In January 2016, the Tippecanoe County Historical Association announced the creation of the Ouiatenon Preserve – A Roy Whistler Foundation Project. This announcement was the culmination of a three year collaborative effort to protect one of the nation’s most historical trading posts in the frontier.
Tippecanoe County Historical Association (TCHA) was aware that the current historic park known as Fort Ouiatenon was not the original placement of the post and had secured a central 5-acre section of the original spot approximately one mile west of the park. The Roy Whistler Foundation (RWF) committed $636,000 to allow TCHA to purchase several tracts of lands surrounding the original 5 acres. TCHA was also able to secure matching grants from the Indiana Heritage Nature Trust and the Indiana Bicentennial Nature Trust and entered into a co-ownership arrangement with the National Archeological Conservancy.
The new 200+ acre preserve will not be the site of an encompassing archeological dig but is to be restored with the collaboration of the local NICHES Land Trust from tillable ground to lowland prairie grass as it was when it operated as a trading post centuries ago. “The Roy Whistler Foundation is very happy to make this happen in partnership with TCHA”, Mike Reckowsky, President of the RWF said. “It is a site to be studied, mapped, and preserved for generations to come.”
The name, Ouiatenon Preserve – A Roy Whistler Foundation Project, was very purposeful. Access to the Preserve has been developed. An entrance from South River Road, parking, and a circular drive were paid for by the Roy Whistler Foundation in 2016. The RWF has also provided funds to purchase the adjoining property with a house to be used as a way to safeguard the site, be used during archeological work, and a possible early interpretive center of artifacts found on site.
In 2020, the Secretary of the Interior provided notice that the Ouiatenon Preserve – A Roy Whistler Foundation Project was named a National Historic Landmark. On Friday, May 21, 2021, the French Ambassador to the U.S., the Honorable Phillippe Etienne, visited the Preserve.