Prickett's Fort State Park is a

West Virginia West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...

state park State parks are parks or other protected areas managed at the sub-national level within those nations which use "state" as a political subdivision. State parks are typically established by a state to preserve a location on account of its natural ...

north of Fairmont, near the confluence of Prickett's Creek and the

Monongahela River The Monongahela River ( , )—often referred to locally as the Mon ()—is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 river on the Allegheny Plateau in North Cen ...

. The park features a reconstructed refuge fort and commemorates life on the Virginia frontier during the late 18th century.Prickett's Fort Foundation website

Historic fort

Historic Prickett's Fort was built to defend early European settlers of what today is

from raids by hostile Native Americans, a portion of whose territory the settlers appropriated after the

Treaty of Fort Stanwix The Treaty of Fort Stanwix was a treaty signed between representatives from the Iroquois and Great Britain (accompanied by negotiators from New Jersey, Virginia and Pennsylvania) in 1768 at Fort Stanwix. It was negotiated between Sir William J ...

(1768). After a band of settlers led by Daniel Greathouse perpetrated the

Yellow Creek massacre The Yellow Creek massacre was a killing of several Mingo Indians by Virginian settlers on April 30, 1774. The massacre occurred across from the mouth of the Yellow Creek on the upper Ohio River in the Ohio Country, near the current site of the Moun ...

in 1774, initiating Lord Dunmore's War, all settlers in the Ohio River Valley were in peril from Native American attack. Because there was safety in numbers, the settlers built a number of refuge forts, including one on the homestead of Jacob Prickett. Fairly simple in design, Prickett's Fort was little more than a hundred-foot-square log palisade built around Prickett's house. Native Americans tended to avoid such strong points, preferring to ambush small work parties. When the frontiersmen believed they were in danger of Native American attack, families gathered at such a fortified area, a procedure called "forting up". In 1774, there were at least a hundred such palisades, blockhouses, and "stations" in the Monongahela Valley, many within a thirty-mile radius of Prickett's Fort. Perhaps as many as eighty families—several hundred people—gathered at Prickett's Fort during crisis periods, where they stayed for days or even weeks. Prickett's Fort was never attacked, although militiamen from the confluence area were killed by Native Americans elsewhere.

Reconstruction

The last written mention of Prickett's Fort occurred in 1780.John Boback, PhD, a
PrickettsFort.Blogspot
(accessed April 13, 2010). In 1916, the Sons of the American Revolution dedicated a monument in honor of settlers who built the fort. When, in 1973, the traditional site of the fort was threatened by a Department of Natural Resources parking lot, the Marion County Historical Society created the Prickett's Fort Memorial Foundation and announced plans to reconstruct the historic structure. Discovering that the original fort site had probably been destroyed by the building of a railroad bridge in 1905, the Foundation decided to put the reconstruction on a small hill overlooking the river. Many old buildings donated to the project were torn down to provide timbers for the reconstruction. A Reconstruction Details Committee decided to design the fort reconstruction on the basis of a description by Stephen Morgan, the son of an early settler. The current reconstruction is 110 feet square with two-story blockhouses at each corner, fourteen small cabins lining internal walls, and a meeting house and store house in the common area. Unfortunately, the Morgan account was an inaccurate, perhaps even fraudulent, guide. The Prickett's Fort Memorial Foundation describes the 1974 reconstruction as "much more elaborate" than the original but claims that every feature in the reconstruction might have been found at some refuge fort in the region.

Features

In the reconstructed fort, the Foundation presents third-person interpretation of such 18th-century crafts as carpentry, blacksmithing, and spinning. A visitor center—managed by the Foundation under long-term contract with the state—includes a research library, a gift shop, and a gallery with an orientation exhibit and video. Immediately south of the fort reconstruction, the Job Prickett House, built in 1859 by a great-grandson of Jacob Prickett, displays original furnishings and tools. This typical 19th-century farmhouse is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. Recreational facilities at Prickett's Fort include a 400-seat outdoor amphitheater, picnic areas, nature trails, and a boat launch. The outdoor amphitheater is used by the Fairmont State University theater department each summer for musicals and dramatic productions. Prickett's Fort State Park provides access to both the MCPARC trail to Fairmont and the

Mon River Trail The Mon River Trail is a rail trail located in West Virginia, United States. The trail is composed of two separate sections - the north section and the south section, which are connected by the Caperton Trail. It is relatively flat and follows th ...

to Morgantown. An

accessibility Accessibility is the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both "direct access" (i. ...

study by

West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State College ...

determined that most park features were accessible to persons with disabilities.''"A Guide To Accessible Recreation in West Virginia", WVU Center for Excellence in Disabilities web site
(accessed July 31, 2006).

References

External links

* {{authority control Colonial forts in West Virginia Forts in West Virginia Living museums in West Virginia Museums in Marion County, West Virginia Protected areas established in 1975 Protected areas of Marion County, West Virginia State parks of West Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Marion County, West Virginia Military and war museums in West Virginia Forts on the National Register of Historic Places in West Virginia Rebuilt buildings and structures in West Virginia IUCN Category III

Historic fort

Reconstruction

Features

See also

References

External links