June 2021, a turnaround date for Fort Jefferson Park. The Ohio Historical Connection hired Darke County Parks to manage the site. The new facelift started with the removal of the vandalized, hazardous, foul-smelling 80-year-old outhouses. Trip hazards were removed from the abandoned well house, and the broken-ramp was replaced.
A nice temporary porta john is located next to the abandoned well house. It is a convenient, sensible location. The torn-up parking lot was repaved. The wobbly picnic tables and benches in the shelter house were repaired. A stone was replaced in the monument and volunteers cleaned the brass plaque so it could be read again. Volunteers also cleaned the food tables, at the barbeque pits, which had years of built-up lichen. Old unreadable signage was removed and new signs are pending approval. OHC paved the east utility road. Broken-up concrete and brick trip hazards were removed. Dead branches were trimmed, and now the park is being nicely maintained.
The Friends of Fort Jefferson purchased the 17-acre farm adjacent to and south of the 6-acre park. This farm was part of the original fort grounds. Some of St. Clair’s army camped on this ground and 12 soldiers were killed while making hay for winter feed for horses on this ground. It was hoped FOFJ could add this property to the park and tear down the fence dividing them. Eventually, a note-worthy historic trail could be established on both properties. Way in the future, possibly a replica of Mrs. Wilkinson’s house, which was built inside the fort, could be placed on the new property and used as an interpretive center.
A team of researchers started gathering as much Fort Jefferson history as they could find. We now have enough stories to publish on a regular basis. Many articles are original and have never been told before. Wayne’s Historical Research Group, an amateur group of volunteers from all over Ohio, began doing metal detecting and exploratory archaeology investigations on the fort’s surrounding areas with the landowner’s permission. Their intriguing findings support and sometimes expand the knowledge of Fort Jefferson’s history.
FOFJ received a low-interest loan at 3.2% for four years to buy the property. They are on their last year of that loan. No grant could be found to help buy the property. Interest rates have more than doubled since the loan was taken out and something good needs to happen soon or the farm will be lost due to new higher interest rates.
We raised Jimmy Red corn on the farm this year and Bears Mill is now selling GMO-free Red corn meal to help raise money. We will try to sell it on-line and also some as seed. We may be able to sell some Jimmy Red corn to a distillery.
FOFJ are here to stay and plan to continue writing the history of the area. There are many volunteers helping to write that history. The park is in good hands with DCP’s management. We have done three archaeology investigations on our new 17 acre property with the help of Wayne’s Legion Research Group of volunteers and hope to do another next year. Those findings have been published, and will be shared on this site in the near future.
Ultimately, our goal is to use Ft. Jefferson to tell the remarkable history of this area. We think it could be common ground and tell both sides of the conflict that is being forgotten. We would like to tell the history correctly. Unfortunately, the indigenous people have not had much say in how their side is told. We hope to correct that mistake.