Places: Fort Harrod, Harrodsburg, Kentucky

Frontier fortifications took many forms, including the stockade or palisade, the solitary blockhouse, or forts which were a series of cabins joined by a palisade and often guarded by a blockhouse.  This type of structure is replicated today at Fort Harrod State Park, in Harrodsburg, Mercer County, Kentucky.

James Harrod was from Pennsylvania and, like Daniel Boone, was an experienced woodsman.  He was ordered by Lord Dunmore to lead an expedition into Kentucky in 1774.  In June, 1774, he established the first permanent settlement in Kentucky, Harrod's Town.  Dunmore decided that conditions were too dangerous in Kentucky and recalled Harrod.  However, a year later, Harrod led another group of settlers back to Harrod's Town.  They replaced the original fortifications with a stockade and cabins.  In 1792, Harrod left Harrod's Town on a hunting expedition and was never heard from again.  Whether he simply abandoned his settlement and his family, was killed or died in some other way will never be known.

The town was officially renamed Harrodsburg in 1785 by the Virginia legislature.  The fort and its structures eventually withered away.  The site of Harrodsburg is a state park, with the fort, cabins and blockhouse reconstructed.  The original site of the fort is now the parking lot of the state park.