George Rogers Clark National Historical Park is located in Vincennes, IN at the site formerly known as Fort Sackville. GRC was an nearly forgotten hero of the American Revolution as his exploits took place on the western frontier of Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois. Clark, an older brother of the famous William Clark of Lewis & Clark, led a band of soldiers known as “Long Knives” against the British and their Indian allies in the western frontier. Their mission to disrupt British forces in the frontier and prevent their ability to support British forces in the colonies during the Revolutionary War is considered a top secret mission that less than 10 people in the colonies were actually aware of. The mission was so secret, even U.S. Congress was not aware of the mission.

Clark was a Colonel in the Virginia Militia and told the Governor of Virginia that he could capture the French Settlements under British control in the area we now know as Southern Illinois. The goal was to weaken Britain’s influence in the area on native tribes and cut off their ability to flank Colonial forces in the east. With a combined man power of only 180, and sheer determination, Clark led his men through harsh weather, and a nearly frozen river, to outmaneuver and outsmart the British commander. With the victory at Fort Sackville, Britain lost its influence over native tribes, and Clark strengthened the support of French settlers in the area as allies to the revolution.

Clark died at the age of 65 in Louisville, KY. a nearly forgotten man to the heroics of those who fought on the eastern front of the Revolution. It was in 1928 that President Calvin Coolidge ordered a memorial to Clark be placed in Vincennes, IN. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated the memorial in 1933, and President Lyndon B. Johnson made it a National Historic Site in 1966. Please visit https://www.nps.gov/gero/index.htm to learn more.