Fort Zumwalt Park
A slice of American History
| | City of O'Fallon, Missouri: Founded in 1856 | |
When the City of O'Fallon purchased Fort Zumwalt Park for $1 from the Missouri Department of Natural Resources in 1978, it acquired about 48 acres, the ruins of a War of 1812 settler fort and a brick house built circa 1884-86. What took place here is a hefty slice of American history.
Westward, NO!
Until 1816, hardly anybody dared to go west of St. Charles in present-day Missouri. There were no roads. Mostly animal and native trails led into the wilderness, which was the hunting grounds of the Osage, a Native American tribe distinguished by 6- to 7-foot tall warriors. Wolves howled and cougars screamed at night and bears, elk and deer roamed the forest.
Despite the success of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-06), Native American attacks largely halted westward immigration at St. Charles, Missouri, until peace treaties eventually ended War of 1812 hostilities.
O'Fallon's first frontier families
If you were brave enough to move here and wanted a house, you had to cut down trees to build it. If you were hungry, thirsty, needed clothes or just wanted to have fun, you had to find the materials and make it or get it for yourself. If you were smart, you brought all your tools, utensils, supplies and weapons with you to the wilderness.
That's what Jacob Zumwalt and his family did when they moved to the leading edge of the American frontier—right here.
The Zumwalts were accustomed to a frontier life of hunting, trapping and farming because Jacob and his brothers, Adam, Christopher, George, and John D., (all Revolutionary War veterans), and a sixth brother, Henry, lived on the Kentucky frontier near Daniel Boone and his family. In 1782, Adam Zumwalt was at the Battle of Blue Licks in Kentucky, where Daniel Boone's son, Israel, was killed by Indians.
The fur trade was the economic engine of the era. A deer hide was worth a buck, a lot of money in those days.
American frontiersmen dressed in leather or linen hunting shirts (depending on the weather) and typically war breechcloths, leather leggings and moccasins.
Daniel Boone and the Zumwalts
When the Boones and Zumwalts heard that Spain was giving free land to anyone brave enough to settle here, they moved with their family members to present-day Missouri and obtained Spanish land grants in 1799.
Jacob Zumwalt's 300-acre grant included what's now Fort Zumwalt Park. On this site, he built a log home that would later serve as the area's first meeting place for Methodist church services administered by traveling ministers.
The War of 1812 and Zumwalt's Fort
Most history books focus on the War of 1812 as it was fought on the Great Lakes and at sea, but it was fought in the Ohio and Mississippi River valleys, too. To protect their fur trading ventures, the British provided arms and military titles to Native Americans and encouraged them to kill American settlers.
To safeguard their families, some Missouri Territory frontiersmen like the Zumwalts and Boones turned their homes into settler forts. During the War of 1812 as many as 10 frontier families took shelter on this site from Indian raids.
The settlers also organized volunteer companies and enlisted in the Missouri Rangers. They fought guerilla-style, with raids and ambushes between Native Americans and whites.
Was Rebekah Heald scalped in the War of 1812?
Rebeka Heald was O'Fallon's most unusual "veteran" of the War of 1812. People sometimes wonder if the white lace cap in an old photo of her is hiding something.
During the Massacre at Fort Dearborn (near present-day Chicago), some 500 Pottawatami warriors killed or captured the Americans who were ordered to evacuate the fort. Rebekah's husband Nathan Heald, the fort's commander, was badly wounded and captured.
Rebekah's arm was broken, she was wounded several times and her uncle, William Wells, was killed trying to protect her. But she kept her courage. After she was captured, she used her riding crop to fend off a woman bent on stealing her blanket. Amused and impressed by her spirit, her captors dressed her wounds and eventually traded her for a mule and a bottle of whiskey to Chardonnis, who reunited her with her husband.
Three months and 1,907 miles later, the Healds found their way home to Louisville, Kentucky, thanks partly to money Rebekah had sewn into a hiding place in her husband's clothing.
So, was Rebekah scalped? No, her white cap was the style of the day for married women.
The true end of the War of 1812
Although the Treaty of Ghent ended hostilities between the Americans and the British in 1814, bloodshed continued in Missouri Territory. In 1815, Daniel Boone's grandson Captain James Callaway was ambushed and killed along with some of his men.
But the end was near. William Clark, co-leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, invited war-weary tribes to gather at Portage des Sioux and sign peace treaties that summer. More peace treaties were signed in 1816. The war was over.
For about a generation afterwards, virtually all westward immigration passed through present-day O'Fallon and Dardenne Prairie over the Boones' Salt Lick Road, now called Highway N.
The Darius Heald House and Zumwalt's Fort
The two-story house nearby is connected to Zumwalt's Fort by the couple who purchased Jacob Zumwalt's farm in 1817, Maj. Nathan Heald and his wife, Rebekah.
The Healds were survivors of the 1812 Massacre of Fort Dearborn. Their only son, Darius, was born at Zumwalt's Fort in 1822. He lived most of his life in the old log house, which was raided by Union officers during the Civil War.
Darius Heald gave lands to build a new Methodist church, helped start a school for young women and served in the Missouri legislature in 1856. In 1886, he moved his family into the new, handsome brick home he had built on the hilltop overlooking the log house.
[Captions:]
Frontier families crossed the Mississippi River into north St. Charles County.
Black Hawk, a Sauk war leader, led attacks against local settlers in the War of 1812, including the Battle of the Sink Hole in 1815.
Erected by the
this page online
Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Forts and Castles • Indigenous Peoples and Communities • Settlements & Settlers • War of 1812. A significant historical year for this entry is 1978.
Location. 38° 47.712′ N, 90° 42.413′ W. Marker is in O'Fallon, Missouri, in St. Charles County. It is on Jessup Drive West just south of Fort Drive, on the left when traveling north. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 25 Plackemeier Dr, O Fallon MO 63366, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Regionally, this marker is in the Missouri River Corridor and in Greater St. Louis. It is also in the American Midwest, in the Lewis & Clark Corridor, in the Corn Belt, and in the Great River Road Region. Globally, it is in North America, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once the territory of the Mississippian Culture, the Louisiana Purchase, and the Antebellum South.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 3 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies:
Credits. This page was last revised on May 11, 2026. It was originally submitted on March 27, 2021, by Devry Becker Jones of Washington, District of Columbia. This page has been viewed 1,220 times since then and 77 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on March 27, 2021, by Devry Becker Jones of Washington, District of Columbia. 3. submitted on May 7, 2026, by Garrett Koch of Saint Louis, Missouri.
