Tippecanoe Battlefield and the Wabash and Erie Canal

Sep 2014.  

About 2 hours southeast of Chicago is Prophetstown State Park and the nearby Tippecanoe Battlefield.  We stayed at the start park campground..

This battlefield is maintained, as is the museum, by the city.

I liked this writing from Chief Tecumseh.

Entering the battlefield.

The memorial in the center of the park.

Above the park sits this marker, which identifies a path leading to the top of the hill, overlooking the battlefield.  It is said the Prophet, brother of Chief Tecumseh, sat here and sang to encourage the Indians during the battle of Tippecanoe.

County Courthouse, Lafayette, IN, built in 1884.

Big Four Depot, built in 1902, was moved to this location in 1994 to serve the Amtrak line.  It originally served the Lake Erie and Western Railroad, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway.

Fort Ouiatenon.  This replication shows the historical fort which was originally built in 1711 by French Canada; surrendered to the British in 1761 during the French and Indian Wars; occupied by Native Americans after 1763; and destroyed by American soldiers in 1791.

Bread baking oven as would have been used during the time of the fort.

Looking at what is left of the Wabash and Erie Canal in Delphi, IN.

You can now take a trip to the past in this canal boat on the remaining mile of the canal.  The Wabash and Erie Canal was the longest canal built in North America, stretching 460 miles from Lake Erie to the Ohio River.  Construction was started in 1827 and operation on the canal began in 1843, although it was not completed until 1853.  Because of the high cost of maintenance and the introduction of railroads in the west, the life of the canal was short lived, with the last canal boat in 1874.

The canal boats would have been pulled by mule power along the shore.

Interesting mailbox.

Another interesting mailbox.

We always hear about the Trail of Tears and the movement of the Cherokee and Choctaw Indians from the east to Oklahoma Territory, but we seldom hear of the other forced movement of Native Americans, such as this Potawatomi Trail of Death, 1838 from Indiana to Kansas, and later to Oklahoma.