When the U.S. Army built Fort Madison, the first fort on the west side of the Mississippi River, the Native American tribes in the area took notice. Chief Black Hawk was the leader of one of those tribes. Through his autobiography — dictating his life story to a translator — he confirmed what the U.S. Army reported: There was a ravine to the west of the fort that could not be cleared, and attacks that led to the fort’s abandonment during the War of 1812 sprang from there.
An archaeological dig in 2009 discovered artifacts that give us a pretty good idea of where that ravine was.
