Fort Ouiatenon Fort Ouiatenon was the first fortified European settlement in what is now called Indiana . It was a French trading post on the Wabash River located approximately three miles southwest of modern - day West Lafayette . The name ' Ouiatenon ' is a French rendering of the name in the Wea language , " waayaahtanonki " , meaning ' place of the whirlpool ' . Every year a reenactment of pioneer life is held at the now rebuilt fort called Feast of the Hunters ' Moon . French period . Fort Ouiatenon was originally constructed by the Government of New France as a military outpost to protect against Great Britain ’ s western expansion . Its location among the unsettled woodlands of the Wabash River valley also made it a key center of trade for fur trappers . French merchants and trappers from Quebec would arrive at Fort Ouiatenon in search of beaver pelts and to take advantage of trade relations with the native Wea Indian tribes . In 1717 , Ensign François Picote de Beletre ( related to another Picoté de Bélestre , see Adam Dollard des Ormeaux ) arrived at the mouth of the Tippecanoe and Wabash with four soldiers , three men , a blacksmith and supplies to trade with the nearby Wea people , an Algonquian - speaking nation closely related to the Miami people . They built a stockade on the Wabash , eighteen miles below the mouth of the Tippecanoe . François - Marie Bissot , the Sieur de Vincennes assumed command of the fort sometime in the 1720s . The French settled on the north bank , with Wea villages on the south bank . In order to convince the Wea to trade exclusively with the French , the Governor - General of New France , Philippe de Rigaud Vaudreuil , issued permits for trade at Ouiatenon . Traders immediately began to bring a steady flow of goods to the new town . Soon the officials in Louisiana sent more men to help Vincennes to hold the Wabash River . Ouiatenon was described as " the finest palisaded fort in the upper country , " and was one of the most successful trading posts in the region . At its peak level of activity during the mid - 18th century , Fort Ouiatenon may have supported over 3 , 000 residents , and it was central to a hub of five Wea and two Kickapoo villages . British period . After the surrender of New France to the British in September 1760 , Robert Rogers dispatched troops to occupy Ouiatenon . a contingent of British soldiers led by Lieutenant Edward Jenkins arrived in 1761 , capturing and occupying the fort . On June 1 , 1763 , during Pontiac ' s War , the Wea , Kickapoo and Mascouten peoples captured Ouiatenon . They surprised Lieutenant Jenkins and his men and captured Fort Ouiatenon without firing a shot . Seven similar posts were also captured in the widespread Indian uprising against the British presence . The British made little use of Fort Ouiatenon after the French and Indian War ; it was never garrisoned . In the mid - 1770s , the fort was described 70 yards from the Wabash river . The Ouattanon nation of Indians is on the opposite side , & the Kiccaposses are round the Fort , in both villages about 1000 men able to bear arms . As late as 1778 , Ouiatenon was a staging ground for war parties fighting on behalf of the British government . American period . Captain Leonard Helm and Lt . Bailey arrived in 1778 to secure the fort for the rebelling Americans . A British Indian agent named Celeron controlled the fort and tried to evacuate , but was captured with a force of 40 men . A British company arrived and hoisted " St . George ' s Ensign " in the fort by December of the same year . Shortly after the Americans captured Vincennes in 1779 , Captain I . Shelby arrived in Ouiatenon and received promises of cooperation from the Wea . During the 1780s , however , local Indian tribes used it as a base of operations to stage raids against American settlers pushing westward . Consequently President George Washington ordered the fort to be destroyed in 1791 . Northwest Territory Governor Arthur St . Clair ordered General Charles Scott to attack villages along the Wabash River , with Ouiatenon as the primary target . Scott crossed the Ohio River in May 1791 and marched to the Ouiatenon area with 750 Kentucky militia . While Colonel John Hardin led a force to the Big Pine Creek to destroy a large Kickapoo village , Scott led the main force to Ouiatenon . The American Indians who were present evacuated , and Colonel James Wilkinson led a battalion of mounted militia down to the river to fire on escaping Indians . Ouiatenon was then burned to the ground , and the militia destroyed several over nearby villages , including the large village of Keth - tio - e - ca - muck near the mouth of the Tippecanoe River . Besides the villages and crops that were destroyed , 38 Native Americans had been killed , and another 58 were taken prisoner , mostly women and children . The Kentucky militia had no men killed , and only five wounded . The militia returned victorious to Kentucky , but the destruction enraged the Indians , who increased their attacks on the white settlers . Furthermore , since the attack came relatively early in the growing season , the tribes were able to recover some of their lost crops . When Colonel Wilkinson led another expedition into Indiana in Autumn of the same year , he returned along the Wabash and destroyed some of the same villages . Twentieth century . In 1930 , a replica of Fort Ouiatenon was built by a local physician named Richard Wetherill . The Daughters of the American Revolution had placed a small commemorative marker near this spot in 1909 . Dr . Wetherill ' s blockhouse was actually patterned after those more typical of British fortifications ( using horizontal logs ) and does not match the style or type of construction of the original Fort Ouiatenon ( with vertical logs ) . The replica blockhouse is now the focal point of a county park . The true site of Fort Ouiatenon , one mile from the replica ' s site , was discovered and confirmed archaeologically in the late 1960s . In 1970 the site was placed on the National Register of Historic Places by the U . S . Department of the Interior . Today , the Fort Ouiatenon Blockhouse Museum is open to tourists in the summer and is the location of the annual Feast of the Hunters ’ Moon . Many rare artifacts from the original Fort Ouiatenon are displayed by the Tippecanoe County Historical Association during the Feast .