Bledsoe ' s Station Bledsoe ' s Station ( also called Bledsoe ' s Fort ) was an 18th - century frontier fort located in what is now Castalian Springs , Tennessee , in the southeastern United States . The fort was built by long hunter and Sumner County pioneer Isaac Bledsoe ( c . 1735 – 1793 ) in the early 1780s to protect Upper Cumberland settlers and migrants from hostile Native American attacks . While the fort is no longer standing , its location has been verified by archaeological excavations . The site is now part of Bledsoe ' s Fort Historical Park , a public park established in 1989 by Sumner County residents and Bledsoe ' s descendants . Bledsoe ' s Station was one of a series of outposts built in the Upper Cumberland during the first major migration of Euro - American settlers into the Middle Tennessee area following the American Revolution . The fort was a convenient stopover along Avery ' s Trace — the main road connecting East and Middle Tennessee at the time . The flood of settlers into the region brought inevitable conflict with the region ' s Native American inhabitants , and dozens of settlers were killed in the late 1780s and early 1790s . Isaac Bledsoe ' s brother Anthony ( 1733 – 1788 ) was killed in an ambush at the fort in 1788 and Isaac himself was killed while tending a field just outside the fort in 1793 . The end of the Chickamauga Wars the following year ended much of the violence and reduced the fort ' s necessity . Bledsoe ' s Fort Historical Park protects the fort ' s excavation site ( an outline of the fort ' s walls can be discerned from former excavation trenches ) as well as several historic structures , including the Nathaniel Parker Cabin and Hugh Rogan Cottage ( both Parker and Rogan were compatriots of Bledsoe ) and a pioneer cemetery with an obelisk dedicated to the Bledsoe brothers . The Cheskiki Indian Mounds and the Wynnewood State Historical Site are located immediately east of the park , and the Cragfont State Historical Site is located immediately to the west . Geographical setting . Bledsoe ' s Station was located on a hill slope between Bledsoe Creek to the west and Bledsoe Lick Creek to the east . Both streams empty into the Old Hickory Lake impoundment of the Cumberland River just over a mile to the south . The hill is relatively blunt and consists of open fields alternating with densely forested areas . The top of the hill is used as a flying zone for radio - controlled airplanes . The spring that furnished the minerals for Bledsoe ' s Lick flows at the base of the hill a few hundred yards east of the fort site . Bledsoe ' s Fort Historical Park covers most of the hill between the Sumner County RC Flyers airfield and Rock Springs Road . Tennessee State Route 25 ( Hartsville Pike ) provides the park ' s southern boundary and main access . The park is roughly halfway between Hartsville to the east and Gallatin to the west , and lies approximately northeast of Nashville . History . Early exploration . For thousands of years , the mineral springs at Bledsoe ' s Lick attracted buffalo and other large animals , and subsequently drew Native American hunters to the area . Native Americans were hunting around Bledsoe ' s Lick as early as 12 , 000 years ago during the Paleo - Indian period , and camped sporadically in the area throughout the Archaic ( 8000 - 1000 BC ) and Woodland ( 1000 BC - 1000 AD ) periods . During the Mississippian period ( c . 1000 – 1450 AD ) , a substantial village had been established at the Castalian Springs Mound Site , a few hundred yards from the mineral springs . The village covered and contained at least 12 mounds . By the time the first Euro - American explorers arrived in the area in the mid - 18th century , the Cherokee , Chickasaw , and Creek claimed the area as a hunting ground . Among the first documented English explorers in the Upper Cumberland region were the long hunters , so - called because of the long duration of their hunting expeditions . The long hunters typically followed the Cumberland River and its headwaters from southwestern Virginia into Middle Tennessee . Expeditions led by Henry Scaggs in 1765 and James Smith in 1766 passed through what is now Sumner County and hunted extensively in the Upper Cumberland region . In 1769 , an expedition led by Kasper Mansker spent several months in the Upper Cumberland area , eventually sending two canoes full of furs downriver to Natchez , Mississippi . Mansker returned to the Upper Cumberland in 1771 with a larger group of hunters — among them Isaac Bledsoe — and collected several thousand skins . In 1772 , Mansker and Bledsoe led a third expedition to the Upper Cumberland region . This group established a base camp along Station Camp Creek ( giving the creek its name ) a few miles to the west near Gallatin . It was during this third expedition that Bledsoe followed the ancient buffalo paths to the creek and salt lick that now bear his name , and where he would eventually construct his fort . In the late 1770s , long hunter and explorer Thomas " Bigfoot " Spencer led a hunting expedition that camped near Bledsoe ' s Lick . Spencer remained throughout 1778 , spending the winter in a hollowed - out sycamore tree just south of the mineral springs . Spencer spent much of the year building cabins in the area , believing ( mistakenly ) that if he constructed cabins on certain tracts of land , he could lay claim to these tracts . Settlement and hostilities . The Bledsoe brothers , Isaac and Anthony , were born in Virginia in the early 1730s . Anthony Bledsoe , the older of the two , served in the French and Indian War and in various capacities with the Virginia militia . He commanded Fort Patrick Henry at Long Island of the Holston in 1776 and was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates the following year . Isaac Bledsoe also served in the French and Indian War , and following the long hunting excursions of the early 1770s , Bledsoe joined William Christian ' s 1776 punitive expedition against the Cherokee . In 1779 , North Carolina appointed Anthony Bledsoe to lead a surveying party to Middle Tennessee . Isaac Bledsoe followed in 1781 . Isaac Bledsoe probably began building Bledsoe ' s Station shortly after his arrival , although he didn ' t move his family into the fort until 1783 . Around the time Bledsoe ' s Station was completed , Anthony Bledsoe completed a fort at Greenfield north of Bledsoe ' s Station . As settlers poured into the Upper Cumberland region , conflict with the region ' s Native American inhabitants intensified . The Chickamaugas — a renegade branch of the Cherokee — had for the most part been at war with the United States since 1776 , and opposed land concessions that would allow Euro - American settlers to move into the Middle Tennessee area permanently . In 1782 , frontiersman Hugh Rogan ( 1747 – 1814 ) was nearly killed in an ambush in the vicinity of what is now Cragfont . A hunting party led by Thomas Spencer was attacked at Drake ' s Creek in 1784 . Spencer survived , but was later killed in an ambush near Crab Orchard . In 1786 , Anthony Bledsoe wrote a letter to North Carolina governor Richard Caswell reporting that 14 settlers had been killed that year and sought permission to attack the Chickamaugas . A schoolmaster named George Hamilton was shot and badly wounded at Bledsoe ' s Station in 1787 . As attacks increased , Anthony Bledsoe moved his family from Greenfield to Bledsoe ' s Station , which afforded better protection , but in 1788 he was shot and mortally wounded when he accidentally stepped into a section of the fort vulnerable to hostile fire . During the engagement , Hugh Rogan — who was in the fort at the time — volunteered to try to sneak to a nearby fort to obtain means for making a fire and providing light by which the dying Bledsoe could draw up a will . Conflict between the Chickamaugas and the Upper Cumberland settlers continued into the early 1790s . Ziegler ' s Fort ( at what is now Bledsoe Creek State Park a few miles southwest of Bledsoe ' s Lick ) was overrun in 1792 , and Morgan ' s Station ( northwest of Bledsoe ' s Lick ) was nearly burned a few months later . In 1793 , Isaac Bledsoe was shot and killed while walking through a field near Bledsoe ' s Station . The following year , a son of Anthony Bledsoe ( named Anthony ) and a nephew of Anthony and Isaac ( also named Anthony ) were both ambushed and killed near Rock Castle at what is now Hendersonville . Thomas Bledsoe , another son of Anthony Bledsoe , was ambushed and killed a few months later . Hostilities between the settlers and the Chickamaugas finally subsided when the 1794 Treaty of Tellico brought an end to the Chickamauga Wars . Later history . The first major road connecting the Upper Cumberland region with settlements to the east , known as Avery ' s Trace , was completed in 1788 . The road , which connected Fort Southwest Point with Nashville , passed a few hundred feet east of Bledsoe ' s Station . Guests at Bledsoe ' s Station in the 1790s included French botanist André Michaux and Louis - Philippe , Duke of Orléans and later king of France . General James Winchester , who helped establish Cairo to the southwest and was later instrumental in the founding of Memphis , purchased Bledsoe ' s Station in 1797 . The following year , Winchester completed Cragfont near Bledsoe Creek about a mile to the west . In 1807 , a pioneer from North Carolina named Jeremiah Belote ( d . 1822 ) purchased Bledsoe ' s Lick , and his descendants would retain possession of the property for several decades . Following Winchester ' s death in 1826 , his daughter , Almira Wynne , inherited what is now the Wynnewood State Historical Site . Wynnewood — the largest extant log structure in the state — was completed in 1830 and operated as an inn . During this period , the Winchester family also managed to change the name of Bledsoe ' s Lick to " Castalian Springs " , the name being derived from the spring of mythological importance near Delphi in Greece . Castalian Springs thrived sporadically as a health resort until 1914 . The Bledsoe ' s Station site was purchased by Sumner County in 1989 . Bledsoe ' s Fort Historical Park . Bledsoe ' s Fort Historical Park consists of approximately , and includes the Bledsoe ' s Station site and several other features important to the early history of the Upper Cumberland region . The park is owned by Sumner County and maintained by the Bledsoe ' s Lick Historical Association . A short loop trail — part of which follows a section of Avery ' s Trace — provides access to the fort site and other features .