men led to the death of Private Zadock Cook of the Morgan Guards. From 1836 to 1842, the United States Army used the fort as a horse depot, a scouting post, and a watering hole before abandoning it. In December 1970, landowner John H. Eden Jr. sold land to the state and began working with archaeologists to excavate the site. Fort Cooper was added to the National Register of Historic Places on June 12, 1972, and in 1977 the site opened to the public as a 704-acre state park.