Fort Boggy traded farm rows for woods and a little lake

Fort Boggy's name sounds as if visitors should expect log walls. No trace of the old fort is visible today. The park opens instead onto woods, fields, trails, and 15-acre Sullivan Lake.

The name came from a palisade that settlers built in Kichi and Kickapoo territory near Boggy Creek. It initially carried the Erwin family name. The fort stood on contested ground as Republic officials sought to drive Native people from the area and Native groups resisted.

After the fort faded, White and African American families farmed this ground for almost a century. The Sullivan family took it out of cultivation in the 1930s. Eileen Crain Sullivan donated the 1,847 acres to the state in 1985, and the park opened in 2001.

A 1.5-mile trail now circles the lake, while a two-mile nature trail runs through the woods. Visitors can swim, fish, or paddle Sullivan Lake, where small boats travel at no-wake speed.