Hike through Wetumpka, Alabama historic park features Indian mound

Monument at Fort Toulouse-Fort Jackson.

About seven years ago, Daphne outdoors writer Joe Cuhaj published a great guidebook called “Hiking through History: Alabama.” This 230-page book details 40 different hikes at various historic sites throughout the state, including hikes at Moundville, Horseshoe Bend, Old Cahaba and St. Stephens. These hikes are a great way to explore Alabama historic sites, especially if you’ve never been there before.

One such historic site that I’d never been to before was the Fort Toulouse-Fort Jackson Park in Wetumpka, not from where the Coosa and Tallapoosa rivers flow into the Alabama River. This site was occupied for thousands of years by the Indians before the French built a military outpost there in 1717. Later, U.S. forces led by General Andrew Jackson built a fort there during the Creek Indian Wars.

Today, the state operates a historic park and campground at the site to promote and preserve the location’s unique history. Cuhaj’s book includes a self-guided hike of the park as well as a lot of background information on the park’s history and points of interest.

My wife and I rode up to the park on Saturday morning to take the hike in “Hiking through History.” We got there around 9 a.m., and rain earlier that morning had cooled things off nicely. For a hike in the middle of July in Alabama, it was especially pleasant.

The hike begins at the park’s visitors center, which is located inside an old house that was originally located in Lowndes County. This house, officially known as the Graves House, was built between 1825 and 1830 by David Graves, the son of a Revolutionary War veteran and ancestor of Alabama Gov. Bibb Graves. Inside, you’ll find a wide variety of historic displays and a scale model of Fort Jackson.

Not far from there, the trail takes you past a monument to Jean-Louis Forteneau, a sergeant in the French Colonial Marines. He was born in France in 1686 and died at Fort Toulouse in 1755. He is said to be the progenitor of all the Forteneaus in North America, and his descendants erected the monument to him in 1998.

Another big stop on the trail is an ancient Indian mound that sits on a bluff on the Coosa River. It’s said that the chief’s house was built on a platform on top of the mound. When the chief died, villagers tore down the house and covered it with a layer of earth before building a home for their new chief in the same location. Over the years, the mound grew higher and higher.

Not far from the mound, you’ll find a partial reconstruction of Fort Jackson. The original fort had walls that were seven feet high and surrounded by a moat. Sharpened stakes around the walls made the fort a strongly defended position.

On the way home, Crystal and I talked about going back to the fort in November. Each November, the park hosts a big event called Alabama Frontier Days, which is said to be one of the largest annual living history events in the state. As of Monday, an exact date had not been set for this year’s Frontier Days, but it will be held sometime in November.