Elk Garden Fort

Elk Garden Fort is a Virginia historical marker in Russell County, dedicated 2015.

U.S. 19 at intersection with Route 80

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South of here stood Elk Garden Fort, built in 1774 to protect settlers of European descent along the upper Clinch River. Conflict between Indians and settlers intensified early in the 1770s as Shawnee and Mingo resisted white occupation. In June 1774, Lord Dunmore, royal governor of Virginia, recommended the construction of a new string of fortifications. By Sept., members of Capt. Daniel Smith's company of Fincastle County militia under the immediate command of Sgt. John Kinkead had garrisoned Elk Garden. The site, an important outpost until the 1790s, was later part of the homestead of Gov. Henry Carter Stuart (1914-1918).

Maps this old were drawn largely by eye, so places on them can sit miles from where they really are. The pin is ours and marks the marker's location today.

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library

Historical maps covering this location

1776 · Carte nouvelle de l'Amérique Angloise contenant tout ce que les Anglois possédent sur… (Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library)
1796 · Kentuckey. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1807 · Map Of Virginia (lower left sheet) (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1814 · Kentucky (Mathew Carey, 1814) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1818 · Map of Virginia, 1818 (lower left sheet) (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Map Of Virginia (lower left sheet), 1807, covering the location of Elk Garden Fort, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Map Of Virginia (lower left sheet), 1807, covering this location. David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

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For example, one family's tree showed the Articles of Confederation marker in Pennsylvania standing under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s.

What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

From one family's 77-marker roster

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Elk Garden Fort

Historical maps covering this location

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