Fort Dearborn, Where Chicago Almost Didn't Happen

Chicago almost ceased to exist before it properly began. On August 15, 1812, soldiers and settlers evacuating Fort Dearborn — a small US Army post at the mouth of the Chicago River — were ambushed by Potawatomi warriors allied with the British during the War of 1812. At least 52 soldiers and civilians were killed in what became known as the Fort Dearborn Massacre. The fort was burned. The site was abandoned for years. Had the attack discouraged further American settlement, the future metropolis might never have been built. The fort stood roughly at what is now the intersection of Michigan Avenue and Wacker Drive, near the DuSable Bridge, where markers note its site. The attack itself happened about a mile and a half south, along the evacuation route; tradition placed it near present-day 18th Street and Prairie Avenue, though some accounts now put it nearer Roosevelt Road. On the bridge house here, Henry Hering's 1928 limestone relief "Defense" depicts the battle. A bronze monument by Carl Rohl-Smith, erected in 1893 near the traditional battle site and showing the Potawatomi chief Black Partridge saving Margaret Helm, was moved indoors in 1931, later returned to the area, and has since been taken down and kept in storage amid controversy over its depiction of the Potawatomi. The debate about how to memorialize this history continues.