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Fort
Benjamin Hawkins
Master Plan
A NEW VISION FOR OUR OLDEST ADVENTURE
The
Fort Hawkins Historic Site Master Plan
Prepared for the Fort Hawkins Commission
By Commission Chairman Marty Willett
March 27, 2008
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Site Significance
Site Features & Existing Conditions
Site Archaeological Research
Site
Development
I. Archaeology
2. Living History
3. Interpretive Visitor Center
4. Phased Property Acquisition
Site Recommendations
Conclusion
Appendices (12)
INTRODUCTION
The Fort Hawkins Commission, since its reestablishment in 1990, has
steadfastly refused to develop the Fort Hawkins property until the
necessary archaeological research could be conducted to guide any such
development. However, it is time that the historic Fort Hawkins
site in Macon, Georgia be given a proper and professional Master Plan
to guide its needed preservation and development. The recent
archaeology done by the LAMAR Institute has now made this
possible. The Commission’s prudence and restraint should be
commended despite the many proposals over the years offered to develop
the site. The recent compelling research has flawed all previous
histories and plans.
This archaeological research that has been on-going since 2005 will now
allow the Fort Hawkins Commission to determine the best course for
rebuilding the fort and in developing the property to insure its
positive preservation and interpretation. This research has
uncovered a much more significant and substantial historical resource
at Fort Hawkins than ever known before. This has redefined the fort’s
true importance and magnitude in local, state, and national history.
I have been privileged to have been part of this process since 1985 and
bearing witness to the Commission’s patience and perseverance over the
years as an original Commission Member. Serving as the Commission
Chairman since 2005, I am now honored to be in a position to see the
Commission’s mission fulfilled. Due to my many years of
involvement with the Fort Hawkins project and thus being profoundly
aware of its proud past and recent history, plus my many years of
involvement in historic preservation and interpretation, I feel more
than competent and qualified to offer this site development plan.
Since 1972, when hired by the pioneering state preservation minded
Georgia Historical Commission, I have had the honor of playing a major
leadership role in successfully developing new historical resources for
the state including the Lapham-Patterson National Historic Landmark in
Thomasville, the 18th century Midway Museum in Liberty County, the
Jarrell Plantation in Jones County, Sidney Lanier Productions, Sidney’s
Old South Historic Tour, Sidney’s Spirit Stroll, the Ocmulgee National
Monument Association, the Georgia Allman Brothers Band Association, and
the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in Macon. All of these experiences over
the past 35 years have combined to create this exciting proposal in
developing and honoring Fort Hawkins.
This Master Plan will not delve into all the previous histories, plans
and proposals for the site, but instead provide a concise working
blueprint to insure this much needed site development. This site
development plan will provide a way to preserve, promote, and finance
this important historic site and fulfill the Fort Hawkins Commission’s
Mission. Fort Hawkins will be one of the finest historic sites in
America and a tremendous community resource and source of local pride
Fort Hawkins Commission By-Laws, Article II: Purpose – Mission
Statement
“The Fort Hawkins Commission will develop plans and organize activities
to bring about the complete restoration of the frontier fort that is
the birthplace of Macon, Georgia. The first step will be a fund
raising project encompassing both foundations and individuals. As
this is underway, the Commission will conduct archaeological studies
and historical research allowing the Commission to interpret the Fort
Hawkins story accurately and in detail. Once funds are raised,
the actual reconstruction of the fort will begin. The work of the
Commission is complete when the fort and/or interpretive center is open
to the public and a military and historical education program is
developed telling the story of the young nation’s struggle to create a
country in the southern wilderness.”
2008 FORT HAWKINS COMMISSION MEMBERS
Mr. Marty Willett, Chairman
Rev. Victor Hunt, Vice Chairman
Ms. Mary Lee Rogers, Secretary
Mrs. Lynn Halstead Stokes, Treasurer
Mrs. Echo Halstead Burrell
Mr. Mike Cranford
Mr. Ed DeFore
Rev. Richard Gammage
Mr. John Goolsby
Mr. Sam Hart, Sr.
Dr. Eric Klingelhofer
EX OFFICIO MEMBERS
Mrs. Sandra Adams, Nathaniel Macon Chapter N.S.D.A.R.
Mr. Grady Burrell, Jr., Fort Benefit Car Show Coordinator
Mr. Mac Cone, Fort Hawkins School
Dr. Lindsay Holliday, President Ocmulgee Nat. Mon. Assoc.
Ms. Marion Joseph, Fort Hawkins School
Mr. Michael Lynch, President Mid. GA Vietnam Veterans
Mr. David Mincey, President Ocmulgee Archeological Soc.
Mrs. Kitty Oliver, Middle Georgia Historical Society
Mrs. Judy Smith, N.S.D.A.R., U.S.D.1812, U.D.C.
Mrs. Dianne Dent Wilcox, Fort Hawkins Historian
SITE SIGNIFICANCE
The United State Department of the Interior placed the Fort Hawkins
Archaeological Site on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977
as a significant national archaeological site. The National Register’s
official statement of significance and description of the site states:
“For
almost half a century, Macon children have frolicked on a school
playground unaware that, only a short distance below their feet, the
ground retained evidence of Fort Hawkins, established in 1806, as
frontier fort and Indian trading center or “factory” by the federal
government. Nearby, stands a replica of the original southeastern
blockhouse, erected by the Nathaniel Macon Chapter of the D.A.R. in
1937-38. Faithful in design form, if not material, the replica is
located on the original blockhouse foundation, as verified by
archaeologist Gordon R. Willey in 1936. Subsequent archaeological
investigation in 1971 revealed evidence, which indicates that the
original fort encompassed an area of approximately 1-½
acres. Historical descriptions of the fort indicate that the fort
had two blockhouses, on diagonal corners, and enclosed by a stockade of
hewn timber. There were portholes for a musket in every alternate
post . . .”
“Constructed in 1806, Fort Hawkins, was built under the direction and
named for Benjamin Hawkins, United State Senator from North Carolina,
who was as an Indian Affairs Agent very instrumental in dealings
between the Government and the Creek Indians during the first two
decades of the nineteenth century. Fort Hawkins was designed as a
trading center and for negotiations with the Creek Indians. By
1820, the fort’s primary military and trading function had been served
and the fort was the center of a settlement, which was to become the
city of Macon. As a frontier fort, Fort Hawkins was an instrument
of national policy in the earlier nineteenth century and later became
the impetus for development of the city of Macon.”
In 1993, Fort Hawkins was once again listed on the National Register of
Historic Places by being part of the Fort Hill Historic District.
The East Macon Historic District was also placed on the National
Register in 1993, and although the district does not officially include
the fort, there is a large sign on Main Street in East Macon welcoming
everyone to the “Fort Hawkins Neighborhood, the Birthplace of Macon.”
Today the 1930’s replica blockhouse is eligible for its individual
inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places and that effort
should be pursued to honor the replica’s creation despite the
“unfaithful materials.” Those dubious materials proved perfect
due to the severe lack of regular maintenance of the blockhouse
structure over the years. The blockhouse replica has become a
major icon in Macon culture appearing in many community logos and even
the Macon City Flag, but nevertheless has detracted from the public
discovering the real Fort Hawkins.
Furthermore, the historical role of Benjamin Hawkins in the American
Revolution and the new American Republic, as well as his close
association with George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, has often been
overlooked. His work with Native Americans was much more far
reaching than the Creeks, being the Principal Indian Agent of all land
south of the Ohio River and being called the “Beloved Man of Four
Nations” - by the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, and Creek.
His journals and letters provide a window into the early American
frontier in the southern wilderness as he traveled throughout the
Southeast and operated his Creek Agency on the Flint River.
Due to Benjamin Hawkins’ leadership, no military confrontations
occurred at Fort Hawkins, although its military importance is
documented in the War of 1812, the ensuing Creek Wars, and then the
Seminole Wars. The growth of the U.S. Army and the spread of the
American frontier are clearly evidenced at Fort Hawkins, and this
concept of Manifest Destiny made the fort obsolete in rapid fashion.
The fort’s trading functions were moved to Fort Mitchell, Alabama in
1815 and army functions moved to Fort Smith, Arkansas by 1819, well
before the opening of the Ocmulgee River western side in 1821. The
village of Fort Hawkins that sprung up around the fort in 1806 and
called Newtown in 1819, would provide the economic foundation for the
successful birthing and flourishing of Macon, Georgia in 1823 on the
western side of the Ocmulgee.
The actual physical location of the Fort Hawkins site is of supreme
importance.
When the Muscogee Creek Nation ceded their land by treaty in 1805 from
the Oconee to Ocmulgee River, a sacred 5-mile by 3-mile swath along the
river, known as the “Old Fields”, was maintained by the Creeks on the
eastern side of the Ocmulgee. Fort Hawkins was allowed to be
constructed on the highest hill of these sacred “Old Fields” no doubt
due to Benjamin Hawkins’ “beloved” nature. This is also provided
a very strategic fort vantage point overlooking the Lower Creek Trading
Path into the Muscogee Creek Nation westward, which became the first
Federal Road in America in 1806 (Appendix I). Although the Creeks
gave up their “right” to the Old Fields in the Treaty of 1821, they
still maintain that this is where their ancestors “first sat down” and
today part of the Old Fields is preserved at the Ocmulgee National
Monument, which is just across the street from the fort.
The site’s formal recognition was furthered in 2007 when the Fort
Hawkins Commission and Georgia Historical Society sponsored and funded
the erection of a Fort Hawkins State Historical Marker on the
site. The marker’s text reads:
“Fort Hawkins was established at this site in 1806 on the eastern bank
of the Ocmulgee River at the border of the Muscogee Creek Nation.
The location was chosen by the fort’s namesake, Benjamin Hawkins, who
served as the U.S. Agent for Indian Affairs South of the Ohio River
from 1796-1816. Located along the old Federal Road linking the
Georgia frontier to ports at Mobile and New Orleans, the fort served as
a military supply point and a frontier trading post. The fort was
decommissioned in 1828 as the frontier moved further west. The
replica southeast blockhouse was erected by the Nathaniel Macon Chapter
N.S.D.A.R. in 1937-1938. The community that developed around the
fort would eventually become the city of Macon.”
The historical significance of Fort Hawkins has been well attested by a
myriad of published accounts from its earliest days with U.S. Army
records, individual letters and family histories. One of the
earliest accounts of Fort Hawkins was in John C. Butler’s, Historical
Record of Macon and Central Georgia, published in 1879. Despite being
fraught with errors, as known by historians since then, it became the
mainstay of Fort Hawkins information on into the 20th century.
Although various histories have added to the scope of information about
Fort Hawkins (Appendix II), the recent archaeological research has
finally documented the definitive history of the fort. These
revelations have created this site development plan and rekindled
interest and enthusiasm in the real Fort Hawkins.
SITE FEATURES & EXISTING CONDITIONS
A topographical map (Appendix III) clearly demonstrates the strategic
location of a military fort at this location. Fort Hawkins was
not only on the highest hill of the sacred Old Fields, but also on one
of the highest hills on the eastern Ocmulgee River in Bibb County, if
not all of Middle Georgia. Some experts estimate that the view
encompasses more than 40 miles, which would greatly increase with the
fort’s elevated blockhouses. The Macon Plateau becomes a reality
at Fort Hawkins with a nearly 360 degree panorama and breathtaking
presentation of the Coastal Plain breaking away from the imaginary, yet
real, Fall Line, running right by the fort. The view from atop “fort
hill” is certainly majestic.
The next most striking feature found on the fort site today is the
iconic 1930’s blockhouse replica of the southeast corner of the
original Fort Hawkins. The three-story reconstruction, with a two-story
crow’s nest, commands this mighty panoramic vista with a proud dignity
befitting the original impressive Fort Hawkins that crowned the
prestigious hilltop in 1806. The blockhouse replica is totally
surrounded by a 1920’s school era, five -foot wide, decorative brick
walk that is intact save the gaps created by the 1936 archaeological
dig. This same decorative brick walk is found throughout Macon
from the sidewalk across the street from the fort on Fort Hill Street
to the sidewalk in front of the Georgia Trust’s National Historic
Landmark, Johnston-Hay House. P.L. Hay was a City Alderman in the
1920’s and is recognized at the Fort Hill Cemetery for his work there
during this time.
Due to the site’s development since 1806 atop this high hill, erosion
has taken its toll with red clay predominant or just below any barely
surviving topsoil. Several feet of fill dirt and clay were added to the
site in the 1920’s with the construction of the Fort Hawkins Elementary
School, which has confounded past and present archaeology.
Remnants of the school still plague current archaeological efforts and
dot the fort site with concrete features including a large portion of
foundation. Yet it appears the school may have protected, more than
damaged, the significant archaeological resources of the Fort Hawkins
site.
The Fort Hawkins Elementary School provides more features around the
entire fort site. A brick retaining wall from the school runs down the
property line from t from corner of Woolfolk and Maynard Streets.
A stone reflecting pool is the only extant feature left from the school
era, and is in relatively good condition. Adjacent to this
reflecting pool is an area first developed in the 1930’s as a
playground and finally used as asphalt basketball courts for the
school, with some asphalt remaining today. Both of these features
are three levels, or terraces, down from the original fort location and
fronting Emery Highway (the fourth terrace) and next to the service
station built on the southwest corner of the Fort Hawkins block.
The former school also contributed to the site’s flora.
The most impressive flora on the sparse Fort Hawkins landscape are the
four large trees left from the school’s landscaping – a Southern
Grandiflora Magnolia, a Deodara Cedar, and two native Red Cedars.
These impressive specimens are found along the former front of the
school on Fort Hill Street and fortunately out of the fort’s original
palisade location. The other trees on the fort site include a
colony of black locust and sugarberry trees on the Maynard Street
right-of-way; 2 seedling black locusts; 1 loblolly pine tree; 2 yaupon
holly trees; 2 flowering
Crabapple trees; and a large Yoshino cherry tree – reputed to be the
100,000th tree planted in Macon, the Cherry Blossom Capital of the
World. All of these specimens are found around the blockhouse replica.
There are 14 bright pink crepe myrtles planted in the 1960’s by the
city along the Maynard Street right-of-way; 24 Yoshino cherry trees
planted in 2007 along the Emery Highway and Maynard Street
right-of-ways; and 2 Bicentennial dogwood trees planted in 2007 at the
corners of Fort Hill and Woolfolk and Maynard and Woolfolk. Near
the blockhouse replica 3 Cherokee Roses have been planted on the
security fence along Maynard Street, as have 2 Chinese fringe trees
flanking the 1930’s steps off Maynard outside the security fence. There
is a circular planting of 10 native yuccas found in the reflecting
pool. The majority of the site is green space with a ground
covering of bermuda, centipede, and rye grasses with the natural mix of
wildflowers and weeds.
Despite the dense urban environment surrounding the fort site there is
more fauna present than neighborhood dogs and cats. The site also
borders vast wilderness areas particularly to the south and the
Ocmulgee River is less than a mile away as the crow flies. Crows,
hawks, vultures, doves and songbirds are always seen on the site along
with the evasive house sparrows and starlings around the blockhouse
replica. An occasional plover may be spotted in the site’s
current parking area. Insects and spiders infest the
blockhouse replica and fire ants do the same to the site’s green space,
and both need to be better controlled. A massive colony of ground
bees appear every spring in the former front yard of the school
grounds. Although possum, raccoon, armadillo, and coyote should be
expected, no sightings have been reported. However, the fort is
literally across the street from the Ocmulgee National Monument with
its abundant wildlife including deer and turkey, and only three miles
south and quite visible from the fort site, is found the Bond Swamp
National Wildlife Refuge with documented black bears, alligators, bald
eagles, and many other native species.
Today the Fort Hawkins site is bounded by Woolfolk Street to the north,
Maynard Street to the east, Emery Highway to the south, and Fort Hill
Street to the west.
When compared to the adjacent neighborhood, it appears that Macon’s
modern grid system (Appendix IV) was dictated by the reality of the
fort layout with Church Street, part of the original 200 year old
Federal Road, jutting diagonally across the grid to the west and both
Smith Street and Stewart Street dead ending, not passing through, the
fort property. This serendipitous development further protected
the site’s sensitive and valuable archaeological resources despite the
continuous growth of Macon around the fort site.
The Treaty of 1821 opened the western side of the Ocmulgee River for
settlement. Bibb County was laid out and organized in 1822 and
Macon was founded in 1823 on those western banks directly across from
Fort Hawkins and Newtown. Fort Hawkins had been nearly abandoned by
this time, yet was not officially decommissioned until 1828. In
1829 the whole Fort Hawkins reserve was surveyed, laid off into lots,
and Newtown was incorporated into the new town of Macon by an act of
the Georgia Legislature. The Legislature had previously in 1823
passed a measure “to grant and secure to commissioners of the
incorporation of the town of Macon five acres of ground at or near Fort
Hawkins for the purpose of a public burial ground.” The Fort Hill
Cemetery is rarely credited for being Macon’s oldest cemetery, even
pre-dating the city, due no doubt to the fact that the majority of East
Macon was not officially annexed into the city until 1909 and the
neighborhood’s decline into the 20th century.
Although the Fort Hill Neighborhood around the fort site is one of
Macon’s oldest communities, today it is one of its neediest with many
of the usual modern American urban problems seemingly exaggerated in
this still proud and now minority neighborhood. Despite recent
gains in the neighborhood including a new school, Burdell-Hunt
Elementary School; a new community center, Rosa Jackson Center;
demolition of some abandoned and neglected structures; and the building
of several new homes, there is still much need for improvement
especially with the Davis Homes Housing Project, the entrance to the
Ocmulgee National Monument, and more economic life on the depressed
Emery Highway.
Improvements have been discussed and planned in all these areas for
years.
The Southeast Blockhouse Replica reconstruction began in 1937 with the
Nathaniel Macon Chapter N.S.D.A.R. spearheading the project with a
successful fund raising program with local school children selling
penny Fort Hawkins stamps. With the assistance of the Works
Progress Administration, the replica was completed and dedicated on
March 19, 1939. The property was transferred in 1947 from the
Bibb Board of Education to the Nathaniel Macon Chapter N.S.D.A.R. who
deeded it to the city of Macon in 1951. This dedicated group of
patriotic women has always been in the forefront in honoring Fort
Hawkins, having erected a memorial marble monument at the site in 1914.
The 1951 deed stipulated that the city “maintain and improve the
property” and in 1966 the city completed several major upgrades to the
replica including a renewed roof structure, improved door and window
hardware, installation of electric lights, and the erection of a
protective fence creating a small enclosure around the blockhouse
replica. Limited tours were then offered by the D.A.R. and local
Boy Scouts with the first Fort Hawkins Commission established by Mayor
Ronnie Thompson in 1969, leading to the 1971 archaeological dig.
After this first Commission sadly evaporated, the Fort Hawkins
Commission was reestablished by Mayor Lee Robinson in 1990, after a
task force investigating this possibility was created by the Keep Macon
Bibb Beautiful Commission in 1985. The KMBBC’s logo features the
Fort Hawkins blockhouse replica.
Under the guidance of the current Fort Hawkins Commission, the
blockhouse replica has enjoyed improved night security lighting,
upgraded electrical wiring and water services, an authentic wooden
shingle roof, the acquisition of nearly the entire city block around
the fort, the addition of a substantial 12 ‘ chain link security fence
around the entire new perimeter, the removal of the school’s basketball
courts and the removal of the1960’s small enclosure security
fencing. Exposing the entire decorative brick walk, adding a
safety rail to the entrance steps, and placing three picnic tables are
further amenities around the blockhouse replica today.
In 2007 two new features were added to the fort’s landscape. With
the generous “Bicentennial Birthday Present” from the Peyton Anderson
Foundation, an original, impressive brass 6 pounder cannon, assigned to
Fort Hawkins, was returned to the site and now commands the entrance to
the blockhouse replica. With the Commission’s partnership with
the Georgia Historical Society, an official, handsome Fort Hawkins
State Historic Marker was erected on the site and now educates visitors
at the current entrance onto the site. The Commission also had a
local contact information sign installed by the front gate to further
aid visitors since the site is normally closed and secured.
The Commission has added greatly to the blockhouse replica’s surprising
collection of artifacts and exhibits. Over the years a variety of
sources have created this significant but endangered collection.
Despite the city improvements over the years, the blockhouse replica
has no climate control, no insect control, no bird control, no
sanitation facilities, and should therefore have no collection.
Many of the 1960’s exhibits have miraculously survived and came from
the Ocmulgee National Monument on a long-term loan with the National
Park Service (Appendix V). The Daughters of the American
Revolution, local families and school children, and even the
Baconsfield McDonald’s have contributed to the historical displays that
include a handsome bust of Benjamin Hawkins, an authentically attired
Creek Indian mannequin, plus many fort models and framed
histories (Appendix VI). The blockhouse replica has seen
more archaeological exhibits since the dig began in 2005 including the
public display of the 1700 plus surface collection of artifacts rescued
from the site periodically by the Commission Chairman. Although
the Commission has taken steps to mitigate the lack of needed
conservation in the blockhouse replica, a proper Interpretive Center is
sorely needed to save this core fort collection.
SITE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH
The Fort Hawkins Commission’s most commendable attribute has been their
dedication in postponing any development of the site until professional
archaeological research could be done to determine how to accomplish
this overdue need. Despite years of setbacks in the fort property
ownership plus hollow or thwarted promises of funding, the Commission’s
perseverance paid off with the nearly entire fort block being
successfully purchased in 2002 with the collaboration of Mayor C.
Jack Ellis, NewTown Macon, and the Peyton Anderson Foundation.
This provided the opportunity to conduct the much need archaeology, and
this research has been critical and crucial in the understanding of the
real Fort Hawkins and the preparing of this site development plan.
The Edward Douglass Irvine illustration of Fort Hawkins that appeared
in the 1879 Butler’s History had for some time been the only “evidence”
of the fort’s original construction save for two confusing 19th century
photos of the fort. Most future Fort Hawkins renderings would be based
on Irvine’s with only minor differences, but some show only one
blockhouse standing alone, based no doubt on the 1937 replica.
Sadly the original plans to Fort Hawkins were destroyed when the
British burned Washington, D.C. in the War of 1812. This truly
horrific event in American history has been often overlooked at best
and forgotten at worse. This time period in general is treated in such
a way despite it being a dramatic and crucial turning point in U.S.
history. Fort Hawkins was an important part of this national
history, but its chronicles for the most part were lost to time – until
now.
The Fort Hawkins Commission’s due diligence is further reflected by
their refusal to believe completely in Butler’s description or the 1936
and 1971 digs and preventing the premature rebuilding the fort.
All of these works, although commendable, have been held suspect with
more questions than answers provided. Furthermore, both
investigations seem to imply that the Fort Hawkins School damaged most
of the site’s architectural and artifact resources, which is far from
the truth, as the recent research has dramatically uncovered. The
evidence in the ground has conclusively contradicted almost all
previous data.
As the archaeological research began at the Ocmulgee National Monument
in 1933, archaeology as a real science was only beginning to
emerge. Some credit this local dig, done in conjunction with the
National Park Service and the Works Progress Administration, as being
the beginning of modern archaeology. In fact, the Society of
Georgia Archaeology was created here at this same time. In 1936 one of
the Ocmulgee archaeologists, Gordon R. Willey, was sent to oversee a
cursory dig at the Fort Hawkins site. Although no formal report
concerning the fort was ever produced, his twelve pages of field notes
are available in the Fort Hawkins Commission Archives at the Washington
Memorial Library in Macon. Willey’s greatest accomplishment was
to document the southeast blockhouse footprint allowing the blockhouse
replica to be erected on its exact location.
In 1971 the Fort Hawkins Commission hired Richard Carrillo to conduct a
two-week dig to investigate the site further. With this limiting
time and still evolving archaeological practices, little substantial
data on the fort was discovered despite finding portions of the
palisade wall and brick remnants. Carrillo’s greatest
contribution was in deducing that the fort was not nearly as large as
Butler had claimed. Carrillo’s 45 page formal report is also
available in the Fort Hawkins Commission Archives at Washington
Memorial. Opening these Archives in 2006 was the first major
Bicentennial project of the current Commission. This Archives is
accessible to the general public and documents and protects the
complete history of the Fort Hawkins Commission and Fort Hawkins.
The current Fort Hawkins Commission’s patience paid off tremendously
when in 2005 the LAMAR Institute was contracted to begin a third phase
of archaeological research. Led by President Daniel T. Elliott,
this five-week dig gave us an accurate outline of the fort for the very
first time. The contributions of this dig are too numerous to
mention, but in this short amount of time nearly 40,000 artifacts were
found, with several brick buildings and only one of wood uncovered, and
the clear evidence of two fort configurations realized. The
stunning 260-page report, Fort Hawkins – History & Archaeology
authored by Mr. Elliott, is also available in the Fort Hawkins
Commission Archives and at the Blockhouse Replica. A future full
printing is planned as a Fort Hawkins Commission fund-raiser, as
authorized presently by the LAMAR Institute, once new information can
be incorporated into this wonderful work – the real history of Fort
Hawkins.
This new and revealing research has helped in reinvigorating the
public’s interest in Fort Hawkins as much as it has helped in
redefining the real Fort Hawkins. This is due in no small part to
the dedication, enthusiasm, and credentials of Dan Elliott
himself. He co-authored a major work of our own prehistoric
native culture, A World Engraved – Archaeology of the Swift Creek
Culture, University of Alabama Press, 1998. He was featured in
Smithsonian Magazine and Georgia Public Television for his breakthrough
African American archaeological research on Georgia’s Ossabaw
Island. He was instrumental in redefining the real revolutionary
Fort Morris at Sunbury on the Georgia coast and admits a passion for
forts. In 2006 he was recognized as the “Archaeologist of the
Year” by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources for his
outstanding work.
Furthermore, Dan Elliott believes in researching as much as in digging
and that has led to even more amazing and documented Fort Hawkins
facts. His masterpiece of a Fort Hawkins report is full of color
photos, maps, documents, tables, charts, dig profiles, and detailed
archaeological techniques and historical deductions. There are
over 200 soldiers listed from various official U.S. Army records
including some from the 1000 strong Creek Warrior Regiment of U.S.
soldiers that served under Col. Hawkins. There are nearly 100
biographies of some of the real people who lived, worked, and died at
Fort Hawkins. The abundance of artifacts revealed what the soldiers and
their families ate, wore, played, and worked with 200 years ago.
The direct comparisons to other forts further increases the importance
and significance of Fort Hawkins and places it into a clearer
historical context.
Dan Elliott has brought Fort Hawkins to life again thankfully due to
his diligent and exhaustive work, and no doubt due to modern
archaeology’s great public allure and professional acceptance.
However, one of the most important chapters in the 260-page report is
the final one – “Results And
Recommendations”
which includes seven corrected fort misconceptions:
1) Fort Hawkins was a primitive frontier fort.
2) Fort Hawkins was a single entity.
3) Long buildings were built along the center of the four walls.
4) The reconstructed blockhouse was done by National Parks.
5) The archaeological remains are largely destroyed.
6) Fort Hawkins played a modest role in American history.
7) Fort Hawkins contained only a small garrison of troops.
After exposing these long held fort myths, a professional
approach to rebuilding and public programming is offered by Elliott and
once again the Fort Hawkins Commission vision was proven worthy and
definitely on track according to these recommendations. His
beginning and closing remarks from his Keynote Address at the Fort
Hawkins State Historic Marker Dedication can perhaps summarize Dan’s
enthusiasm for Fort Hawkins:
“Fort Hawkins is a classic American history book waiting to be
read. It contains many pages, and many more waiting to be
written. Its story is significant to all Americans. . . . It is a
200 year old site sizzling with tantalizing stories of intrigue, exotic
cultures, soldiers and officers, loose women, court-
martials, trade among foreign nations, and the gateway to a new
frontier. Fort Hawkins is an American story that belongs to all
of us. We are excited to help bring this story to life through
historical archaeology.”
SITE DEVELOPMENT
1. Archaeology
As the LAMAR Institute began its research, the Fort Hawkins Commission
realized immediately three very important facts: 1) secure
the site to prevent the prevalent looting; 2) don’t rebuild the fort
anytime soon; and 3) more archaeological research was going to be
necessary. Fortunately, their initial 5-week dig revealed enough
of the original Fort Hawkins to help guide the necessary development of
the site and produce this long needed development plan. The
archaeological research documented clearly where we could and should
develop the site with the majority of the city block remaining green
space as a sensitive archaeological dig site.
The basic layout of the property for development is best and simply
represented by the four levels or terraces mentioned earlier (Appendix
IV). The first level or top terrace is the elementary school site
and therefore the most sensitive area with little or no development
allowed with the fort ruins beneath the school’s three to five feet of
fill dirt. The second terrace appears as an old service road and is
close to the original fort level and therefore will require
investigation before permanent visitor service developments would be
made. The third terrace contains the school era reflecting pool,
the former asphalt basketball courts, and a former service station that
is not currently Fort Hawkins property. The fourth and final
terrace is the six-lane Emery Highway, U.S. Highways 80 and 23, Georgia
Routes 19 and 22, and Alternate U.S. 129 – a major and vital
transportation artery in Middle Georgia.
The third level of the fort site is the most heavily damaged area
archaeologically due to the expansion of Emery Highway, the
construction of the reflecting pool and playground/basketball court,
and the construction first of a home and then a service station at the
corner of Emery Highway and Fort Hill Street. The unfortunate
destruction of these archaeological resources is actually fortunate for
the sake of successfully developing the Fort Hawkins site and opening
it to the public daily. While this area is best suited for the
most site development and not requiring extensive archaeological
research, all areas of the site, when disturbed, should be carefully
and diligently examined as any development progresses. The
resulting development equation for the entire fort city block is
approximately ¾ sensitive with ¼ ready for development
now.
First and foremost, Fort Hawkins is a valuable national archaeological
resource as so clearly documented by the LAMAR Institute
research. Before any full-scale reconstruction of the fort can be
considered, over a full acre of fort land must be carefully studied and
evaluated. The evidence thus far has indicated multiple fort
configurations over the years, which will further hamper a definitive
or authentic fort reconstruction. Thus it would appear that
rebuilding Fort Hawkins will be an impossible task, when in fact, both
the fort rebuilding and the continued archaeological research may
coexist wonderfully at Fort Hawkins with this development plan.
Nevertheless, the Fort Hawkins Commission has been correct in the
extreme importance of archaeology and should pursue an active and
on-going archaeological program while “rebuilding the fort.”
The Fort Hawkins Commission has already funded the beginning of the
Outer Palisade Wall documentation dig, which was conducted in October
2007. At the same time, the Commission found a local sponsor,
Montgomery Tree Service, willing to supply the logs to rebuild a
demonstration outer palisade wall. The entire east wall and
¾ of the south wall have been thoroughly investigated by the
LAMAR Institute and are ready for such a palisade reconstruction.
The next planned dig for October 2008 will last four weeks and finalize
the complete outer palisade wall of Fort Hawkins if funding becomes
available. The reconstruction of a demonstration native pine palisade
wall would greatly educate the public about the real Fort Hawkins and
provide a vivid and bold new historical view in Macon of the1806
American frontier.
The reconstruction of the demonstration palisade wall will eventually
lead to its required rebuilding when a more permanent palisade solution
is found. The successful use of concrete in the 1930’s blockhouse
replica could foreshadow a future polymer or composite that could
permanently recreate the outer palisade wall. The very use of
concrete in the blockhouse replica will forever complicate a completely
authentic rebuilding of Fort Hawkins, unless the 1930’s replica was
torn down, which is not considered an option and perhaps never
should. Further complicating a faithful reconstruction is the
precarious location of the northwest blockhouse and north palisade wall
near or even in Woolfolk Street and the northeast fort corner jutting
into Maynard Street. With at least three different fort
configurations now known, which Fort Hawkins would be rebuilt?
However, by reconstructing the original outer palisade wall, c.1806,
the fort’s exterior would reflect a historical accuracy while inside
the palisade wall the archaeological research could continue with even
greater security and protection.
The interior of the fort would not have been visible in1806, so by
having the outer palisade erected, the fort would appear just about as
it would have in 1806.
Further research will determine the possibility of recreating an
authentic northwest blockhouse and eventually the possible complete
rebuilding of the fort. Once the complete fort archaeological
evidence is revealed, the decision may be wise to develop the site
along the lines of Fort Frederica National Monument on St. Simons
Island, Georgia where they preserve the original fort features without
needing to rebuild on top of them to interpret the site successfully.
The creation of the State of Georgia’s first public archaeological
demonstration area, where archaeology is celebrated and demonstrated
daily, could be accomplished at Fort Hawkins with great success.
The Topper Dig Site in South Carolina, where the public may participate
in the dig as a paying, educational experience, has already been
suggested by the LAMAR Institute as a possibility for the Fort Hawkins
site. Working collectively with the Society of Georgia
Archaeology, the State Historic Preservation Office, and all three of
our local colleges plus more in Middle Georgia if not throughout the
state, will allow a daily dig experience for the visitor to witness or
even participate in. Once the fort dig is completed, Fort Hawkins
could sponsor and lead further needed archaeological digs in Middle
Georgia. With the wealth of potential worthy archaeological sites
in our area, this celebration of archaeology will be forever.
The realistic yet exciting schedule for the continuing Fort Hawkins
archaeological research reflects a systematic search for fort related
data:
Phase 1: Fort Footprint
Documentation (2005-2006)
Phase 2: Outer Palisade
Wall Documentation (2007-2008)
Phase 3: Inner Palisade
Wall Documentation
Phase 4: Inner Fort
Documentation
Phase
5:
Nearby Fort Documentation including:
Adjacent land as needed
Fort Hill Cemetery
Camp Hope
Halsted’s Trading Post
Federal Road
Phase 6: Other Middle
Georgia Sites including:
Hawkins Creek Agency
Fort Wilkinson
Ocmulgee River Ferry
Town Creek Reservoir
Brown’s Mount
Cherokee Brick Mounds
Bullard Mound
Lamar Mound
Historical Creek Villages
Georgia Militia Forts
DeSoto’s Route
Bartram’s Trail
Battle of Griswoldville
Battle of Sunshine Church
Macon’s 1864 Defense
Camp Wheeler(s)
2. Living History
The Fort Hawkins Commission has been dedicated in providing a living
history learning experience at Fort Hawkins for several years.
Despite the severe lack of public amenities, the Commission has offered
a variety of living history lessons and educational demonstrations in
and around the blockhouse replica. No matter how successful these
programs continue to be, their success only points out the real need
for improved visitor services to improve the visitor’s safety,
security, comfort, and ability to enjoy and appreciate the learning
experiences available at Fort Hawkins. The dramatic and
documented history of Fort Hawkins will become real with a daily living
history program in place with the proper support facilities.
Living history presentations have proven to be highly successful
educational and
motivational tools in teaching and attracting the public to America’s
rich history. The millions who visit such reproduced historical
attractions as Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia or Greenfield Village
in Michigan attest to this successful technique in connecting the
American public with its American History. Despite being
reproductions, their documented authenticity further bonds the public
to such sites. Authentic reproductions and living history
have made American history more accessible and acceptable to the
general public even more than the classroom or glass enclosed museums
ever could. Fort Hawkins’ dedication to historical archaeology
and site authenticity will enhance its living history program.
Fort Hawkins potential for living history is only limited by the
imagination.
This potential is easily reflected by the myriad of skills and crafts
that were practiced at Fort Hawkins 200 years ago out of real
necessity. Today these very skills and crafts are fast becoming
lost arts as modern America becomes further detached from its
historical roots. Fortunately for Fort Hawkins, the modern
audience also craves to reconnect to their heritage especially through
living history. Thus the Fort Hawkins living history program serves an
important two-fold purpose for the site’s preservation and
interpretation. It will help save history as it shares
history. It also puts the dramatic history of the fort into a
human context with the ability to not only interact with the history,
but actual connect to it
However, the Fort Hawkins Living History Program has the potential to
do more than simply demonstrate these skills on a daily basis.
The site’s educational mission will be enhanced by offering periodic
classes in these skills, thus perpetuating these forgotten yet
necessary American arts and crafts. This type of living history
will aid Fort Hawkins being viewed as more than a mere “tourist
attraction” and should increase the site’s participation with the local
educational community from the elementary to college level, as well as
the participation of the many arts and youth groups in Macon and Middle
Georgia. Fort Hawkins can become with great ease both a fun and
serious historic site that the public will adore with its real living
history experience and engaging public programs.
These living history public programs that both demonstrate and teach
will also have a definte economic impact. The wonderful items
that these historical skills produce will be sold on site in the Fort
Hawkins Gift Shop/Trading Post/Living History Headquarters. This
concept creates a real economic engine for the living history efforts
beyond the improved economics of an open to the public Fort Hawkins
historic site. The resale items and the teaching classes will be
dynamic economic assets to the site. The archaeology itself could
become part of a living history/economic generator by expanding the
example of the Topper Site in South Carolina. The Fort Hawkins
site will become an even bigger educational and economic asset with
such an energetic and imaginative application of living history.
The Fort Hawkins Living History Program will realize that genealogy is
as important as archaeology in bringing the fort history alive.
Genealogy should be considered one of the greatest examples of living
history. The fort’s public programming already reflects this connection
with the original Fort Factor Jonathan Halsted’s descendents now
serving on the Fort Hawkins Commission and holding an annual family
reunion. Col. Benjamin Hawkins family has also met at the fort,
and descendents of Maj. Phillip Cook have volunteered at the
fort. Real soldiers and families lived and worked at Fort Hawkins
and the study and celebration of these real people add greatly to the
story of the real Fort Hawkins.
Fort Hawkins will be a unique blend of true living history with
archaeologists and genealogists as well as costumed interpreters
including U.S. Army soldiers, settlers, sutlers, traders, trekkers,
skilled craftsmen, children, mothers, washer women, Native Americans,
and the entire mix of early American personalities found on the
frontier 200 years ago. Although the Fort Hawkins site is
primarily a sensitive archaeological site, the lower ¼ of
the Fort Hawkins city block can accommodate the needed area for the
site’s necessary support buildings and living history program.
This is the area of damaged archaeological resources, which allows the
site to be developed and used while maintaining the ongoing site
archaeological excavations. This blend of ongoing archaeology and
daily living history will contribute greatly to both the site’s
successful marketing and educational efforts leading to its economic
success.
3. Interpretive Visitor Center
The only way that the Fort Hawkins site can succeed with any of its
noble ambitions is to have a modern Interpretive Visitor Center.
Such a Center must be a creative complex to accomplish the broad goals
of the Fort Hawkins Commission while fitting the narrow available
space, the ¼ of the city block with the damaged archeological
resources. Despite the successes in archaeolog-
ical research and living history public programs, the site desperately
needs a professional visitor center complex to properly support
such activities and to insure the future success in these areas without
compromising or endangering site safety and security.
The 1930’s replica blockhouse is not such a center in any way, and its
use as such severely limits proper visitor services and collection
conservation. The visitor and the collection are both unsafe and
at peril under the current conditions found at the Fort Hawkins site
today. Little upgrades have been made by the City of Macon since
1951 to improve these conditions, although some improvements were made
as mentioned earlier. Much more is needed to insure the proper
and professional preservation and interpretation of the site. The
successes of the site despite such spartan and stringent conditions
simple amplifies the need for proper visitor services and amenities.
The Fort Hawkins Interpretive Visitor Center will be able to tie in the
elements of the needed ongoing site archaeology and the daily living
history program, the necessary conservation and preservation of the
site’s collection and correct interpretation of the site’s history, and
the critical desire to be a community and educational resource.
The Fort Hawkins Commission has never envisioned that the Fort Hawkins
site should become either a carnival like tourist attraction or a
serious, stuffy museum. This proposed Visitor Center complex will
allow the site to be serious in its historical responsibilities while
still being a fun experience in delivering its services to the public
that is eager for such an engaging and inspiring educational
program. A real hands on history will be practiced at Fort
Hawkins with such a complex to support the effort.
Despite there being only about ¼ of the Fort Hawkins city block
available for development due to the remaining ¾ of the block
being a sensitive archaeological area, the location for such a complex
is evident. The corner of Fort Hill Street and Emery Highway has
been severely damaged archaeologically at least three times with a home
being constructed on the site in the 1920’s, followed by a service
station, and finally with the major paving of Emery Highway and Fort
Hill Street. Today the former service station is being rented as
a van rental business, whose owner wants to relocate to a better
commercial area for his business. This property consists of a two
thousand square foot concrete block building with a brick veneer plus
paved parking that can accommodate presently about fifteen vehicles.
Since the Fort Hawkins site is primarily an archaeological site, this
concrete block structure could be easily adapted into the site’s
archaeological headquarters. There are currently four exterior
doors that reflect the four main components needed to support the
archaeological research: 1) conservation laboratory, 2)
classroom/workshop, 3) fire proof vault, and 4) auditorium /meeting
area. All components are needed to continue the site’s
archaeology without having the artifacts leaving the site for
conservation and research or being stored in the University of Georgia
Vault for safekeeping. All these needs are self evident to
professional archaeologists, and once again, the Fort Hawkins
Commission is fortunate to have the professional services of the LAMAR
Institute to guide this important site development.
The fourth component of the auditorium/meeting area will connect the
Archaeological Headquarters to the main Interpretive Visitor Center
that would be attached to the existing concrete block building to the
left or westward towards Fort Hill Street. This available open
space would provide easy access to the site from Fort Hill Street or
Emery Highway. Although a modern building could accommodate all
the purposes needed, the representative architecture of the Fort
Hawkins era would give the site more of a historic appeal and
contribute directly to the site’s living history program. Macon’s
renowned architectural heritage goes from Native American earthen
creations to aristocratic antebellum homes without displaying a single
log structure, which would reflect Macon’s and America’s real
beginnings.
The Interpretive Visitor Center complex will become the living history
Village of Fort Hawkins from its appearance on Emery Highway, with the
proud crown of the Fort Hawkins palisade wall looming above the village
and with the blockhouse replica standing guard over the whole primitive
but majestic historic scene. The Archaeological Headquarters
would be pine camouflaged with the two story log house constructed to
its left as the main museum interpretive area and a log trading post
constructed to its right as the museum’s Gift Shop/Trading Post/Living
History Headquarters. Hearthstone Log Homes, the company that
recreated Fort King George in Darien for the State of Georgia, has
expressed a great interest in helping rebuild Fort Hawkins, also.
The Tennessee corporate office was keen on sponsoring the rebuilding of
the Fort Hawkins Village and such a sponsorship could lead to national
advertising campaign and expanded interest about this early America
recreation at historic Fort Hawkins.
The main interpretive area will be a two-story log structure that would
allow visitors to exit out a rear second story door onto the actual
fort level. An example of an authentic two story Georgia log
structure is found at the New Echota State Historic Site in Calhoun,
Georgia. The 1805 Vann Tavern (Appendix VII) was originally found
at Chief Vann’s Chattahoochee River ferry crossing and moved to the
Cherokee Capital in the 1950’s when Lake Sidney Lanier flooded the
original ferry crossing. Col. Benjamin Hawkins would have surely
visited this tavern, and although Fort Hawkins was part of the Creek
territory, Hawkins was the “Beloved to the Four Nations.” The
Fort Hawkins Commission has permission to recreate this wonderful
wooden structure in an expanded floor plan to accommodate the site’s
available space and needed visitor and interpretive services.
The first floor of the center (Appendix VIII) would include a lobby and
exhibit area. The main lobby features the visitor services desk,
public bathrooms, introductory fort history exhibits, the bust of Col.
Hawkins, and artwork featuring the fort. The Fort Hawkins
Commission presently has a small collection of fort artwork and should
be complimented for acquiring famed local artist, Sterling Everett, as
the real Fort Hawkins artist. He has committed to a
faithful artistic rendering of the real Fort Hawkins based on the
current archaeological evidence that would grace this area.
However, there are other known major American works of art that feature
Benjamin Hawkins and the Fort Hawkins time period, which could become
part of the permanent collection or could be exhibited
temporarily. Another example of art as an additional asset to
Fort Hawkins is in need of rescue in Macon. In the 1960’s acclaimed
international artist, George Beattie, created a massive and impressive
mural of Macon’s history from the prehistoric past through modern jet
aircraft. Unfortunately, this stunning work of art was done in
the lobby of the Federal Building on College Street, which has been
closed to the public since the 9/11 tragedy and therefore not seen and
barely known about. Preliminary discussions indicate the mural
could be moved with federal funds if a better home could be found, and
since Fort Hawkins is featured prominently (Appendix IX), a better home
would be the lobby of the new Fort Hawkins Visitor Center. The
“Birthplace of Macon” would thereby save and share all of our
community’s history in this stunning artwork. Art will be part of
the celebration at the fort.
Many of the current exhibits that have miraculously survived in the
replica blockhouse are ready now for the new Visitor Center with just
better lighting and presentation and some without much upgrading.
The recent archaeology has uncovered “museum quality” artifacts, and
this new quality Visitor Center will allow them to be removed from the
vault and put on public display. This site development plan will
not delve into any major Comprehensive Interpretive Plan for the
historic site at this time. The future administration of the site
will have a myriad of interpretive and operational decisions and
policies to craft such as a scope of collections, fire making
regulations, and volunteer guidelines. This plan provides a
framework to only accomplish the mission of the Fort Hawkins Commission.
The second floor of the “Vann Tavern” replica will be artifact driven
(Appendix VIII). The original floor plan includes a large room
with two smaller side rooms. There are already more than three
ardent collectors who have offered their fort and native relics for our
display at Fort Hawkins. The guiding light and inspirational
anchor for the current Fort Hawkins Commission, is former Chairman, Dr.
Robert J. Cramer. He has previously stated that his extensive and
exquisite collection of Native American artifacts would one day be
displayed at Fort Hawkins. If this happens, the Fort Hawkins site
could boast of having more Native American artifacts on display than
any other museum in Georgia. This fact could be easily verified
and perhaps even expanded beyond Georgia. This second floor would
be known as “The Dr. Bob Cramer Center For Native American Studies”
with other smaller collections being rotated on a regular basis.
This area will open in the rear directly to the fort level.
The hillside was so severely cut for its 20th century construction,
that a steep red clay cliff surrounds the concrete block service
station building. Therefore, the second floor of the visitor
center will be at the fort level at its rear. Actually, the real
fort level is the upper most terrace, and this site entry is on the
second terrace, which appears to have been an old service road that
could even date to the fort era. Now that the original outline of
the fort is known and therefore the future archeological digs and
palisade reconstruction areas are known, a system of trails may be laid
out to help define the fort and provide a proper pathway for visitors
to visit the fort site. The current landscape is an accident
waiting to happen with its lack of trails and uneven decorative brick
walkway around the blockhouse replica.
The new trail would take the visitor to the blockhouse replica, which
will be completely emptied and cleaned. Due to this replica, the
complete authentic rebuilding of the original Fort Hawkins has always
been problematic, if not really impossible. The Northwest
Blockhouse is equally so, as is the recreation of the entire fort
pending the future archeological discoveries. Nevertheless, the
original outer palisade wall can be reconstructed and thus create an
image of the real Fort Hawkins while maintaining the sensitive
archaeological areas for their on-going research. The replica
blockhouse’s use of those questionable building materials, will now
prove to be an asset once again as the blockhouse’s complete
redevelopment will improve its historical accuracy and visitor
accessibility.
New evidence indicates that the blockhouse never had a first floor
access door.
This stone-enclosed floor is always referred to as a basement, and the
blockhouse would have a ramp access to the third floor, where a door
does appear in the only surviving photograph of the blockhouse.
There was no spiral staircase up the middle of the blockhouse either,
with ladders and pulley hoists in place instead. Even with the
spiral staircase, many visitors to the site are not able to climb up
the second or third floors and thus miss the truly spectacular
panoramic view of the surrounding area – nearly the same view as two
hundred years ago. Most every visitor expresses a desire to get
atop the blockhouse’s nearly five-story crow’s nest for an even more
spectacular vista, although impractical, unsafe and never allowed.
The replica blockhouse will be improved historically and practically
with historic vignettes on the three floors reflecting chores and
duties of the soldiers stationed at Fort Hawkins and a glass elevator
to the crow’s nest to provide the utmost breathtaking view of the
surrounding green countryside, as well as a view of the soldiers’ life
as they go up and down the replica blockhouse. At this time the
site’s “old gun” would be moved to its more historically accurate
location on the second floor of the blockhouse, which will provide the
needed shelter to permanently protect and secure this original fort
artillery piece. This amazing ride through history to the top of Macon
could even become part of the site’s many assets contributing to its
point of destination success. This innovative feature and the
trail system will make the site safe and accessible to everyone.
The visitor’s on site experience continues with the trail leading back
down to the site’s third terrace at the visitor center level for the
site’s living history area that will revolve and evolve around the log
trading post/gift shop attached or near the eastern side of the visitor
center. This would become the fourth trading post known to occupy
the area. The first was begun by the British near the Ocmulgee
Mounds in 1686, which was followed in 1806 when Jonathan Halsted moved
the Factory from Fort Wilkinson to Fort Hawkins, establishing it
amongst the mounds. The Factory, or trading post, was not moved
to Fort Hawkins until 1809, and its location has not been conclusively
verified or even determined to be within the palisade wall. Thus
a Trading Post/Gift Shop would be quite appropriate in this location,
and its architectural details could combine the history of all previous
trading posts.
The first additions to the Trading Post would no doubt be a lean-to
Blacksmith Shop or Carpenter’s Shed since blacksmithing and carpentry
were basic and needed skills with both the Ocmulgee Blacksmith Guild
and Middle Georgia Woodworkers Association having expressed a desire to
participate in the site’s daily living history program. Other log
structures could be built in this same area along the hillside
separating the site’s second and third terraces as the site’s living
history skills expand into the Village of Fort Hawkins. The
Muscogee Creek Nation has already been invited by the Fort Hawkins
Commission to help recreate an authentic Creek log house to dispel the
myth of tepees at Fort Hawkins. As the living history village
expands, so will the site’s educational services and gift shop
sales. The site’s gift shop would carry historical items from the
living history, the standard souvenir items and unique fort related
memorabilia. Such a living history program, with demonstrations
and classes, and such a site resale program, with arts, crafts, and
souvenirs, will both contribute greatly to the site’s success as an
economic generator.
This third terrace level of the site will also provide additional
parking and resource enhancement. This is the level where the
former asphalt basketball courts for the Fort Hawkins School are found
along with the school’s stone reflecting pool. The former courts
will easily convert into an immediate gravel parking area that would
accommodate over eighty vehicles. The former reflecting pool will
be restored with the help of the Fort Hawkins School alumni.
Their school will not be forgotten and will be remembered in both
exhibits and the restoration of their “wading pool” around which May
Day activities always took place. This pool restoration, upkeep,
and development could become another successful fund raising
stream. The reflecting image of Fort Hawkins will prove a popular
meditative and photographic area for the site. This area is
easily accessed from the current service station property with a
minimum of landscaping needed to connect this and all of the site
together.
This reflecting pool and parking area should become the logical
location for the placement of site memorials such as benches and
plaques with the Fort Hawkins School alumni leading this memorial
effort. These memorials will help commemorate local history and
may aid in site fund raising efforts. Several known but
endangered historical monuments should be moved to Fort Hawkins for
better protection and public exposure. At the end of Emery
Highway at Gray Highway there is a metal marker imbedded in the
sidewalk of an abandoned car dealership that remembers Gen. Emery, our
road’s namesake, as being the Commander of Camp Wheeler during World
War II. The camp was located at the very opposite end of Emery
Highway and was an important U.S. Army training camp in both World
Wars, with many local family ties to this day. This obvious
interpretive link to our 1806 U.S. Army Fort Hawkins, would insure the
preservation of the Gen. Emery Historic Marker, the memory of Camp
Wheeler, and the support of more military families in middle Georgia.
Another historic marker is less endangered, but is still in a
potentially precarious location. In the parking area of the
Baconsfield McDonalds (the donors of the replica blockhouse’s current
big orange exhibits), there is a large stone on the corner of busy Gray
Highway that bears a metal plaque remembering Gen. James Oglethorpe’s
(the founder of the colony of Georgia in 1733) camping in the “Old
Fields” on his way to meet and treat with the Muscogee Creeks.
This amazing yet locally unknown historical fact would be better
promoted and protected at the Fort Hawkins site and once again relates
to the site’s military and Native American history. There are
also a couple of Federal Road historic markers and memorials that could
likewise be better served at Fort Hawkins.
The development of such a vibrant Interpretive Visitor Center complex
with its connecting trails and living history village around the
historic Fort Hawkins with its ongoing archaeology research reflects
the bigger reality of Fort Hawkins that was apparent in 1806.
Although known as the birthplace of Macon, Fort Hawkins was much, much
more than a local phenomenon because its significance was felt on a
broader regional and national scale. Likewise, the Fort Hawkins
Interpretive Visitor Center complex will reflect not only the brief but
glorious period that the fort was in existence, but also shed light on
its larger context as part of U.S. History and its impact on Macon and
Middle Georgia even to this day.
4. Phased Property Acquisition
Although the majority of the original Fort Hawkins property was
eventually purchased by the City of Macon to allow the needed
archaeological research to commence, this research has revealed that
there is little area left for site development except for the ¼
of the fort city block that has been previously identified. This
requires the additional purchase of the remaining corner lot of the
city block currently owned by Rev. Lonzy Edwards and rented out to the
Hollingshed Van Rental Company. The acquisition of this critical
property will be needed to implement this site development plan.
This would be Phase One of the Fort Hawkins Phased Property Acquisition
plan (Appendix X) that will open the site to the public. This
plan also provides a blueprint for the adjacent property around the
Fort Hawkins city block. This plan provides for the recommended
development of this immediate area around the fort block. Due to
the City of Macon’s commitment since 1951 to improve and protect Fort
Hawkins, the Fort Hawkins Commission requests that the City continue to
honor this commitment even after the site opens to the public.
The Fort Hawkins property currently is part of the City’s official park
green space, and the adjacent properties should also contribute towards
this green space, as they contribute towards the betterment of Fort
Hawkins and the improvement of the surrounding neighborhood.
Phase Two includes the two city blocks of vacant lots across Woolfolk
Street from the fort property running from Fort Hill Street to Maynard
Street with Smith Street bisecting the two. At times these lots
are more qualified to be considered “abandoned and neglected,” but
there are infrequent basic lot cleanups and there is a small home
facing Maynard Street on that end of the block. The need for some
archaeological research in this area, as in all of this adjacent land,
is mentioned in Phase 5 of the site’s archaeological plan. The Fort
Hawkins Commission has long desired to create a neighborhood park in
this area that would include picnic tables, barbeque grills, and a
children’s playground. Being outside of the fort block, this park
would always be available for the fort’s neighbors, school visitors,
and site picnickers. This phase could be expedited with funding
from the Economic & Community Development Department and could be
maintained by the Friends of Fort Hawkins and the Fort Hawkins
Neighborhood Association.
Phase Three includes the property across Fort Hill Street from the fort
and is bounded by Church Street and Emery Highway. Currently
there are three houses on this property facing Fort Hill Street.
The owner of two is willing now to move despite his long standing
devotion to Fort Hawkins and the larger house, c. 1860 with its twin
double flue chimneys, has been partially restored and sold to an
Atlanta family. This property could serve several purposes from
additional site parking along Emery Highway to the houses becoming an
archaeological “bed & breakfast” development based on the
successful Topper Model in South Carolina. There is an even more
important aspect to this property that would link the fort’s history to
the Ocmulgee Heritage Trail and to the very downtown of the city it
“birthed.”
Church Street sits at an odd angle against the general city grid, and
for very good reason (Appendix IV). Church Street was part of the
beginning of the first Federal Road in America that eventually
connected Washington, D.C. to New Orleans. Fort Hawkins was the
very beginning of this new road allowed by the Creeks for Col. Hawkins
to lay out along their Lower Creek Trading Path. Church Street
turns into Main Street in East Macon and continues to follow the
original ancient Creek Trading Path and first Federal Road in the new
nation. It became the first postal route in the nation and
supplied troops for Jackson’s victories at the Battle of New Orleans
and for his victories in the Creek and Seminole Wars. It was the
gateway to the western frontier in 1806, and that frontier would
disappear in 1821. The birth of Macon would follow in 1823 on the
western side of the Ocmulgee, with Cotton Avenue becoming a reminder of
the earlier Federal Road.
Even though Fort Hawkins is not presently a part of the Ocmulgee
Heritage Trail Master Plan, NewTown Macon officials have expressed
great interest in bringing the trail up to Fort Hawkins. Under
the current conditions found at Fort Hawkins site, it is no wonder that
the site was not included in this Master Plan, but the recent Fort
Hawkins Commission successes and plans have stimulated this new
interest. Once the site is open to the public, the fort will be a
worthy inclusion on the Ocmulgee Heritage Trail, with a nearly ready
made 200 year old plus route. If the trail’s expansion to the new
Waterworks Park was worth a $5 million plus grant, such an expansion to
Fort Hawkins could include cable car rides up the steep hill and a
miniature replica of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis to commemorate the
1806 Gateway on the Ocmulgee River.
Phase 4 and Phase 5, which follow the fort property across Maynard
Street (4) and across Emery Highway (5), are designated for additional
parking and buffers for the historic site. The original Fort
Hawkins included a nearly one hundred-acre area, but the site could
never reestablish such an area in today’s urban environment.
However, Phase 6, covers all of the remaining adjacent fort property as
well as the entire East Macon/Fort Hill Historic Districts, thus
encompassing more of the original fort area and ancient “Old
Fields.” Any positive neighborhood redevelopment to continue the
improvements begun at Fort Hawkins would be welcomed and encouraged,
and the Fort Hawkins Commission has invited the Muscogee Creek Nation
to consider creating a new official twenty fourth Creek community in
East Macon/Fort Hill and developing a living history Creek village and
Creek Cultural Center in their ancestral “Old Fields.” Such a
possibility would forever improve the quality of life in Macon and
Middle Georgia and no doubt make Col. Hawkins proud and pleased at our
efforts in returning the Creek Nation back to their original home and
redirecting those federal funds here.
These six phases of property acquisition will the Fort Hawkins site to
open to the public with the needed site improvements and provide a way
for the adjacent property to develop in a beneficial way for the Fort
Hawkins historic site and the surrounding neighborhood. This plan
provides for site protection and complimentary development that will
lead to more development in the East Macon/Fort Hill area. This
phased approach will not burden the City of Macon with any one time
large property acquisition and it is hoped that the city’s financial
burden may be lifted by trading out city parcels of land in lieu of
purchasing and/or condemning these targeted properties around Fort
Hawkins.
SITE RECOMMENDATIONS
This site development plan thus far has detailed the way the Fort
Hawkins historical resources will best be utilized, but the Fort
Hawkins Commission has always maintained a desire to see the site
become a thriving community resource beyond its important role as a
historical and educational resource.
The Fort Hawkins site will achieve this status by being proactive in
its public outreach. This will be accomplished by providing a
place for groups like our partners, the Ocmulgee Archaeological
Society, to meet and work, encouraging other such groups to cultivate
such partnerships. After school programs with the Burdell-Hunt
Elementary, located only two blocks away, could be offered and the
school being a Media Magnet School could partner with Fort Hawkins with
such media programs as the History Channel’s “Save Our History.”
Fort Hawkins could become a center for adult literacy and
English/Spanish speaking classes reflecting its original history and
current commitment to the community. Various Senior and youth
services could help expand the efforts of the nearby Rosa Jackson
Community Center. The site’s living history program and area could
create a unique rental opportunity for youth birthdays, company
picnics, family reunions, school reunions, and other social and
celebratory events. Most historic sites have learned to increase
their revenue stream with an active rental opportunity program and Fort
Hawkins will become such a unique rental resource.
Fort Hawkins benefited from the involvement of local boy scouts in the
1960’s and 70’s and that opportunity will be extended again. Fort
Hawkins is the actual brand of the Central Georgia Council of the Boy
Scouts of America on their proud shoulder patch and one of their
popular camps is named after Benjamin Hawkins. Their current
Scout Executive, Bob Boyd, was one of those scouts touring folks around
the replica blockhouse in the 1970’s and he has already committed a
professional and official bond with local scouting and the fort.
This will provide an expanded base of site volunteers and improved
public programs as well as a place for the scouts to earn merit badges
and offer their community service. The Fort Hawkins site could even
sponsor its own Scout Troops.
The Fort Hawkins site could and should be utilized by all local
patriotic and veteran groups in their own public programming and in
holding special community events at the site. This will allow the
fort’s past patriotism to be applied in today’s world and provide a
place for these patriotic organizations to promote their goals and
needs. Likewise local and national military groups from high
school R.O.T.C. units to major U.S. Army museums, along with re-enactor
soldiers from the War of 1812 and active duty U.S. Army soldiers, will
be invited to participate in Fort Hawkins site activities. Developing
positive relations with patriotic and veterans groups along with
reconnecting with the U.S. Army will further benefit Fort Hawkins in
bigger and better ways with site programming and fund raising.
These military roots could and should become a major site asset.
Fort Hawkins will further benefit by this proactive public outreach and
partnership cultivation by visiting and bonding with the many
historical sites that relate directly to the Fort Hawkins time period
and heritage such as the original Federal Road Sites towards
Washington, D.C. and towards New Orleans, which will include Fort
Mitchell in Alabama. Other such Fort Hawkins era recreated forts
to partner with would be Fort Smith, Arkansas and Fort Osage, Missouri,
which became the westernmost U.S. Fort & Factory while Fort Hawkins
was the easternmost. The Muscogee Creek Nation has been told that we
will be visiting them as well as other “Trail of Tears” memorials.
Coastal Georgia offers a variety of historical forts with a variety of
funding sources that need to be studied and visited include: Fort
Jackson, Savannah (c. 1808), privately operated by the Coastal Heritage
Society; Fort King George, Darien (c. 1736), State Historic Site; Fort
Frederica, St. Simons Island (c. 1736), National Monument; and Fort
Point Peter, St. Marys (c. 1790), Cumberland Island National
Seashore. All of the above named seven forts are examples of the
success Fort Hawkins expects and their experiences will be invaluable
to our efforts. All of these other fort successes are part of the
present inspiration felt by the Fort Hawkins Commission, as well as
part of its quiet desperation in getting Fort Hawkins properly opened,
promoted, and preserved.
Likewise, once Fort Hawkins has the proper facilities to support the
programs that are planned for the site, a multitude of living history
groups will want to partner with the historic site in bringing history
alive. Company A, 7th Regiment of U.S. Infantry Living History
Association and Forsyth’s Rifle Regiment are just two of many War of
1812 Re-enactors that need to be reminded of the war’s southern theater
at Fort Hawkins. The Coalition of Historical Trekkers should
become involved with their dedication in sharing through living history
their civilian side of the fort era. The Association of Living
Historical Farms & Agricultural Museums (ALHFAM) has an
international reputation in promoting and developing all living history
sites and will obviously want to partner with Fort Hawkins. Fort
Hawkins will become partners with the local Macon Arts Roundtable and
the statewide Georgia Association of Museums & Galleries
(GMAG). There are many more such groups and organizations that
Fort Hawkins will partner with to provide the grant support that the
Fort Hawkins project deserves and can finally administer with a proper
support facility.
The Fort Hawkins Commission has already partnered successfully with a
number of individuals and groups in a variety of ways that have
benefited Fort Hawkins presently, but with the proper support
facilities as outlined in this site development plan, these benefits
will improve and increase exponentially. Nevertheless, despite
such facilities, the Commission can be proud of these successful
partnerships as seen in the growth of the Friends of Fort
Hawkins. The Friends support group as of this date totals over
180 memberships equating to several hundred individuals and reflecting
a broad base of community support on a local and regional effort
including students and senior citizens, youth groups and patriotic
groups, Lifetime members and generous in-kind sponsors. Among the
groups are the statewide Colonial Dames of America and the statewide
Daughters of the War 1812 along with several individual chapters of the
Daughters of the American Revolution and several Middle Georgia
historical groups.
The Friends of Fort Hawkins have partnered with the Keep Macon Bibb
Beautiful Commission in their “Adopt-A-Spot” program and sponsor four
cleanups and picnics a year around the Fort Hawkins city block.
Signs on Fort Hill Street and Maynard Street proclaim this partnership
and these efforts to improve our historic neighborhood. Fort
Hawkins will help spread this wonderful public program to continue the
improvements in our worthy but needy neighborhood.
The Friends of Fort Hawkins have also had two receptions at Macon’s
Sidney Lanier Cottage, as a partner with the Historic Macon Foundation,
and have recently produced a handsome new Friends brochure that
promotes this crucial support group and the fort history. The
brochure is distributed at public programs, the Blockhouse Replica,
Macon City Hall, Burdell-Hunt Elementary School, Ocmulgee National
Monument, Sidney Lanier Cottage, and the new Downtown Macon Welcome
Center operated by the Macon – Bibb County Convention & Visitors
Bureau (MBCCVB).
Fort Hawkins has partnered with the MBCCVB with the development of this
impressive $3 million Welcome Center’s exhibits. Fort Hawkins is
boldly portrayed in both the promotional video and the wall length
montage of Macon’s history. The MBCCVB has also made the
development of Fort Hawkins as one of their three main goals for 2008
and recently placed the Fort Hawkins Commission Chairman on the Tourism
Attraction Committee. The “Point of Destination Tourist
Attraction For Macon: A Feasibility Assessment” prepared for the Macon
Chamber of Commerce in 1988 by Davidson-Peterson Associates, Inc.
touted the benefits of living history and authentic historical
recreations with a suggested “arts and crafts festival park . . .
designed to impress visitors with total ambience and
environment.” The MBCCVB knows that this will be Fort Hawkins.
Other distinguished groups have been part of the fort’s developing
partnerships throughout the state and locally. The Society of
Georgia Archaeology held its spring state convention in 2007 at Fort
Hawkins and featured a national speaker, Dr. Jim Johnson, who spoke on
“Traces of Heritage Along the Ocmulgee and the Hudson Rivers.”
His talk highlighted the potential for the Fort Hawkins project to this
illustrious group of archaeologists. The Georgia Historical
Society and the Fort Hawkins Commission co-sponsored the funding and
erection in fall of 2007 of an official Fort Hawkins State Historic
Marker, whose dedication was the largest ever witnessed by the GHS due
to the participation of the entire 500+ Burdell-Hunt Elementary School
student body. The U.S. Army also participated in the event
marking their first return to their former fort since the 1820’s
(although some were now believed to be on the site in 1865).
The KMBBC, the entire Burdell-Hunt Elementary School, the Bibb Board of
Education, the Georgia Forestry Commission, and the Fort Hawkins
Commission joined forces for another impressive public program at Fort
Hawkins with the annual Georgia Arbor Day Celebration in 2007.
Partnering later with the BBOE, Fort Hawkins hopes to see every 4th or
5th grader in Bibb County visit the site each year. Partnering
later with the GFC, Fort Hawkins may help relocate their official State
Forestry Museum now remotely located at the very end of Emery Highway
after it becomes the Riggins Mill Road and even more remotely known to
exist. The Howard Bennett Forestry Museum needs immediate rescue
and relocation near Fort Hawkins on Emery Highway, creating three
substantial historical and educational attractions along this corridor
and contribute more economic stimulus along this depressed roadway. The
connection of Fort Hawkins’ time period to forestry and trees is
obvious.
Fort Hawkins has been truly blessed to have real fiscal partners
already established. When the Fort Hawkins Commission began its
fund raising efforts in earnest in 2003 a providential decision was
made to allow the Community Foundation of Central Georgia, rather than
the City of Macon, to manage and protect the funds generated for the
Fort Hawkins Commission. This provided the Fort Hawkins
Commission with an immediate 501(c) 3 status and their professional
management and wise counsel have benefited the fort’s fund raising
efforts immensely and helped demonstrate the fiscal responsibility of
the Fort Hawkins Commission. The Friends of Fort Hawkins, by
their various memberships, have contributed to the financial well being
of the Fort Hawkins project, but several major contributors have
enhanced this well being many fold.
The Nathaniel Macon Chapter NSDAR has not only been the organization
that has provided the foundation and backbone to remember Fort Hawkins
over the years, but also they continue to contribute significantly to
site programs and fund raising efforts. Likewise, the Macon Town
Committee and Georgia Colonial Dames of America have contributed
greatly in helping fund the site’s archaeology. Local businessman,
David Walsh, made such impressive contributions to sponsor two Fort
Hawkins Car Shows in downtown Macon, that despite being a free event to
the public, it has become the most successful fundraiser for Fort
Hawkins. Wal-Mart has contributed $4000 in Community Grants to
Fort Hawkins to support our free public programming allowing us to
improve and expand these programs. This has allowed the Fort Hawkins
Commission to not only offer a very ambitious public program schedule
(Appendix XI), but also these fund raising efforts have demonstrated
the Commission’s ability to raise funds and spend them wisely.
However, the Fort Hawkins Commission must recognize its most important
partners who have shaped the site’s past and hopefully future
developments. They are the City of Macon, the Peyton
Anderson Foundation, and NewTown Macon. The city has supplied
electricity, water, roofing, and minor repairs in maintaining the
Blockhouse Replica since 1951. The city partnered with the Peyton
Anderson Foundation and NewTown Macon in acquiring the majority of the
Fort Hawkins city block. Peyton Anderson and NewTown have been
instrumental in funding the site’s archaeology, the site’s security
fence, and the site’s new “old gun.” Without these three
partnering entities, all the progress that the Fort Hawkins site has
made thus far would never have happened. The site’s progress and
successes have now led to this site development plan and this critical
juncture in the fort’s history.
To accomplish this site development plan a $3.5 million capital outlay
fund is needed as detailed in Appendix XII. This figure includes
$500,000 for capital funding that would prepare the Interpretive
Visitor Center for the site opening to the public. One million is
allocated for Site Archaeology that would develop the archaeological
headquarters and continue the important site archaeological
research. One million is allocated for Site Development that
would complete the site’s improvements such as the two Blockhouses,
Palisade Wall, Trading Post, and support services like security and
lighting. One million is allocated for Site Endowment that will
provide the needed operational and administrative funds to keep the
site open to the public and keep the lights turned on. It should
be noted that there are significant funds set aside for grant
enhancement and it is the intention of using this $3.5 million to
develop and open the site as well as to attract and raise more
revenue. Fort Hawkins will not depend solely on this initial $3.5
million investment, but will immediately develop a multitude of revenue
streams as indicated in this site development plan to insure the site’s
future.
This seems such a relatively small investment for such a tremendous
return in so many ways as detailed in this site development plan.
A creative public-private partnership could deliver this site
development plan immediately without becoming a burden upon the City of
Macon and allowing the site to open and prove its worth in the many
ways outlined in this site development plan. The Fort Hawkins
Commission would not want the site to become a burden on the local,
state, or national park systems and therefore envisions the fort site
becoming an independent historic site. The Fort Hawkins
Commission recognizes that as its mission is accomplished, a new entity
will be needed to oversee the continued preservation and interpretation
of this valuable historic site. Whether the site becomes the Fort
Hawkins Historic Park, Inc. or the Fort Hawkins Trading Company or the
Fort Hawkins Development Authority, the Fort Hawkins Commission has
earned a place in this transition.
The financial plan that would implement this site development would
partner the City of Macon with one or more of the fort’s philanthropic
friends to create this new governing entity and thus secure the fort’s
promising future. The City of Macon would first pledge to raise
the needed $3.5 million for the fort’s development through grants and
other qualified programs but not from the city budget, which needs all
the help it can get and will not be impacted by the fort funding.
This will take a concerted effort with the Mayor and City Council, with
the leadership of the City Council President and Community Resources
& Development Committee Chairman, to create an official City
Resolution to that effect. The City of Macon will also continue
to offer limited in-kind services to the fort and continue to implement
the site’s Phased Property Acquisition.
With the City of Macon pledging to raise the needed $3.5 million, the
Fort Hawkins Commission will then contact the fort’s philanthropic
friends to match this $3.5 million with an immediate grant, or loan, to
get the fort site open and running as outlined in this site development
plan. These requested funds would be administered by the
Community Foundation of Central Georgia and the funding entity would
define the new operating authority for the Fort Hawkins site. The
Fort Hawkins Commission members who wish to continue their service
would be asked to participate, which would include members from the
public and private sector. This new governing authority would
answer directly to the funding source or its designee and indirectly
answer to the public every day with its educational and enjoyable site
programming. The rich early American heritage found at Fort
Hawkins deserves the very best, and this plan will finally
professionally preserve, promote, and interpret this exciting history
in an engaging, interactive, multidiscipline presentation.
CONCLUSION
Fort Hawkins is now ready, willing, and able, as demonstrated in this
site development plan, to be opened to the public as one of the finest
and most innovative historic sites in America. Macon and Middle
Georgia deserve no less as Fort Hawkins joins the illustrious cultural
attractions in our area, and begins to contribute to boosting the
area’s cultural and heritage tourism. Fort Hawkins will be much
more as detailed in this site development plan, contributing even more
to the local economy and quality of life with its educational
programming and community involvement. Fort Hawkins will further
contribute to more local pride.
The Fort Hawkins Commission has proven it can be a faithful steward in
developing, protecting, and promoting the site and has patiently waited
for this very moment to elevate Fort Hawkins preservation and promotion
to the professional level the historic site so richly deserves and the
neighborhood so desperately needs.
The Fort Hawkins Commission has waited for this moment to offer the
wisest uses for the Fort Hawkins property. The long
awaited archaeological research has provided enough information to
guide the site’s needed development and future preservation. This
research has helped rekindle the interest and support of the proud
heritage found at Fort Hawkins, one of America’s forgotten forts from a
nearly forgotten time period. This site development plan reflects an
equally proud present with a daily celebration of early American and
Native American life at a real frontier fort, while also daily
celebrating historical archaeology and the living history
experience. It’s about time for Fort Hawkins to regain its
rightful prominence in local, regional, and national history.
It’s about time for Fort Hawkins to become the community resource it
could and should be and begin to contribute more to the betterment of
Macon and Middle Georgia. It’s all about time – the proud past,
present, and future of Fort Hawkins.
Marty Willett, Fort Hawkins Commission Chairman, March 27, 2008
APPENDICES
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I.
Federal Road Maps
II.
Selected Fort Hawkins Histories
III. Fort Hawkins
Topography
IV. Fort Hawkins Block
V.
National Park Service Loan Agreement
VI.
Blockhouse Replica Inventory
VII. Vann Tavern and Fort Site
Position
VIII. Tavern Floor Plan and Visitor
Center Plan
IX.
Beattie Mural with Fort Hawkins
X. Phased Property Acquisition Map
XI. Public Program Schedule
XII.
Capital Outlay Budget
Appendix I.
FEDERAL ROAD MAPS
Appendix II.
SELECTED FORT HAWKINS HISTORIES
1.
Anderson, Nancy B.; 1979; Macon – A Pictorial History
2. Butler, John C.;
1879; Historical Record of Macon and Central Georgia
3.
Comer, Harriet; 1923 w/ 1999 edit; Macon – The First One Hundred Years
4.
Carrillo, Richard F.; 1971; Exploratory Excavations at Fort Hawkins,
Macon Georgia: an Early Nineteenth Century Military Outpost
5.
DeVorsey, L., Jr. and J.C. Waters; 1973; UGA “Fort Hawkins Study”
6. Elliott, Daniel T.;
2007; Fort Hawkins History and Archaeology
7.
Etheridge, Robbie; 2003; Creek Country – The Creek Indians and Their
World
8.
Hawkins, Benjamin; 2003 edit by H. Thomas Foster II; The Collected
Works of Benjamin Hawkins, 1796-1810
9.
Holland, F. Ross; 1970; NPS “Fort Hawkins Frontier Fort, Ocmulgee
National Monument”
10.
Klingelhofer, Eric and Tom Scott, Douglas Steeples; 1996; MU
“Preliminary Findings Toward A Civic Dialogue Concerning the
Restoration of Fort Hawkins”
11. Knight, Lucian Lamar; 1914;
“Fort Hawkins – The Cradle of Macon”
12. Long, Catherine; 2007; “More
Than A Fort –SGA Lesson Plan #10”
13.
McKay, John J.; 1966; “Fort Hawkins – Wilderness Stronghold”
14.
Mattison, Ray. H.;1946; GHQ “The Creek Trading Post: From Colerain to
Fort Hawkins”
15.
Wilcox, Dianne Dent; 1999; Fort Hawkins and Frontier Georgia, 2nd
Edition – Southeast America’s 19th Century Peoples, Places and
Personalities
16. Willey, Gordon R.; 1936;
“Report of Fort Hawkins Excavations”
17. Young, Ida and Julius Gholson,
Clara Nell Hargrove; 1950; History of Macon, Georgia
Appendix III.
FORT HAWKINS TOPOGRAPHY
Appendix IV.
FORT HAWKINS BLOCK
Appendix V.
FORT HAWKINS NATIONAL PARK SERVICE LOAN AGREEMENT
page 2 NPS
Appendix VI.
BLOCKHOUSE REPLICA INVENTORY
1. Glass Case Collection
1. “Items Found By Archeologist Near Fort Hawkins” w/ 27 items
2. “Trading Post” exhibit w/ 28 items
3. “Village of Fort Hawkins” exhibit w/ 50+ items
4. “Native Americans” exhibit w/ 60 items
5. “Fort Hawkins Community Memorabilia” exhibit w/ 35 items
6. ”Fort Hawkins Papers” exhibit w/ 32 items
7. Framed Collection
1. Jonathan Halsted Family History
2. Old Fields map
3. Early Georgia Map
4. Ocmulgee National Monument
5. Antique Macon City Flag
6. DAR Georgia Map & WWI Veterans Tribute
7. Daughters of War 1812 Veterans Plaque
8. Blockhouse Replica Photograph
9. Fort artwork by Dianne Wilcox
10. Fort artwork “Macon – Then & Now” by Anni Moller
11. Battle of Autossee/ 2007 Archaeology Month Poster
12. Star spangled banner reproduction
13. Enlarged Irvine Illustration
14. Col. Benjamin Hawkins profile
15. Map of today’s Muscogee Creek Nation
16. Muscogee Creek Nation Facts
17. Indian Springs Hotel
18. Fort Oil Painting by Dr. Bob Cramer
19. “Indian Cession In Georgia” Map by Dr. Bob Cramer
20. Fort artwork by student Sarah Gegogeine
21. Bird Effigy Pipe (orange)
22. The First Indians (orange)
23. Great Temple Mound (orange)
24. Ocmulgee National Monument & Fort Hawkins on wood
25. “Indians” w/ three photographs
26. “Settlers” w/ three photographs
27. “Fort Hawkins – Where It All Began” by Alix Anderson
28. Fort Hawkins rendering by Russell Claxton
29. July 4th 2002 china shard collection of Meghan Reich (9)
30. Lafayette Meets George Washington print
8. Fort Model and School Project Collection
1. Ten fort models displayed
2. Ten school projects displayed
9. Fort Furniture
1. Four primitive benches
2. Four blue metal chairs
3. Four folding tables
4. Halstead Desk
5. Brass Easel
6. Small Storage Cabinet
7. Portable 10’ X 10’ tent
10. Temporary Exhibits
1. Fort Artifact Surface Collection with 1600+ items on 1st floor
2. Plexiglas fort photos and drawings on 1st floor
3. Fort “Cornerstone: exhibit on 1st floor
4. 1971 Dig blueprint on 1st floor
5. Fort Hawkins School exhibit on 1st floor
6. Soldier’s Life on 2nd floor
7. Storytelling Area on 3rd floor
8. Three scrapbooks (2 FHC & 1 DAR)
9. Three Fort Promotions (2 books & 1 calendar)
10. SGA Conference Fort Exhibits
11. “Columbia 6-pounder Cannon” text & 6-pound cannonball
12. KMBBC/CBF Crystal Bowl 2007 Environmental Award to FHC
13. Resale Items
11. Other Fort Items
1. Bust of Benjamin Hawkins
2. Creek Indian mannequin
3. Large Cast Iron Wash Pot
4. Modern Macon City Flag
5. Large Fort Conjecture on wood
12. Outside Items
1. Original fort six pounder brass cannon “Old Gun”
2. Fort Hawkins State Historic Marker
3. Three wooden picnic tables
4. “Fort Hawkins 1806” routed sign on Emery Highway
5. Fort Hawkins local contact metal sign on Woolfolk Street
6. “Adopt-A-Spot” signs on Fort Hill & Maynard
Streets
7. Three outdoor flags w/ one w/ 15 stars
8. Rented Portable Toilet and Hand Washing Machine
Appendix VII.
1805 VANN TAVERN AND FORT SITE POSITION
Appendix VI.
VANN TAVERN FLOOR PLAN & VISITOR CENTER PLAN
Appendix IX.
BEATTIE MURAL WITH FORT HAWKINS
Appendix X.
PHASED PROPERTY ACQUISITION MAP
Appendix XI.
PUBLIC PROGRAM SCHEDULE
Appendix XII.
CAPITAL OUTLAY BUDGET
1