Dimensions of a Wilderness Pole Fort?

Cindyt

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It will have a lookout tower and dwelling beneath at each corner and rowed dwellings built into the surrounding walls. Would it be as big, say, as a 130 yard x 130 yard soccer field?
 

King Neptune

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They varied in size. That seems like it would be within the range. See if you can find details about some. I found a page that lists many and has links to some, but the sizes were not among the information given.
 

jclarkdawe

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That would be a rather large fort. It would be a major base with several hundred men assigned to it.

It would need to be in a very wooded area (that size is going to take a lot of trees) and would be a major trading post.

Normally a fort would be smaller, and buildings would be built outside the fort for trading and storage. The fort would be more for gathering in the case of an attack.

A fort of the size you're describing would need roughly 1,600 logs fifteen feet long and a foot in diameter. This would give you a ten-foot wall buried five feet into the ground. You'd have to dig a ditch five-feet deep about 1,600 feet long, going through all of the roots of the trees. Secondary interior wall would need to be built as well, to cover the gaps in the outside wall. You'd also probably want four blockhouses, one in each corner, to provide fire support along the sides of the walls, as well as a last ditch holdout. Or in other words, a lot more logs to cut. The interior of the fort would need to be stumped, a labor intensive activity. While construction was going on, you'd also need a security force.

Can you justify that amount of work and expense?

Jim Clark-Dawe
 

Cindyt

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Mention of flats up thread by Duncan J Macdonald makes me think it would be better to have them stop on a flat that JD allows is just the right size for the fort he wants to build and let the reader use their imagination.

Thanks, Everybody! Each of you made me think and gave me ideas. It's nice to have a place where one can get feedback from other writer.
 
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dinky_dau

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That is some serious undertaking (whether to build one in real life) or to describe it in prose. Even preppers' manuals are not likely to tackle a project of that size.

I know of only one resource which can offer detail on such construction: the Pulitzer-winning Civil War novel 'Andersonville'. That stockade covered a much larger site, but specifics on how logs are felled, and then prepared for use, and then erected, are found a-plenty.
 

Cindyt

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That is some serious undertaking (whether to build one in real life) or to describe it in prose. Even preppers' manuals are not likely to tackle a project of that size.

I know of only one resource which can offer detail on such construction: the Pulitzer-winning Civil War novel 'Andersonville'. That stockade covered a much larger site, but specifics on how logs are felled, and then prepared for use, and then erected, are found a-plenty.

I found out how one is built on google, complete with images. I'm not going into a great deal of detail and that will suffice. It's actually not a fort in the sense of the word, but a walled settlement. But I might just check that book out, though. Thanks!