With Chickasaw approval, Army Captain Isaac Guion erected the United States' first garrison in the mid-Mississippi Valley here in October of 1797. Initially named Fort Adams for the second U.S. President, the stockade was later called Fort Pike, because Adams' name was transferred to a larger fort at Natchez, Mississippi. Fort Pike was vacated in 1798, when Fort Pickering was constructed on a higher part of the bluff.
Submitted from the Shelby County Register's Office.