In August 1823, numerous leaders of the Seminole tribe succumbed to the mounting governmental pressures of the era and ratified the Moultrie Creek Treaty. This agreement mandated the relinquishment of their well-established farms and cattle ranches in North Florida to resettle in a 4 million-acre reservation at the heart of the peninsula – the Cove of the Withlacoochee.

Skillfully adapting to the marshy, untamed wilderness of the cove, the Seminoles swiftly put their hunting, fishing, agricultural, and survival prowess into action. However, the tranquility proved to be short-lived.

Following the election of Andrew Jackson as U.S. president in 1828, the pressure from Washington to relocate the Seminoles westward intensified. Despite the mounting coercion, the Seminoles stood firm in their resolve not to depart.

Tensions escalated, prompting the U.S. government to dispatch substantial troop reinforcements to oust the Seminoles, thus igniting the commencement of the Second Seminole War in December 1835 with the brutal Dade’s troops massacre in the Cove of the Withlacoochee. 

During the initial year of the conflict, the Seminoles and their Black allies achieved notable victories.

In March 1836, General Winfield Scott initiated a campaign to encircle the Seminoles in the cove with a formidable army of 5,000 men. 

On his journey to Fort Brook in Tampa, Scott paused at a lake to tend to the ailing and wounded, entrusting Major Mark Anthony Cooper with the duty of constructing a defensive fortification. Cooper, cognizant of the impending perils, prioritized fortifying the position to safeguard the soldiers from potential large-scale Seminole offensives that could threaten the entire detachment.

A few days subsequent to Scott’s departure, a group of several hundred Seminole warriors under the leadership of Osceola launched an assault. The 380 soldiers found refuge behind the protective picket wall of pine trees at the fortification; nevertheless, the Seminoles managed to confine the soldiers with relentless attacks for 16 days, seizing cattle and compelling them to sacrifice horses for sustenance.

The Seminole warriors besieging Fort Cooper operated without the need for a conventional fortress. Their superior defense lay in their familiarity with the region’s forests and swamps, allowing them to conceal themselves and move discreetly. The Seminoles adeptly navigated the conditions of Florida’s interior.

The siege persisted, culminating in the arrival of reinforcements as the fort’s supplies dwindled. U.S. troops successfully held the Seminoles at bay until Thomas Jesup assumed command of the conflict in December, commencing the expulsion of the Seminoles from the cove.

The hostilities endured for another five years until the conclusion of the Second Seminole War in 1842, with merely a few hundred defiant Seminoles evading capture, leading to the eventual cessation of hostilities. Fort Cooper served as a tactical outpost and dispatch station for various army units until the war’s termination.

Subsequent to a third and final conflict from 1855 to 1858, the remaining Seminoles opted to reside covertly in the wilderness of the Everglades.

Presently, the several thousand Seminole Indians inhabiting Florida proudly trace their lineage to the fewer than 200 resolute warriors and their families who refused to relinquish the beloved homeland.

In 1972, the grounds encompassing Fort Cooper and the adjacent 710 acres were designated as a state park, made possible by a visionary resident of Citrus County who graciously donated the land to ensure the preservation of the historical occurrences that transpired on this sacred site.

Special thanks to John and Mary Lou Missall.