McMusick, Marshall

English

The Annals of Iowa

Fort Des Moines (1834-1837): An Archaeological Test

Dada/Surrealism

Iowa Research Online

The Annals of Iowa 
Volume 42 Number 7 (Winter 1975) pps. 513-522 
Fort Des Moines (1834-1837): An Archaeological Test 
Marshall McMusick 
ISSN 0003-4827 
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Recommended Citation 
McMusick, Marshall. "Fort Des Moines (1834-1837): An Archaeological Test." The 
Annals of Iowa 42 (1975), 513-522. 
Available at: https://doi.org/10.17077/0003-4827.10960 
Hosted by Iowa Research Online 
Fort Des Moines (18341837):
An Archaeological Test
Marshall McKusick
THE LANDS WEST of the Mississippi opened to settlers in the
year following the Black Hawk Purchase of 1832. The area which
subsequently became Iowa was administratively governed as part
of the Michigan Territory from 1834-1836. Wisconsin Territory
during 1836-1838, and as the Iowa Territory from 1838-1846, at
which time statehood was approved. To protect the western
frontier of the Michigan Territory, the War Department decided
to establish a new military post on the west side of the Mississippi
as a center for military operations and explorations. The military
post was named Fort Des Moines because of its position at the
head of the rapids on the Mississippi River which began just be-
low the present day townsites of Nauvoo. Illinois, and Montrose,
Iowa. The rapids continued south twelve miles to what is now
Keokuk, Iowa, above the junction of the Des Moines River into
the Mississippi. The fort site at the rapids was strategically signi-
ficant as a boat landing, and travelers usually stopped before en-
tering the dangerous rapids, or upon safely navigating them up-
stream. The landing was at the head of a trail which paralleled
the rapids on the west or Iowa side. During the American Revolu-
tionary War period a small outpost manned by French Canadians
was situated at or near the landing to keep British traders from
going west up the Des Moines River. Some years later in 1799 the
landing was part of the Spanish land grant, given to Louis Honore
Tesson. It subsequently had other owners. At the time Fort Des
Moines was established in 1834 there were some white settlers in
514 ANNALS OF IOWA
the area known as Cut Nose Village—and a few Indians may
have been in temporary residence. '
Lieutenant George H. Crossman began construction of the
fort in the fall of 1834, and was joined by Lt. Colonel Stephen W.
Kearney, with a full garrison. The soldiers were the 1st Dragoons,
companies B. H, and I, and numbered about 150 men.Dragoons
were mounted on horseback for mobility, but were trained to
fight on foot once a military action commenced. They were inter-
mediate between infantry and cavalry, cavalry being trained to
charge and fight from horseback. The choice of a building-site by
a steamboat landing was made in order to facilitate supplying the
garrison. No stockade was built because there was no threat of In-
dian attack. The post was a headquarters for patrols and expedi-
tions into the largely unexplored Indian country to the west.
Despite ease of supply, the fort location was low and
unhealthy, and both officers and men were frequently sick. One
English visitor who stopped at the fort made the following obser-
vation:
[the location was] . . . chosen with singularly bad judgment; it ¡s low,
unhealthy, and quite unimportant from a military point of view . . . I
landed . . . only for a few minutes, and had but just time to remark the
pale and sickly countenances of such soldiers as were loitering about the
beach; indeed, I was told by a young man who was sutler Istorekeeperl at
this post, that when he had left it a few weeks before, there was only one
officer on duty out of seven or eight, who were stationed there. The num-
ber of desertions from this post was said to be greater than from any
other in the united States . . . If we take into consideration the facilities
of escape in a steam-boat, by which a deserter may place himself in a few
days in the recesses of Canada, Texas, or the mines, and at the same
time bear in mind the feebleness with which the American military laws
and customs follow or punish deserters, we shall only wonder that the
ranks can be kept as full as they are . . . "
Lieutenant Crossman^s Map of Fort Des Moines
A Lee County history contains a brief description by a pioneer
settler of the fort barracks as having a sleeping room on each end
'Jacob Van der Zee. "Forts in the Iowa Country," Iowa Journal of History
and Politics (The State Historical Society of Iowa. 1914) 12:178-182; History of
Lee County. Iowa (Chicago: Western Historical Company. 1879). This fort has
been called Fort Des Moines No. 1, distinguishing it from two later forts of the
same name within the present boundaries of the City of Des Moines. The 1834 cor-
respondence refers to the post as Camp Des Moines, and that name appears on
the Crossman map. The term fort became official the following year.
'Van der Zee, pp. 180-181, quoting Charles Murray, Travels in North Amer-
ica. Vol. 2.
Fort Des Moines 515
and two mess rooms around a centrai chimney. Actually, the bar-
racks were substantially larger. A 1834 plan by Lieutenant Cross-
man shows details ofthe fort design: two ofthe buildings from the
plan are shown here as examples (Figure 1).' Since there was no
stockade, the living quarters of both officers and men formed an
open square around the parade ground, 400 feet across with the
well near the center {Figure 2). The parade ground sloped gently
down towards the Mississippi River, so the long buildings on the
sides ofthe square were built in two stages, one set slightly below
the other. The building on the southeast side of the parade
ground was about 160 feet by 20 feet, with 4 chimneys and 8
rooms. It was used for officers' quarters, hospital, carpenter's
shop and guard house. The similar-sized building across the
square provided additional officer's quarters. The three enlisted
men's barracks at the upper end ofthe parade ground were simi-
lar in plan. Each one was a long, low. single story building with a
dormer roof and loft. The ground plan of Company I barracks
shows it was 127 feet by 20 feet in size, with a store room, orderly
room, a mess and kitchen on either side ofthe central double fire-
place, and two bunk rooms. Two small chimneys indicate the lo-
cation of heating stoves. The quarters ofthe commanding officer.
Colonel Kearney, were near the river. It was a large, 40-foot-
square building, with a central hall, and four large rooms, with
probably two more rooms under the dormer roof. The stables are
shown as single story sheds, grouped around two squares, a plan
apparently not finally adopted.
Robert Ë. Lee's Map of the Des Moines Rapids
Robert E. Lee, who later commanded the Confederate Army
in Virginia, was a lieutenant in the 1830s, attached to the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers. The turbulent, shallow, twelve-mile
Des Moines Rapids was a major navigational hazard for boats on
the Mississippi, and the Army Corps of Engineers assigned Lieu-
tenant Lee the task of taking soundings and mapping the chan-
nel. Lee's map, dated 1837, included the location ofthe Fort Des
Moines barracks, stables, and other buildings, and shows the
location ofthe fort well in the center of the parade ground sur-
'Photostat previously unpublished, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Rock
Island.
516 ANNALS OF IOWA
rounded by the barracks and smaller buildings. The illustration
(Figure 3) is part of a larger drawing of the rapids at a scale of five
inches to one mile, the channel depths being given in feet and
inches, the fort buildings not being specificially identified. This
drawing has not to my knowledge been previously published, and
the illustration is from the October 6, 1866 recopy of the original
1 1
*-*
BARRACKS, SOUTHEAST PARADE GROUND
(Guard House, Carpenter, Hospital,
and Officer Quarters)
C 0— r^iri
'V
BARRACKS, SOUTHWEST PARADE GROUND
(Enlisted Men, Company I, 1st U. S.
Dragoons)
Figure I: Fort Des moines barracks. Reproduced from parts
of the Crossman map of 1834. Captions added for identification.
Fort Des Moines 517
MONTRÛSE, IOWA, AND FORT DES MOINES
ÍD HOUSE
ENTER
100 200 300 400
feet
Figure 2: Street plan of Montrose, Iowa showing three possi-
ble alignments of Fort Des Moines and the archaeological testing.
Lee map by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers." The major differ-
ence between the Lee and Crossman maps lies in the stable plan.
Lee shows them to be three long sheds, one for each dragoon com-
pany, instead of hollow squares, and since his plan is almost three
years after Crossman's it is probably correct.
Traditional History
The territory was increasingly being settled and the dragoons
were garrisoned further west, the fort being abandoned in 1837.
Several early settlers and a former soldier continued to live in the
area and some stories about the fort were incorporated in various
Lee County histories with varying degrees of reliability. The set-
'Photocopy provided by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Rock Island. The
north arrow appears elsewhere on the plan, and is added to the illustration.
518 ANNALS OF IOWA
tiement grew up around the fort, an officer reporting. "A town
has been laid off at this place, and lots have been sold, which
takes in part of our garrison." The settler, David Kilbourne.
named the townsite Montrose and laid it out south of the fort in
the former Tesson orchard, but it apparently extended into the
fort. It turned out he did not have title to the orchard and another
FOUT
DBS VOtlTES
* Figure 3: The head of the Des Moines Rapids and Fort Des
Moines on the Mississippi. Section reproduced from the R. E.
Lee plan of 1837.
Fort Des Moines 519
man named Riddick successfully won his own claim in court. The
name for the town remained Montrose but the townsite was re-
platted. The commodious quarters used by Colonel Kearney be-
came a hotel named River House but the fate of the other build-
ings is unknown. The smaller log cabins were probably reused or
moved, and the long barracks of logs were probably dismantled
by settlers for the usable lumber and logs. It is said the stables
were originally framed in St. Louis, shipped to the fort, and put
together on the ground. Built of lumber rather than logs, they
also disappeared. The streets of Montrose today parallel the river
bank, and seem aligned with the older fort plans.^
There is a tradition, not mentioned in the county histories,
that the fort well was in the town and eventually it was marked by
a small monument and bronze plaque. Given the well location
and street alignment I decided to attempt the relocation of Fort
Des Moines.
The river bank in the Montrose area changed a great deal af-
ter Lieutenant Lee mapped the river in 1837. A canal through the
rapids completed in the 1870s became obsolete and in 1913 the
Keokuk Lock and Dam created a substantial backwater reser-
voir, fiooding the rapids and innundating the low shoreline up-
stream. The Lee County Engineer redrew one line of the original
land survey for me, in the fort area, confirming that the river side
of the fort site is now under water.
The fort well location was confused when a small riverside
park was established nearby. Without regard to historical accur-
acy, the bronze plaque identifying the fort well had been taken
down and reset by the park pump. The original concrete monu-
ment is still in place by the railroad and was used as a base point
on the map. Two students working with me made a plat map of
the town of Montrose adjacent to the well. Then the barracks and
well were redrawn to the same scale from the Crossman map and
projected over the existing buildings, railroad tracks, and streets.
The map (Figure 2) assumes that the present alignment of Mont-
rose streets followed the fort plan. True north on Figure 2 is based
on a projection from the U.S.G.S. Nauvoo quadrangle. When
true north is projected to this alignment from Lee's map it will be
''History of Lee County. Iowa: Portrait and Biographical Album of Lee
County, Iowa (Chapman Brothers, 1887); Story of Lee County (Chicago: S. J.
Clarke Publishing Co., 1914).
520 ANNALS OF IOWA
noted that his north is 20 degrees west. Magnetic deviation on
both the maps is comparable. Despite this evidence against the
alignment correlation there is supporting evidence that Lee's
north may be in error. There is another U.S. Army Corps of En-
gineer's map of the Des Moines Rapids by Gen. J. H. Wilson
dated March 26, 1867. The Wilson Map has comparable topo-
graphy to Lee. but true north corresponds to the north on our
alignment. Unfortunately the Wilson map does not show the
Montrose plat." The Crossman fort plan unfortunately lacks a
north arrow.
The map (Figure 2) shows three possible alignments of the
fort with the existing street plan: (1) the correlation of the fort
with Montrose streets, (2) the correlation with Lee's map, and (3)
the correlation with Spanish land grant boundaries. The first two
possibilities have been described. In explanation ofthe third al-
ternative, the Spanish land grant boundaries ran directly back
from the alignment of the river, NE by SW, encompassing a
square league and later reduced to a square mile. The land grant
is still on maps today because it was not included in the township-
range land survey system, the grant being a pre-existing but ap-
proved surveyed tract. A narrow country lane still parallels the
1799 alignment on two sides. It is quite possible that river prop-
erty was laid out to conform to the original grant, since the grant
itself paralleled the river. If this is true the streets have shifted 20
degrees, but in a line 40 degrees from the Lee alternative.
Archaeological Testing of the Map
My investigations at Fort Madison (1808-1813) in 1%5 dis-
covered limestone rubble foundations and cellars under the major
buildings. In 1966 I made a thorough study ofthe foundations at
Fort Atkinson and conducted archaeological investigations.' The
success of these investigations suggested that Fort Des Moines
might, too, have significant underground remains. The prelimi-
nary mapping was carried out in the spring, and I made an ar-
chaeological test on July 19, 1%6, I chose two unpaved alleys
'Wilson map photostat, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Rock Island.
'Marshall McKusick and David Archie, "A Taie ot Two Forts: Fort Madison
and Fort Atkinson," The Iowan Magazine U%6) 15; 10-15. 50-51; Fort Madison
Archaeology. 16 mm, color, sound, 15 minutes. (Film 7, Ancient Iowa Series)
University of Iowa Audiovisual Center, Iowa City (1973).
Fort Des Moines 521
crossing the suspected barracks location, hired a backhoe for ex-
ploratory work, and had a crew of students in attendance. On the
SE-NW line (Figure 2. trench A) a 65-foot-long. two-foot-wide
backhoe trench was cleared. Black humus and disturbed soil
occurred to a depth which averaged two feet. This was partly land-
fill brought in to build up the original ground surface. The fill over-
laid undisturbed reddish colored clay. The trench was four-fect-
deep, extending two feet into the apparently undisturbed clay. No
construction evidence or diagnostic features were encountered in
trench A. On the SW-NE line (Figure 2. trench B) the two-foot-
wide trench began at the building line, inside the sidewalk which
parallels the Great River Road, a continuation of Lee County
road X-28. Trench B ran the length of the alley to the railroad
tracks but encountered no evidence of either a cellar or stone
foundation. The alley was covered by four inches of humus overly-
ing successively two inches of alley gravel, about 20 inches of
mixed humus and disturbed soil, and underlaid by two feet of ap-
parently undisturbed reddish clay. The stratigraphy of both
trenches was similar. A recent privy occurred in the trench just
NE of the plotted barracks. It was identified by interested specta-
tors as formerly in use by employees of the adjacent locker plant,
and we did not investigate it further. Continuing NE 63 feet from
the sidewalk, we encountered a foundation of limestone rubble
laid without mortar which was part of an earlier privy which we
did not completely excavate. Regardless of which of thc three
map correlations is used, this privy had been built in the former
parade ground, and was built after thc fort was abandoned. An
emergency highway salvage excavation of archaeological remains
at Jolleyville Hill, near Wever, Highway 61. made it necessary to
shift my crew. The Fort Des Moines backhoe excavation was re-
filled without obtaining positive results.
There are several possibilities which may explain the lack of
archaeological evidence for the Fort Des Moines barracks: (1)
The existing streets may not parallel the old fort; (2) The tradi-
tional location of the fort well may be in error; (3) The map pro-
jection may be in error for other, but unknown reasons; and (4)
The barracks, built for a temporary military occupation, may
have lacked the limestone rubble foundations found at other U.S.
Army forts in Iowa. It was, for example, a common frontier prac-
tice to rest log buildings on upright foundation posts, the posts
522 ANNALS OF IOWA
being buried so that the upper end was at ground level.*
The presence of the modern town and miscellaneous construc-
tion activities complicate the search for the fort location. I remain
convinced that there are significant artifacts and fort ruins still
preserved in the vicinity of the fort well. The barracks may lie on
the alignment projected by Lee's map. and if this is the case the
exploratory trenches were in the parade ground, and did not cross
the barracks. The other two possibilities have been tested. I hope
my notes on the search for Fort Des Moines spurs someone to
make a full historical study, based upon the unpublished corres-
pondence in the National Archives. The map should be consulted
if construction is undertaken in the vicinity of the traditional fort
well.
"The Civil War period Northern Border Brigade forts had substantial log
buildings of one and two stories, resting on upright corner posls rather than stone
foundations. Marshall McKusick. The Iowa Northern Border Brigade. State Ar-
chaeologist Report 9. Iowa City, 1975.
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Fort Des Moines (1834-1837): An Archaeological Test

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