WV State Parks -- Prickett's Fort

Prickett's Fort State Park

Since this had been a meeting of the Boone "Clan" and since the clan is most noted in American History for settling the "Eastern" Frontier, Alice and I thought it was a good idea to visit a monument to that era in our own state, particularly since it was only an hour away from the place of the re-union. Accordingly, on Sunday after church, when all the others had left, we ventured up the road to just outside of Fairmont WV to visit Prickett's Fort. This is a re-creation of a typical frontier fort that has been accomplished on the actual site where a similar looking frontier fort once stood.
Captain Jacob Prickett (the title refers to his rank in the local militia forces), built a fort in his cornfield located beside an inlet from the Monogahela River (the river is to the right, a shot of the inlet is below). His fort was used by local settlers in the area for most of the late 1700's. It even was visited once by Daniel Boone as he was on his way east with some Ginseng that he had gathered for sale back east.


We both had visited Fort Boonesboro State Park in Kentucky, a re-creation of the original Fort Boonesboro, several years ago. We had enjoyed the visit, but somehow, I did not think that Kentucky had done the best job they could at re-creating the fort. It was not until I visited Prickett's Fort last fall that I realized what the problem was. At Fort Boonesboro, (pictured to the left) the state of Kentucky had re-located their re-creation on a high bluff overlooking the original site which was along the Kentucky River. While this probably was better from a logistical standpoint, I thought it detracted greatly from the authenticity of the place.

At Prickett's Fort, the re-creation has been placed where it originally stood. Therefore, as one approached it, particularly from the River side, the most common approach in those days, you could get a better feel (see right) for what it was like to approach the original fort.

Unlike Fort Boonesboro, Prickett's Fort was a small installation. And in doing its re-creation the Prickett's Fort Memorial Foundation probably put too many buildings inside their re-creation (they even admit as such in their interpretation). Forts such as these were not meant to be a place of permanent dwelling, though indeed many such forts eventually became permanent places of dwelling, e.g. Fort Wayne IN, Fort Worth TX, Nashville TN. Rather they were strongholds to which threatened settlers would evacuate and live during times when Native Americans were making their presence felt. The term used by the settlers was "Forting Up." Thus, it is quite possible that at times the interior of the fort was as crowded as the current re-creation is.



To the left is the front gate from outside the fort. To the right is a shot of the interior of the fort.






All in all, we enjoyed our visit and would like to go back again. We also recommend it to anyone else with an interest in this era of our history.