The New Fort Curtis

The New Fort Curtis. . Mr. Ronnie Nichols, then-director of the Delta Cultural Center, first proposed building a reconstruction of Civil War Fort Curtis in 1992. Twenty years later, his vision was realized. New Fort Curtis was dedicated on May 11, 2012. , Imagine It Is 1862 , New Fort Curtis provides a glimpse into the changes the Union occupation brought to Civil War Helena. Look at its massive earthen walls and imagine the effort it took hundreds of refugee slaves, pressed into labor, to build the original Fort Curtis. The number and size of the reproduction guns is a visible reminder of the might of the Union army. Seeing the parade ground, you can imagine Union soldiers drilling or standing for inspection. , Interpreting Fort Curtis , New Fort Curtis is not an exact copy of the Fort Curtis built in 1862. The original Fort Curtis was a temporary field fortification. The highly erodible soil made alterations necessary to insure that this fort is permanent. , The lot size dictated that New Fort Curtis be somewhat smaller than the original fort. For safety reasons, no ditch encircles the fort. New Fort Curtis interprets the original Fort Curtis and brings part of Civil War Helena to life for you to experience. , [Photo captions] , Top right: Contractors brought in roughly 600 truck loads of soil. , Middle left: Men using hand tools built the original fort in three months. It took contractors using power equipment five months to build New Fort Curtis. , Middle right: In 1862, there was no earth moving equipment in Helena because none existed. In 2011, bulldozers pushed truck loads of soil into place.