Photograph of Fort Gadsden — Photograph by Original uploader was JW1805 at en.wikipedia, Public domain. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Fort Gadsden Historic Memorial

A National Historic Landmark. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. 10 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1944.

From the record

“Prospect Bluff Historic Sites is located in Franklin County, Florida, on the Apalachicola River, 6 miles (9.7 km) SW of Sumatra, Florida. The site contains the ruins of two forts.”
Wikipedia article Prospect Bluff Historic Sites, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 8 National Register listings published here for Franklin County · listed in 1972 · category: Site · a National Historic Landmark.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

National Historic Landmark. The highest federal designation, held by about 2,600 places in the country against roughly 100,000 Register listings.
What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 2 sitess as contributing to the listing.
Address. 6 mi. SW of Sumatra, Sumatra, 32328
When was it listed? February 1972
Category. site
Census division. Eastpoint
National Register reference number. 72000318 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Then and now

1944 to 1988

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 44 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Fort Gadsden Historic Memorial, surveyed 1988

Topographic sheet covering Fort Gadsden Historic Memorial, surveyed 1944

Fires near this property

66 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 66 fires within 5 miles of Fort Gadsden Historic Memorial between 1992 and 2020, burning about 3,979 acres in total. 31 started naturally. 8 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Natural	31
Arson/incendiarism	8
Debris and open burning	7
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	6
Railroad operations and maintenance	4
Smoking	4
Power generation/transmission/distribution	2
Recreation and ceremony	2
Misuse of fire by a minor	1
Equipment and vehicle use	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
5 September 2014	Natural	2.0 acres	Florida Forest Service	RING (19-5)
5 September 2014	Natural	2.0 acres	National Forests in Florida	FORT GADSDEN CREEK
16 September 1999	Debris and open burning	1.0 acres	Florida Forest Service	not named
9 August 2000	Power generation/transmission/distribution	2.0 acres	National Forests in Florida	JUNIPER
31 August 2007	Natural	45 acres	National Forests in Florida	SAPP ROAD
30 August 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	82 acres	National Forests in Florida	135-A
28 August 2008	Natural	31 acres	National Forests in Florida	SMITH CREEK RD
8 July 2012	Natural	3.0 acres	Florida Forest Service	OLD BAY CITY ROAD (23)

Every fire recorded in Franklin County

Maps showing this location

10 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1944 USGS Forbes Island quadrangle1:24000 - 2 printings
1945 USGS Forbes Island quadrangle1:31680 - 3 printings
1949 USGS Apalachicola quadrangle1:250000
1957 USGS Apalachicola quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1959 USGS Apalachicola quadrangle1:250000
1960 USGS Apalachicola quadrangle1:250000
1967 USGS Apalachicola quadrangle1:250000
1978 USGS Port Saint Joe quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings
1982 USGS Forbes Island quadrangle1:24000
1988 USGS Apalachicola quadrangle1:250000

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 72000318 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Franklin County	All 8 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.