Highlights Archives
Fort Crawford — 150 Years Later
It has been 150 years since Fort Crawford in Prairie du Chien closed its doors in 1856. Named for Secretary of War William H. Crawford, the first Fort Crawford (two forts bore this name) was built by the Americans in 1816 on the ruins of Fort Shelby, an American-built fort seized and renamed Fort McKay by a force of British-Canadians during the Battle of Prairie du Chien — the only battle of the War of 1812 fought in Wisconsin. Today, Villa Louis, built by the son of frontier entrepreneur Hercules Dousman, stands on the site of the original fort.
Constructed of logs, the first Fort Crawford was located on an island just above the confluence of the Mississippi and Wisconsin Rivers. The fort was the U.S. Army's most northerly fort on the river and served as an important rendezvous point for traders and Indians. While the location may have been strategic, both politically and economically, it proved a disaster as the area was subject to frequent flooding. Fort Crawford flooded during construction in 1816, and again in 1821, 1822, and 1826. Residents also suffered from infestations of lice, as this lice comb, excavated from the site, attests. The 1826 flood so decimated the fort that the Americans abandoned it, leaving Prairie du Chien unprotected for a few years.
After the 1827 Red Bird uprising, in which Ho-Chunk Indians fought with settlers, the Americans realized that a permanent fort at Prairie du Chien was needed. Another flood in 1828 convinced them that the fort had to be relocated so the Americans chose a spot on the mainland.
Construction of the second Fort Crawford was slow. The War Department, not completely convinced of the fort's necessity, only reluctantly purchased the land. This second fort, unlike the first, was to be constructed of stone to help it withstand the elements. Unfortunately, finding stones and experienced masons on the Wisconsin frontier proved difficult, delaying construction. Construction was also delayed by Indian treaties in 1829 and 1830 and by the Black Hawk War of 1832. The fort was finally completed soon after the Black Hawk War. By the late 1840s and 1850s, however, the line of "frontier" had moved far beyond Fort Crawford and the Mississippi River, and the fort began to seem unnecessary. Fort Crawford closed in 1856.
In its short life, Fort Crawford saw a number of notable people pass through. Army surgeon Dr. William Beaumont revolutionized contemporary understandings of digestion after conducting 56 experiments on a patient with an open abdominal wound during the winter of 1829-1830. Future President Zachary Taylor (1848-1850) commanded Fort Crawford from 1829 to 1830 and again from 1832 to 1837, and is credited with finishing construction of the second fort as well as the construction of the military road to Fort Winnebago. Taylor's daughter, Sarah, met her future husband at Fort Crawford, Lt. Jefferson Davis, future president of the Confederacy.
After closing its doors, Fort Crawford was used again during the Civil War as a recruitment center and then as an overflow hospital. It also housed immigrant families for a time in the late 19th century while they looked for or built other housing. The fort was reconstructed as a Works Progress Administration project in the 1930s and, until 1995, the fort's hospital was owned by the State Medical Society of Wisconsin and operated as The Museum of Medical Progress. Today the fort is known as the Prairie du Chien Museum at Fort Crawford.
:: Posted November 15, 2006
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