Fort Southwest Point

Saturday July 12, 2014… I took a One Day road trip from Nashville with my hubby Tony and daughter Noël and we opted to head towards KNOXVILLE. our goal is too see as much of the city as possible on our ONE DAY mini vacation… on a budget… My goal was a family of 3 to have fun on $ 150 or less… so the drive from Nashville took us 3 hrs one way.
On our way to Knoxville, I got off I-​40 near Kingston, TN. We went into the little town that was actually the Capital of Tennessee for ONE FULL day in 1807.
I was following the BROWN HISTORICAL sign I saw on the interstate that was talking about Fort Southwest Point in Kingston, TN. The fort was FREE and we walked around checking it out. The visitors center was closed but you could still walk around and check it out. The bathrooms were locked and on Saturdays there is a local Farmers Market to enjoy. We were there even before the market sellers were even set up.
The fort was from 1797. Great website promoting the reconstruction of the fort from that hours and shares the hours.
The History of the Fort I found on the Interenet:
Fort Southwest Point was a federal frontier outpost at what is now Kingston, Tennessee, in the southeastern United States. Constructed in 1797 and garrisoned by federal soldiers until 1811, the fort served as a major point of interaction between the Cherokee and the United States government as well as a way station for early migrants travelling between Knoxville and Nashville.
Although there are no records and few contemporary descriptions pertaining to the fort’s design and structure, archaeological excavations conducted in the 1970s and 1980s have determined the fort’s layout. Based on these findings, the City of Kingston and the Tennessee Division of Archaeology have reconstructed part of the fort. The site is managed by the City of Kingston.
he Southwest Point Blockhouse, 1792 – 1797
At the height of the American Revolution in 1779, Colonel Arthur Campbell suggested the confluence of the Clinch and Tennessee as a possible site for a fort to the governor of Virginia. Although Virginia never acted on Campbell’s advice, the end of the war brought a flood of settlers into the Tennessee Valley, leading to increased conflict with the valley’s Cherokee inhabitants. During this period, two events occurred that greatly enhanced Southwest Point’s strategic importance: the construction of the Avery Trace in 1788 and the signing of the Treaty of Holston in 1791. The Avery Trace, which began at Southwest Point, became the key road connecting East Tennessee and Middle Tennessee until around 1800. The Treaty of Holston fixed the boundary between U.S. and Cherokee lands at the Clinch River, placing Southwest Point on the fringe of lands open to settlement in East Tennessee.
The waning years of the Chickamauga Wars brought an increase in Cherokee attacks against the encroaching Euro-​American settlers. Territorial governor William Blount kept the militia on call for much of the early 1790s in order to protect settlers and enforce the terms of the Holston Treaty. John Sevier, who commanded part of the militia, encamped at Southwest Point in 1792. By November of that year, Sevier’s troops had completed a blockhouse at the site, which they used as a base until 1793 when federal troops arrived.
Between 1793 and 1796, the Southwest Point Blockhouse was garrisoned by a federal contingent of 10 to 15 troops. During this time, a decision was made to replace the blockhouse with a much larger fort. While the early records regarding the fort’s construction were destroyed in a fire, historians have determined that the fort was completed by federal troops under the command of Captain John Wade and Captain Richard Sparks in July 1797. The fort was originally referred to as «Fort Butler» after Lieutenant-​Colonel Thomas Butler (commander of federal forces in East Tennessee), but the name had been changed to «Fort Southwest Point» by 1798.
Lieutenant-​Colonel Butler moved his headquarters to Fort Southwest Point in 1799, when nine companies (7 infantry, 1 artillery, and 1 dragoon) totaling roughly 400 – 500 troops were garrisoned at the fort.[4] Around the same time, lots had been sold for what eventually become the city of Kingston, named for Major Robert King, an officer stationed at the fort.
Among the first duties of the Southwest Point garrison was to remove individuals (known as «squatters») who had settled on Cherokee lands illegally. However, the first Treaty of Tellico– which Butler helped negotiate in 1798[6]– resolved many of the issues regarding squatters, and reduced the need for federal troops in the area. By 1801, the Southwest Point garrison consisted of roughly 100 troops.
If you are in the area, you should really check this place out. Add it to your FUN THINGS to check out in Tennessee that is FREE and has HISTORICAL VALUE

Thank you, Mike Woody (Fort manager), for such a complete personal tour. I felt like I was in history class with show and tell. You went above and beyond explaining things both to a 5 year old and a 45 year old! We loved it.
This is the only federal era fort in TN that is reconstructed on it’s original foundation. Currently, the facility consists of a barracks, a blockhouse and over 250 feet of palisade walls. It’s located on a high bluff rising above the Clinch River and the TN River.
Check the fort’s website (
) for announcements of special events where history comes to life with costumed reenactors (October).
The fort is owned and operated by the City of Kingston. It’s handicapped accessible.
Suggested minimum donation $ 2.00 per person.