The Fort Daniel Historic Site and Archaeological Research Park is a permanent archaeological research preserve owned by Gwinnett County and available to researchers, historians and educators. The Fort Daniel Foundation is responsible for development of the site and programming. The mission of the Foundation is:

  • Teach the value of our cultural heritage, particularly as it is contained in archaeological sites

  • Train and mentor archaeology students

  • Providing public archaeology opportunities

  • Maintaining a field laboratory where artifacts will be processed and conserved

  • Create a field museum where artifacts and interpretive displays will be exhibited for the public

About Fort Daniel

First built sometime in the early 19th c. (best estimate is about 1806), “the fort at hog mountain”

was originally a frontier fort located near the juncture of two treaty lines that separated the early

settlers from the Cherokee to the west and north, and the Creeks to the west and south. The

location of the fort was in the southwest corner of Jackson County, which became part of

Gwinnett County in 1819. Therefore it is believed to be the Gwinnett’s oldest historic site.

During the Creek Indian War (an extension of the War of 1812), the original fort, which was still

in use by local militia, was reconstructed by order of Maj. Gen. Allen Daniel in the fall and

winter of 1813. Beginning in January of 1814, the new “Fort Daniel” was the staging ground for

construction of a road thru Creek territory to Standing Peachtree (military name, “Floydsville”)

where another fort would be constructed (Fort Peachtree) in order to float supplies down the

Chattahoochee River to Fort Mitchell in support of both the Georgia Army and US Army under

General Jackson operating in Mississippi Territory against the Creek Red Sticks. The road was

the original Peachtree Road. More on Historical Background.

Archaeologists have unearthed artifacts including historic pottery, black bottle glass, clay pipe

fragments, musket balls, musket flints, wrought and machine-cut nails, and a 1776 Spanish coin.

Just as important, remote sensing technics employed by participating universities and

archaeological excavation have determined the footprint of the fort. This plan, exhibiting a

square stockade with two, diagonally situated, block houses, conforms to a plan for frontier forts

devised by President George Washington, and delivered to the Governor of Georgia in 1794 by

Washington’s Secretary of War, John Knox.