Apple River Fort

Apple River Fort in Elizabeth, Illinois preserves the history of a frontier stockade built in 1832 during the Black Hawk War after fears spread following the defeat at Stillman’s Run. Constructed quickly at the Apple River settlement, it became one of the few forts attacked in the war and the only one known to have been assaulted by a band led by Black Hawk himself. On June 24, 1832, about 200 Sauk warriors attacked while roughly thirty men and boys, along with women and children, sheltered inside. Archaeology in 1995 identified the original fort’s footprint, leading to a historically grounded reconstruction completed in 1996 and 1997.

Illinois · United States