Fort Ouiatenon — Attraction in West Lafayette

As a park this is a very quite place to go if you need to get away from all the noise of campus. It is an easy 10 minute drive and you are there at the edge of the Wabash. There is ample parking at the park and two shelters.there as well as clean pit toilets.

The main event held here annually for over 50 years is the Feast of the Hunter's Moon. It is a reenactment of life during the 1700's fur trade where the area was occupied by the Wea people, French, British, and Americans. With about 30 different foods to try you get to have all your senses taken back to that time.

Various arenas hold demonstrations of period dancing of both Europeans and the Native people, as well as discussions about clothing, military drills, and working animals. There is also live music throughout the day.

This event cost around $20 for a weekend adult pass. Parking is difficult when 20 to 30 thousand people are there each day. Arrive before 8 to get free parking. Generally there are shuttles that run from the Ross-Ade stadium Parking lot for a small fee.

I have been working at this event for the past 40-plus years. It holds a special place in my heart as a place where I get to see my Feast...

Visited here with my girlfriend in February 2024. It's a neat historic site with signage explaining how the original fort was built in 1717 as a French trading post on the Wabash River. Its name, "Ouiatenon," is a French rendering of the place name in the Wea language, waayaahtanonki, meaning "place of the whirlpool." The fort was ceded to the British after the French and Indian War. It was later used by Native Americans and destroyed by American militia in 1791 during the Northwest Indian War. Physician Richard Wetherill built the replica blockhouse in 1930, but based it on general British fortifications due to a lack of records about the original structure. Archaeologists rediscovered and confirmed the site in the 1960s. I would be interested to see if this site has historic interpretation or reenactments when the...

This was my first year attending the Feast. It was a complete cluster trying to enter the East gate. FYI-walk further West and there are no lines at ticketing. Signage for entering gate is AWFUL!! It said stay left and go ahead to gate for prepaid tickets. ($10/prepaid ticket & $13 at gate) We did that and they told us to go to the back of the line. People buying tickets stay to left. What an absolute mess!!! $10 for parking all the way up a hill in a pasture! Stood in line for 1 hour for apple dumplings. Lines are too long! We barely got to see anything with all the line waiting. Portable toilets not kept up/emptied/filthy. AWFUL! I WOULD NOT recommend and will...