thumb|upright|left|Plan of Fort Dearborn drawn by John Whistler in 1808 Fort Dearborn was constructed by United States troops under the command of Captain John Whistler in 1803. It was located on the south bank of the main stem of the Chicago River in what is now the Loop community area of downtown Chicago. At the time, the area was seen as wilderness. In the view of a later commander, Heald, it was "so remote from the civilized part of the world." The fort was named in honor of Henry Dearborn, then United States Secretary of War. It had been commissioned after the Northwest Indian War of 1785–1795 and the signing of the Treaty of Greenville at Fort Greenville (now Greenville, Ohio) on August 3, 1795. As part of the terms of the treaty, a coalition of Native Americans and frontiersmen, known as the Western Confederacy, turned over to the United States large parts of modern-day Ohio and various other parcels of land, including centered on the mouth of the Chicago River.
thumb|upright|left|Plan of Fort Dearborn drawn by John Whistler in 1808 Fort Dearborn was constructed by United States troops under the command of Captain John Whistler in 1803. It was located on the south bank of the main stem of the Chicago River in what is now the Loop community area of downtown Chicago. At the time, the area was seen as wilderness In the view of a later commander, Heald, it was "so remote from the civilized part of the world." The fort was named in honor of Henry Dearborn, then United States Secretary of War. It had been commissioned after the Northwest Indian War of 1785–1795 and the signing of the Treaty of Greenville at Fort Greenville (now Greenville, Ohio) on August 3, 1795. As part of the terms of the treaty, a coalition of Native Americans and frontiersmen, known as the Western Confederacy, turned over to the United States large parts of modern-day Ohio and various other parcels of land, including centered on the mouth of the Chicago River.