Killgore Fort House
About this property
The Kilgore Fort House is a historic site located in Scott County, Virginia on Route 71 in Nicklesville, Virginia. Fort houses were built to provide protection for individual families during the period from 1773 to about 1795 when attacks by Native Americans on the pioneer settlers were common. The Kilgore Fort House was built about 1790 by the Reverend Robert Kilgore, and is the only surviving example of its type in southwest Virginia. The Kilgore Fort House was restored in 1973–74. There are two stories, with two rooms on each story. The rooms on each floor were separated by a timber partition. The rooms have been arranged so that if they were attacked they could retreat into the next, until a final stand could be made in the northeast room of the second floor. The original building was constructed without windows, but had small openings for gun ports, which feature emphasizes its defensive purpose. The doors were made of heavy timbers and inside held shut with a heavy bar. The house was made of trimmed white oak log timbers, each of which was notched at the end to receive the timber from the adjacent wall. Gaps between timbers were chinked with mud. A large stone fireplace and chimney on the northeast side was provided for cooking and heating. Despite its obvious defensive design, there is no record of the fort house being attacked by Indians. A story persists in the county that Cherokee Indians once camped on the far bank of Copper Creek, but that is unlikely since the far bank is a cliff. The fort house is on a natural crossing on Copper Creek that is still used today. Older residents remember when cars would ford the creek at this spot; at least two bridges, including the current one, have been built here. Unused bridge pilings still exist in the creek. The Kilgore Fort House is also called the Kilgore Fort, but unlike the popular idea of a frontier fort, it had no walls around it. Instead it is simply a log home designed for defense, hence the term fort house.
Location
Categories
Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).
Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Everything a full report reveals about Killgore Fort House
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Questions about this property
When was Killgore Fort House listed on the National Register?
Killgore Fort House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 18, 1972.
What type of historic resource is Killgore Fort House?
Killgore Fort House is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for Killgore Fort House?
The period of significance for Killgore Fort House is recorded as the early_republic era.
Can I research the history near Killgore Fort House?
Yes. Aubrey Research reports search National Register listings, battlefield records, land patents, and other primary historical sources within any radius of a US address. A report for an address near Killgore Fort House will include this listing and all other historical records in the area.
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