Morristown National Historical Park
Fort Nonsense: Myth, Memory and Military Logic
Listen at the stop, then read the transcript and follow the sources behind the story.
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Transcript
Fort Nonsense has one of the best names in the National Park Service system.
The story says Washington ordered this hilltop fortification in 1777 and soldiers later joked that the work was pointless.
Historians are more cautious.
The hill did have strategic value because it overlooked Morristown. The nickname may reflect later criticism rather than what Washington actually believed.
This is a useful lesson in historical thinking: names often preserve memories, but memories are not always identical to events.