The Historical Society of Avon ParkAVON PARK, FL · EST. 1886
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Fort Basinger

Fort Basinger (frequently spelled “Bassinger” in nineteenth-century reports and local vernacular) was a United States Army fortification established in December 1837 on the west bank of the Kissimmee River in what is now eastern Highlands County, Florida.[taylor-1838-report][fl-historic-marker-basinger]

Establishment and Second Seminole War Service

The post was constructed by troops commanded by Colonel Zachary Taylor during his southward advance through the Kissimmee River basin prior to the Battle of Lake Okeechobee (fought 25 December 1837).[taylor-1838-report] Taylor established the stockade to protect his line of communication, secure supplies, and serve as a hospital and defensive depot for wounded soldiers and baggage.[taylor-1838-report][sprague-1848]

The post was named in honor of Lieutenant William E. Basinger of the 2nd U.S. Artillery, who was killed on 28 December 1835 at the Dade Massacre in modern Sumter County.[taylor-1838-report]

During the Second Seminole War (1835–1842) and subsequent military surveys, Fort Basinger functioned as a primary river crossing and strongpoint along the military trail connecting Fort Brooke (Tampa) and Fort Fraser (Lake Garfield) with the eastern interior posts and Fort Pierce.[sprague-1848]

Geographic Location and County Boundary

The historic fort stood on the west bank of the Kissimmee River near modern U.S. Highway 98 (Township 36 South, Range 33 East).[fl-historic-marker-basinger]

Because the centerline of the Kissimmee River constitutes the legal statutory boundary between Highlands County and Okeechobee County (created in 1917), the physical site of Fort Basinger lies entirely within Highlands County.[fl-historic-marker-basinger] Following the Seminole Wars, a pioneer settlement, steamboat landing, and cattle-crossing community named Basinger grew up in the vicinity, eventually expanding across the bridge into western Okeechobee County.[fl-historic-marker-basinger]

Pioneer Settlement and Steamboat Hub

In 1874–1875, Captain John Mizell Pearce established a homestead on the west bank of the river adjacent to the abandoned fort stockade, becoming the earliest documented permanent American pioneer settler in modern Highlands County.[levey-2021-basinger][vanlandingham-basinger-ch2] Pearce operated a ferry crossing that served open-range cattle drives moving between the Peace River valley and eastern grazing prairies.[vanlandingham-basinger-ch2]

Following Hamilton Disston’s drainage and canal-clearing work in the early 1880s, Fort Basinger became the major intermediate port on the Kissimmee River steamboat route between the railhead at Kissimmee and Lake Okeechobee.[vanlandingham-basinger-ch2] For four decades, sternwheel paddleboats carried citrus, winter produce, skins, and ranch supplies on regular five-day round trips along the 162-mile river corridor, making Fort Basinger eastern Highlands County’s chief commercial link to outside markets until the arrival of the Florida East Coast Railway at Okeechobee in 1915 bypassed the river route.[levey-2021-basinger][vanlandingham-basinger-ch2]

References

Where this comes from

Evidence
corroborated — More than one independent source agrees.
Review
unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.
Rights
society

Sources

  1. Colonel Zachary Taylor, in Army and Navy Chronicle, Official Report of the Battle of Okee-cho-bee, December 25, 1837 (1838)
  2. Florida Department of State, Division of Historical Resources, Florida Historic Marker: Fort Basinger (2020)
  3. John T. Sprague, The Origin, Progress, and Conclusion of the Florida War (1848)
  4. Elaine Levey, Highlands News-Sun, Fort Basinger Was Hub of Early Commerce (2021) · newspaper
  5. Kyle S. VanLandingham, Basinger 1860–1917 (Chapter Two, History of Okeechobee County) (1978) · book

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