HISTORY & HERITAGE
Fort Fanning Historic Park
Gilchrist County · North Florida & First Coast
The site of an 1838 army fort on the bluff above the Suwannee, with a rebuilt gate and paved paths to the overlooks.
ABOUT THIS PLACE
Fort Fanning was built in 1838, during the Second Seminole War, on the north bluff over the Suwannee River at what is now Fanning Springs. The army put it there to hold an important river crossing and to work as a supply depot for operations along the Suwannee. It was named for Colonel Alexander Fanning, who graduated from West Point in 1812, was decorated for bravery in the War of 1812, and came to Florida in 1818 under Andrew Jackson. Zachary Taylor, who later became president, came here often and led expeditions out from the fort while chasing Creek and Seminole warriors. The war ran until 1842 and ended with the forced removal of Native people to Oklahoma. Thirty-one soldiers died at the fort, most of them of disease rather than fighting. What stands today is a reconstructed fort gate and a short piece of stockade, with a fallen stone gatepost nearby whose origin nobody is sure of. The park has paved paths to overlooks above the river, interpretive markers explaining what happened here, and no admission charge. It lies just north of the U.S. 19 bridge
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