Affiliated Area: Fallen Timbers Battlefield and Fort Miamis National Historic Site, Ohio

               Hello!  Welcome back to our blog.  In this post we will be visiting the second of Ohio’s two Affiliated Areas, Fallen Timbers Battlefield and Fort Miamis National Historic Site.

Entrance Sign

BACKGROUND:

               Following the American War of Independence, the situation in the Northwest Territory, the present-day states of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, was somewhat complicated.  Although this large tract of territory and been ceded to the United States, Britain continued to garrison a number of forts in the wilderness.  To complicate matters, settlers heading west into Ohio began to clash with Native Indian tribes, which were receiving clandestine military support from the British.  To deal with harassment on the frontier an army was raised in 1791 under the command of War of Independence veteran Arthur St. Clair, and marched north from Cincinnati deep into Ohio.  This army met with disaster in the Battle of Wabash, fought at present-day Fort Recovery, Ohio on the Indiana border.  St. Clair’s army was destroyed, suffering an astounding ninety-seven percent casualty rate with a total of over eight hundred dead out of a force of roughly twelve hundred.  It would be the greatest victory by Native American Indian forces over the United States in history, far larger than Custer’s famed defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

               To restore the situation, a second army was assembled under another War of Independence veteran, General “Mad” Anthony Wayne, so nicknamed for his fiery temperament.  Wayne set out in 1794 and conducted a methodical and logistically sophisticated campaign, slowly building roads and supply bases, such as the city that stills bares his name, Fort Wayne, Indiana.  American Indian forces rallied to a point along the banks of the Maumee River not far from a British post called Fort Miamis.  Wayne’s army marched to meet them.  The following battle, called Fallen Timbers after a group of trees which had been felled in the vicinity, was a decisive U.S. victory.  The Indians retreated, hoping to find aid and sanctuary at Fort Miamis.  However, while the British had allowed a large number of Canadian militia to fight alongside the Indians in battle, they barred the gates upon their defeat to Wayne.  The Indian chiefs entered into negotiations with Wayne, culminating the following year with the Treaty of Greenville, which opened the majority of Ohio to settlers, and began a sequence of events which lead to the rise of the great Indian warrior Tecumseh, the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, and contributed to the outbreak of the War of 1812.

The original Ohio state monument at the battlefield, depicting General Anthony Wayne, Indian commander Chief Little Turtle, and a militiaman.

THE SITE:

               Fallen Timbers Battlefield and Fort Miamis National Historic Site is located in the town of Maumee, Ohio, a suburb of Toledo.  Originally it was thought that the battle had predominantly been fought on the floodplain of the Maumee river.  Accordingly, the battle was memorialized with a small state park overlooking the river.  However, in the 1990s, archaeological surveys discovered that the battle had mostly been fought on the bluff above the river.  In the mid-2010s, a preservation effort with the cooperation of the National Park Service was begun to save the battlefield from development, particularly after a large retail shopping complex was constructed a few hundred yards away.  The preserved area of the battlefield, incorporating the original state monument, and a small section of the remaining earthworks of the British Fort Miamis located several miles away, was opened under the management of the Toledo Metroparks in 2015.

This photo taken at the battlefield displays the densely wooded terrain the battle was fought in.

TRAVEL TIPS:

               Fallen Timbers Battlefield is easily accessible, located nearby the junction of Interstate 475 and the US Route 24 freeway.  As of this writing, a visitor center has been constructed for the site and was scheduled to be operational this summer.  A trail completes of full circuit of the battlefield and connects to the original state monument using a pedestrian bridge over US Route 24.  A project to restore the battlefield to its 1794 appearance is ongoing.  The site is handicapped accessible and there is no entrance fee.  The site is open year-round, including holidays, from 7am until dusk.  The passport stamp is currently located fastened to an interpretive sign showing a map of the battlefield behind the newly constructed visitor center.

ADDITIONAL PHOTOS:

A section of the battlefield currently undergoing restoration.  The objects in the photo are plastic tubes protecting tree saplings as part of an effort to return the battlefield to its original forested appearance, as well as providing scenic camouflage for Interstate 475 bordering the park in the background. 

Located next to the original state monument is Turkey Foot Rock, which served as a prominent landmark at the time of the battle.  Behind the rock is a monument commemorating the bicentennial anniversary of the battle and listing the Native American Indian Tribes which participated in the battle.