Fort Defiance, known as Camp Defiance during the

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

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

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

and

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

rivers in the city limits of

Cairo Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...

, in

Alexander County, Illinois Alexander County is the southernmost 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 County is part of the ...

. 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 t ...

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.

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. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

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