Fort Defiance, known as Camp Defiance during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, is a former military fortification located at the confluence of the

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

and

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

rivers in the city limits of

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

, in

Alexander County, Illinois Alexander County is the southernmost and southwesternmost county in the U.S. state of Illinois. As of the 2020 census, the population was 5,240. Its county seat is Cairo and its western boundary is formed by the Mississippi River. Alexander Co ...

. The strategic significance of the site has been known since prehistoric times with

archaeological evidence The archaeological record is the body of physical (not written) evidence about the past. It is one of the core concepts in archaeology, the academic discipline concerned with documenting and interpreting the archaeological record. Archaeological ...

of warfare dating to the Mississippian era. It is the southernmost park in the state of Illinois. At in elevation, Fort Defiance Point is also Illinois' lowest point. Formerly a state park, it has been owned and maintained by the city of Cairo since the 1990s. The

Illinois Department of Natural Resources The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) is the code department of the Illinois state government that operates the state parks and state recreation areas, enforces the fishing and game laws of Illinois, regulates Illinois coal mines, ...

assumed control of Fort Defiance on July 31, 2014, with the goal of returning it to state park status. The park is a satellite of

Horseshoe Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area Horseshoe Lake State Fish and Wildlife Area is an Illinois state park on in Alexander County, Illinois, United States. Natural features In April 1927, the Department of Conservation purchased 49 acres for development as a Canada goose sa ...

History

On his trek up the Mississippi, Frenchman

Pierre Laclède Pierre Laclède Liguest or Pierre Laclède (22 November 1729 – 20 June 1778) was a French fur trader who, with his young assistant and stepson Auguste Chouteau, founded St. Louis in 1764, in what was then Spanish Upper Louisiana, in present-da ...

was among the first Europeans to land on the southern tip of what is now

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

Gallery

Image:Fort Defiance Park entrance.JPG, Entrance Image:Fort Defiance Park.JPG, Roadside of the Park Image:Ohio Mississippi confluence tower.JPG, Tower at the park Image:Ohio Mississippi confluence lifestation.JPG, Lifestation on riverside Image:Ohio Mississippi confluence bridge.JPG, Overlooking Fort Defiance from the bridge Image:Ohio Mississippi confluence.JPG, Riverside, looking at the confluence of the Ohio and the Mississippi

References

External links

Civil War Harper's Weekly, June 1, 1861
Archaeological sites in Illinois Illinois in the American Civil War Cairo, Illinois Defiance Parks in Illinois Protected areas of Alexander County, Illinois {{AmericanCivilWar-stub