Fort Atkinson State Preserve is a state preserve of

Iowa Iowa () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wiscon ...

, USA, containing the remnants of Fort Atkinson, a U.S. Army frontier post created to keep the peace between various Native American tribes as well as prevent white settlers from encroaching on Indian lands. In February 2013 the fort was 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 artist ...

as Fort Atkinson Historic District.

History

The 1830 Treaty of Prairie du Chien, negotiated between the United States and various tribes, established the Neutral Ground: the tribes agreed to land cession of a strip of land, two strips of land wide each on either side of the boundary roughly from present-day

La Crosse, Wisconsin La Crosse is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of La Crosse County. Positioned alongside the Mississippi River, La Crosse is the largest city on Wisconsin's western border. La Crosse's population as of the 2020 census ...

and

Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin Prairie du Chien () is a city in and the county seat of Crawford County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 5,506 at the 2020 census. Its ZIP Code is 53821. Often referred to as Wisconsin's second oldest city, Prairie du Chien was est ...

, extending from the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it ...

to the

Des Moines River The Des Moines River () is a tributary of the Mississippi River in the upper Midwestern United States that is approximately long from its farther headwaters.U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe Na ...

in what today is southeastern

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the List of U.S. states and territories by population, 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minne ...

and northeastern

. Originally planned as a

buffer zone A buffer zone is a neutral zonal area that lies between two or more bodies of land, usually pertaining to countries. Depending on the type of buffer zone, it may serve to separate regions or conjoin them. Common types of buffer zones are demil ...

between the Sac and Fox Nation and

Sioux The Sioux or Oceti Sakowin (; Dakota language, Dakota: Help:IPA, /otʃʰeːtʰi ʃakoːwĩ/) are groups of Native Americans in the United States, Native American tribes and First Nations in Canada, First Nations peoples in North America. The ...

Nation, the land was soon designated for the

Ho-Chunk The Ho-Chunk, also known as Hoocągra or Winnebago (referred to as ''Hotúŋe'' in the neighboring indigenous Iowa-Otoe language), are a Siouan-speaking Native American people whose historic territory includes parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Io ...

(or Winnebago) tribe after their removal from

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. Fort Atkinson was founded to keep the Ho-Chunk on the Neutral Ground, and to protect them from other tribes as well as prevent white traders and settlers from intruding on Indian land. The post was also reinforced the authority of the U.S. government official who operated a school, model farm and provided supplies to the Ho-Chunk. A camp was founded on the site on May 31, 1840 by Cpt. Lynde commanding Co. F, 5th US Infantry and named after Henry Atkinson, the commanding officer in charge of the Ho-Chunk resettlement. The fort took three years to construct and was completed by the end of summer of 1842. Company B, 1st US Dragoons arrived on June 24, 1840, remaining until June 20, 1846. Co. F, 5th US Infantry was replaced on Sept 10, 1841 by Co. K, 1st US Infantry, which recently arrived from Florida. Co. I, 1st US Dragoons under Captain James Allen was additionally posted at Ft. Atkinson from August to November 1842, the three companies marked the largest garrison at the post during its history with 196 soldiers in the garrison in August 1842. Co. A & B, 1st US Infantry were each briefly at the post in the spring and summer of 1843. Co. E, 1st US Infantry, replaced Co. K on May 19, 1844. The infantry left the post on Sept 9, 1845. After Co. B, 1st US Dragoons left in June 1846, to report to Ft. Leavenworth in response to the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Second Federal Republic of Mexico, Mexico f ...

, the post was briefly vacant. Morgan's Iowa Company of Volunteer Infantry began staffing the fort on July 15, 1846. Parker's Iowa Company of Mounted Volunteers arrived in September 1846, but was disbanded as being too expensive in November 1846. Morgan's Company was reorganized as a mounted unit in July 1847 and helped moved the Ho-Chuck from Iowa to Minnesota in June 1848. The last of the militia left on September 11, 1848. The fort was again briefly vacant until Co. C, 6th US Infantry under Captain T L Alexander reached the post from Mexico on Sept. 28, 1848. The fort was abandoned by the 6th US Infantry on February 24, 1849.Steven M. Baule, A brief look back at Ft. Atkinson, Iowa and the Year 1843, Ft. Dodge, IGG, 1992. The fort was sold at

public auction In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichk ...

in 1855. The private owners had the land surveyed and

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Surveys to show the distance and bea ...

ted for the town of Fort Atkinson. In 1906, a geologic study of Winneshiek County named the stone used in the fort as the Fort Atkinson Limestone Member of the Maquoketa Group, having originated from a shallow tropical sea 440 million years ago. The state of Iowa acquired the fort in 1921 and reconstruction started in 1958. In 1968, the fort was dedicated as part of the State Preserves System because of its geological, archaeological and historical value.

Design

The fort included 24 buildings and an 11'9" stockade, outside of which were 14 additional buildings. The design was typical of frontier posts, using a rectangular layout enclosed by a wooden picket-stockade. A parade ground was at the center, surrounded by four main

barracks Barracks are usually a group of long buildings built to house military personnel or laborers. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word "barraca" ("soldier's tent"), but today barracks are ...

. Cannon houses sat at the northeast and southwest corners, a

gunpowder magazine A gunpowder magazine is a magazine (building) designed to store the explosive gunpowder in wooden barrels for safety. Gunpowder, until superseded, was a universal explosive used in the military and for civil engineering: both applications req ...

in the southeast corner and a

commissary A commissary is a government official charged with oversight or an ecclesiastical official who exercises in special circumstances the jurisdiction of a bishop. In many countries, the term is used as an administrative or police title. It often c ...

in the northwest. Buildings outside the fort included the granary, bakery, blacksmith and stables. The buildings were constructed out of

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms wh ...

quarried nearby or

hewn In woodworking, hewing is the process of converting a log from its rounded natural form into lumber (timber) with more or less flat surfaces using primarily an axe. It is an ancient method, and before the advent of the industrial-era type ...

logs with cut-pine shingle roofs.

References

External links

Fort Atkinson State Preserve

Fort Atkinson and the Winnebago Occupation of Iowa, 1840–1849
{{NRHP in Winneshiek County, Iowa Archaeological sites in Iowa Atkinson History museums in Iowa Iowa state preserves Military and war museums in Iowa Atkinson National Register of Historic Places in Winneshiek County, Iowa Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa Museums in Winneshiek County, Iowa Pre-statehood history of Iowa Protected areas established in 1968 Protected areas of Winneshiek County, Iowa Historic districts in Winneshiek County, Iowa 1968 establishments in Iowa