Fort Benjamin Hawkins

Fort Benjamin Hawkins

Fort Hawkins was a fort built in 1806-1809 in the historic Creek Nation by the United States government under President Thomas Jefferson and used until 1821. Built in what is now Georgia at the Fall Line on the east side of the Ocmulgee River, the fort overlooked the sacred ancient earthwork mounds of the Ocmulgee Old Fields, now known as the Ocmulgee National Monument, and the Lower Creek Pathway. A trading settlement and later the European-American city of Macon, Georgia developed because of the fort. During this period, the fort was important to the Creek Nation, the United States and the state of Georgia for economic, military and political reasons.

The fort originally had a tall log palisade surrounding a 1- 2-acre (8,100 m2) complex. It had living and working quarters as well as two blockhouses on diagonal corners. A replica of the southeast blockhouse was constructed in 1938 after an archeological survey excavations showed the appropriate site. It has become an icon of Macon. The Fort Hawkins Archeological Site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is included within the boundaries of the Fort Hill Historic District, also listed on the NRHP.

The Fort Hawkins Commission directed archeological excavations in 2005-2007, which found evidence of a second palisade on the site as well as several brick buildings. In addition, the work recovered nearly 40,000 artifacts, indicating a more complex history of Native American and European-American interaction than had been known. Historical research by the archeology team has also added to new knowledge about the fort, its characteristics and significance. In 2008 the Commission completed a Master Plan for development of the site, eventually to include reconstruction of the entire fort complex. It will display and interpret the thousands of artifacts found at the site, which represent the many tribes of American Indians and pioneer European Americans whose lives met in the area through complex trading and living relationships. Excavations are continuing at the fort site.