The Old Fort on Spy Run is Anthony Wayne's fort. — Famous Stories & the Record, Fort Wayne

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Historic Fort Wayne on Baltes Avenue in 1977, just after the rebuild: the reconstructed fort’s log buildings behind their palisade Indiana Landmarks · CC BY 4.0 · source file

PLACES

The most common visitor error in the city. The Old Fort is a 1975–76 reconstruction of the third fort (1815–16, Maj. John Whistler's plans), built for the Bicentennial less than a quarter-mile from the original sites and opened June/July 1976. Nothing above ground survives of the 1794 fort; its downtown site is marked by the DAR boulder and plaque (1934/1944) at Clay & Berry. And the present Historic Fort Wayne, Inc. (founded 2004, all-volunteer) is not the original 1960s–80s organisation of the same name.

Sources: City of Fort Wayne facility record, cityoffortwayne.in.gov; ACGSI, acgsi.org

Two further facts fix the site in the city's timeline. The reconstruction opened in the Bicentennial summer of 1976, less than a quarter-mile from the ground the real forts occupied. And the military story of that ground had ended long before: the last garrison marched out on 19 April 1819 under Maj. Josiah Vose — 96 soldiers, a six-pounder and a twelve-pounder in tow — closing twenty-five years of forts at the confluence. The present fort follows the third fort's 1815–16 plan, Maj. John Whistler's, which is why nothing in its outline matches the 1794 post Wayne dedicated; the Events record keeps that dedication's anniversary every 22 October.

Added source: Historic Fort Wayne, 2016 souvenir booklet (Old Fort 1816 programme)

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Source: The Old Fort on Spy Run is Anthony Wayne's fort., Moosed History by Project Moosed, https://history.projectmoosed.com/usa/midwest/indiana/fort-wayne/stories-told/file-16-old-fort-on-spy-run-is/

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