Editing Battle of Fort Dearborn (section)

==Location==
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| image1 = Chicago in 1812 Andreas.png
| width1 = 309
| caption1 = Map, reproduced from {{harvnb|Andreas|1884|p=81}}, showing Chicago in 1812 with the sites of Fort Dearborn by the river and the battle marked at left (west is up)
| image2 = Battle of Fort Dearborn tree Andreas 1884.jpg
| width2 = 129
| caption2 = 1884 drawing of the tree said to have marked the site of the start of the battle}}
Eyewitness accounts place the battle on the lake shore somewhere between {{convert|1|and|2|mi|km}} south of Fort Dearborn.<ref name=Musham1943>{{cite journal |last=Musham| first=H. A.| title=Where Did the Battle of Chicago Take Place?| journal=Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society| date=March 1943| volume=36| issue=1| pages=21–40 |jstor=40188830}}</ref> Heald's official report said the battle occurred {{convert|1+1/2|mi|km}} south of the fort,<ref name="Heald Report" /> placing the battle at what is now the intersection of [[Roosevelt Road]] (12th Street) and [[Michigan Avenue (Chicago)|Michigan Avenue]].<ref name=Musham1943 /> Juliette Kinzie, shortly before her death in 1870, stated that the battle had started by a large cottonwood tree, which still stood on 18th Street between [[Prairie Avenue]] and the lake.<ref>{{harvnb|Andreas|1884|p=31}}</ref> The tree was supposed to have been the last remaining of a grove of trees that had been saplings at the time of the battle.<ref name=Musham1943 />

The tree was blown down in a storm on May 16, 1894, and a portion of its trunk was preserved at the [[Chicago History Museum|Chicago Historical Society]].<ref name=Musham1943 /> The historian Harry A. Musham points out that the testimony relating to the tree is all second hand and came from people who had settled in Chicago more than 20 years after the battle. Moreover, based on the diameter of the preserved section of trunk (about {{convert|3|ft|m}}) he estimated the age of the tree at the time that it was blown over at no more than 80 years and, therefore, he asserted that it could not have been growing at the time of the battle.<ref name=Musham1943 /> Nevertheless, the site at 18th Street and Prairie Avenue has become the location traditionally associated with the battle,<ref name=Musham1943 /> and on the battle's 197th anniversary in 2009, the [[Chicago Park District]], the [[Prairie District Neighborhood Alliance]] and other community partners dedicated "Battle of Fort Dearborn Park" near the site at 18th Street and Calumet Avenue.<ref name="park">{{cite news | last = Grossman | first = Ron | title = Site of Chicago's Ft. Dearborn Massacre to be called 'Battle of Ft. Dearborn Park' | work = Chicago Tribune | place = Chicago | publisher = Tribune | date = 2009-08-14 | url = http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-fort-dearborn-massacre-renamaug14,0,4033765.story | access-date = 2009-08-14 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090817211441/http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-fort-dearborn-massacre-renamaug14,0,4033765.story | archive-date = 2009-08-17 | url-status = dead }}</ref>