Fort Clark, Peoria in 1831

Charles Ballance described Fort Clark when he arrived at Peoria in 1831:

"When I came to the country in November 1831, there was no vestige of it remaining.  In fact, at that time there was so little to show that there had ever been a fortification there, except some burnt posts along the west side, and a square of some  10 or 12 feet at the south corner, and a ditch nearly filled up, on two sides of the square and  on the west side of the fort.

"The fort had been burnt down to the embankment of this square and on the west side,  after which the embankments had been mostly worn away by the rains and other means, until that part of the logs that was underground had become charred posts.

"Some of them, however, had become  entirely decayed and were gone.  On the other sides there was but little to be seen of logs and embankment"

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Today, the site of Fort Clark, at the foot of Liberty Street on the shore of the Illinois River in downtown Peoria, is commemorated by a pavilion in Liberty Park.

But It Was Home Safe Home for Awhile.  --Brock-Perry