Tuesday’s ride to the Maria Creek cemetery started from Rosedale. From the county histories in the library, I learned that some of the inspiration to settle in Parke County had come from soldiers who had been part of the force that went with William Henry Harrison to break up the Tecumseh/Tenskwatawa confederacy at Prophetstown. While on the march, they got a look at the country. They later told their friends about it, and their stories inspired some of the first settlers.

One of the routes north from Fort Harrison at present-day Terre Haute was probably along what is now the Rosedale Road, which is the road I took from Rosdale to Terre Haute. It was fine for riding. While doing it, I decided that I need to make a collection of all the specific accounts of War of 1812 soldiers who got a look at new parts of Indiana while on the march, and then came back to settle at the earliest opportunity. One such, up in Elkhart County, is one of my Black Hawk war scare sites.

Near the north end of Terre Haute there is a Fort Harrison drive. Delorme Street Atlas showed that Fort Harrison was near the west end of it, next to the Wabash River. I wasn’t sure what I was going to find when I got there. Would there be a historic park with visitor center? Or was it even marked?

When I got to the end of Fort Harrison road, I found nothing except no trespassing signs and a gated community. (I had ridden past a historical marker where it crosses Hwy 41.) I rode back to a house where a couple of guys had been in the yard, watching over some kids. One of them knew about Fort Harrison. He said I could just follow the gravel path and ignore the signs, or I could go in to the Elks Club. Fort Harrison was behind the dumpsters, he said, and it was pretty overgrown.

So that’s what I did, riding into the Elks Club property, past signs saying it was private property. There is nothing at all to welcome visitors to take a look at Fort Harrison, but if you know it’s there, you can find it.

At first I decided this would have to be the closest approximation to a reconstructed Fort Harrison. It’s the fence around the dumpsters, and it does have a no trespassing sign on it.

And there are markers. I’m not sure if these are on the Elks’ property, or in the backyard of the nearby homes. Like I said, there is nothing to guide and direct a visitor, but these aren’t very hard to find.

That wasn’t all. This structure was barely visible from the markers, but if you approached from a different angle, you could get up close. There had apparently been two of these pagoda structures at one time. The river is very close, in the background. But now all that’s left of the one is the foundation. The one above will probably be in the same state soon. Between the two there was a concrete boat landing ramp leading into the river, but it had obviously been a long time since it had been used for that.

Did there used to be a town park here before the Elks moved in? I don’t know.