Battle of Fort Dearborn Park

In 2006, the developers of Central Station, a Planned Urban Development, conveyed an improved 1/2 acre passive park at 18th and Calumet the Chicago Park District. Community members and civic groups including the Prairie District Neighborhood Alliance (PDNA) had many meetings to select a name for the park. They decided to name the site Battle of Fort Dearborn Park in honor of an extremely significant historical event that happened very near to what is now the park.  The park was named in 2009.

During the War of 1812, some Native Americans in this area were allied with the British. After the British captured the American garrison at Mackinac, General William Hull ordered the evacuation of Fort Dearborn, which was located at the juncture between Lake Michigan and the Chicago River. As approximately 500 Potawatomi gathered at the fort, its commander, Captain Nathan Heald prepared to abandon his post. On August 15, 1812, a procession soldiers and settlers including women and children left the fort, and began an attempt to walk to Fort Wayne. After walking a mile-and-a-half south of the fort, the Native Americans attacked the group. More than 50 soldiers and settlers were brutally killed and the others were taken as prisoners to sell to the British. (Friendly Potawatomi, such as Black Partridge saved some).

A number of the victims died after they were taken prisoner and others were released. The Native Americans burned Fort Dearborn down, and it remained unoccupied until it was rebuilt by the US military in 1816. Over the next couple of decades, the US government began forcibly removing Native Americans from the region and relocating them to areas west of the Mississippi River. Also known as, the Fort Dearborn Massacre, the Battle of Fort Dearborn has been depicted in some early works of public art including a bas-relief sculpture on the Michigan Avenue Bridge.