Fort Wilkins Historic State Park is a historical park operated by the

Michigan Department of Natural Resources The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is the agency of the state of Michigan charged with maintaining natural resources such as state parks, state forests, and recreation areas. It is governed by a director appointed by the Governor a ...

Copper Harbor Copper Harbor is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located in Keweenaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is located within Grant Township. The population of the CDP was 136 as of the 2020 census. The communit ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...

. The park preserves the restored 1844 army military outpost, Fort Wilkins, which was placed 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 ...

in 1970. The

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 ...

's include camping and day-use facilities as well as the Copper Harbor Lighthouse, built in 1866. The park is a "Cooperating Site" of the

Keweenaw National Historical Park Keweenaw National Historical Park is a unit of the U.S. National Park Service. Established in 1992, the park celebrates the life and history of the Keweenaw Peninsula in the Upper Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. As of 2009, it is a pa ...

History

Copper Harbor is located at the northern tip of the

Keweenaw Peninsula The Keweenaw Peninsula ( , sometimes locally ) is the northernmost part of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. It projects into Lake Superior and was the site of the first copper boom in the United States, leading to its moniker of " Copper Country." A ...

, bordering

Lake Superior Lake Superior in central North America is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface areaThe Caspian Sea is the largest lake, but is saline, not freshwater. and the third-largest by volume, holding 10% of the world's surface fresh wa ...

. It is one of the best natural harbors in Keweenaw County and was a quick focus of attention after

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pink ...

was discovered on the peninsula in the 1830s. In the early 1840s, a copper rush took place that saw a flood of fortune-seekers moving to the peninsula. The U.S. government was concerned about possible disorder and violence, and lake

shipping Freight transport, also referred as ''Freight Forwarding'', is the physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it has been ...

interests asked the government to build an aid to

navigation Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation ...

so that essential supplies could be shipped in and the copper moved out. In 1844, Fort Wilkins was established at the direction of

Secretary of War The secretary of war was a member of the U.S. president's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War", had been appointed to serve the Congress of the ...

William Wilkins.

Fort Wilkins

The

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cl ...

occupied Fort Wilkins, located east of Copper Harbor, Michigan on the strait of land between Copper Harbor and northern shore of

Lake Fanny Hooe Lake Fanny Hooe is a lake in Keweenaw County, Michigan. The Garden Brook connects Lake Fanny Hooe to Lake Superior, to the north. The community of Copper Harbor lies to the north west side of the lake. Home to a U.S. Army fort built in 1844, Fo ...

, in 1844. The troops stationed there were intended to help with local law enforcement and to keep the peace between miners and the local

Ojibwa The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

s; some Chippewa opposed the Treaty of La Pointe that had ceded the area to the United States in 1842–1843. However, the fort proved to be unnecessary. The Chippewa largely accepted the influx, and the miners were law-abiding. The Army built 27 structures, including a guardhouse, powder magazine, 7 officer's quarters, two barracks, two mess halls, hospital, storehouse, sutler's store, quartermaster's store, bakery, blacksmith's shop, carpenter's shop, icehouse, four quarters for married enlisted men, stables, and a slaughter house, to house the operations of two full-strength infantry companies. Several of these structures still survive. Others have been rebuilt following archaeological excavations. When it was first garrisoned in 1844, two companies (A and B of the 5th infantry) were stationed there. When war was declared with

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

, Companies A and B were sent to

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

and were replaced by Company K. When Company K was also sent to the Mexican front in 1846, the fort was left in the hands of a single caretaker, Sgt. William Wright, the only man to remain behind. With the passing of Wright in 1855, the fort was leased to Dr. John S. Livermore, who hoped to open a health resort "for invalids and others during the hot months." This plan fell through after his death in 1861. In 1863, the United States government granted land to the States of Michigan and Wisconsin for construction of a military road between Fort Wilikins and Fort Howard near Green Bay, Wisconsin. This road was completed in 1872. After the

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

, the U.S. army reoccupied Fort Wilkins for three years in 1867–1870. The U.S. Army needed a place for men to serve out the rest of their enlistments from the war. Company E, Forty-third Infantry, was stationed there from 1867 until May 1869, when they were replaced by Company K, First Infantry. The army permanently abandoned the facility at the end of August 1870.

State park

In 1848, the Copper Harbor Lighthouse complex was begun on the tip of the eastern point of land, also sometimes called Hays Point, that sits at the entrance of the harbor. In 1923, the fort and adjacent lighthouse became a Michigan

. The facility is open to the public in summer months, when it is staffed by costumed personnel who portray Army life during the fort's final summer as an active post.

References

External links

Fort Wilkins Historic State Park
Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Fort Wilkins Historic State Park Map
Michigan Department of Natural Resources
Fort Wilkins Map
Michigan History Center {{authority control Wilkins History museums in Michigan Keweenaw National Historical Park Living museums in Michigan State parks of Michigan Museums in Keweenaw County, Michigan Protected areas of Keweenaw County, Michigan Protected areas established in 1923 Forts on the National Register of Historic Places in Michigan 1844 establishments in Michigan National Register of Historic Places in Keweenaw County, Michigan

History

Fort Wilkins

State park

See also

References

External links