Fort Benjamin Hawkins

Hawkins Archeological Site
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Fort Hawkins (1938 reconstructed southeastern blockhouse)
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Location	Macon, Georgia
Coordinates	32°50′56″N 83°36′42″W / 32.8489°N 83.6116°W / 32.8489; -83.6116
Built	1806
NRHP reference No.	77000410[1]
Added to NRHP	November 23, 1977

Fort Hawkins was a fort built between 1806 and 1810 in the historic Creek Nation by the United States government under President Thomas Jefferson and used until 1824. Built in what is now Georgia at the Fall Line on the east side of the Ocmulgee River, the fort overlooked the sacred ancient earthwork mounds of the Ocmulgee Old Fields, now known as the Ocmulgee Mounds National Historical Park. The Lower Creek Trading Path passed by just outside the fort's northwestern blockhouse, and continued in a westerly direction until it reached a natural ford on the Ocmulgee River. A trading settlement and later the city of Macon, Georgia, developed in the area prior to the construction of the fort, with British traders being in the area as early as the 1680s. Later, the fort would become important to the Creek Nation, the United States, and the state of Georgia for economic, military, and political reasons.

The fort originally had a tall log palisade surrounding a 1- 2-acre (8,100 m²) complex. It had living and working quarters as well as two blockhouses on diagonal corners. A replica of the southeast blockhouse was constructed in 1938 after archeological excavations in 1936 showed the appropriate site. It has become an icon of Macon. The Fort Hawkins Archeological Site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is included within the boundaries of the Fort Hill Historic District, also listed on the NRHP.

The Fort Hawkins Commission hired the Lamar Institute to conduct archaeological excavations from 2005 to 2007. The excavations found evidence of a second palisade on the site, as well as several large brick buildings. In addition, the work recovered nearly 40,000 artifacts, indicating a more complex history of Native American and European-American interaction than had been known. Historical research by Lamar Institute President Daniel T. Elliott has also added greatly to the current understanding of the fort. The Commission completed a Master Plan for development of the site in 2008 that is to eventually include the reconstruction of the entire fort complex. It will display and interpret the thousands of artifacts found at the site, which represent the many tribes of American Indians and pioneer European Americans whose lives met in the area through complex trading and living relationships. Although a replica log cabin was completed in 2013 to serve as a Visitors' Center and a few other minor improvements have been made to the site, the fort has not yet been reconstructed as of 2021.