From the WSIL TV Channel 3 Website...

We Ask Officials About the Disheveled Fort Defiance

By: Rachel Gartner

ALEXANDER COUNTY -- Fort Defiance park lies at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. It was an important transportation hub and strategic site in the civil war, and southern Illinois leaders have been trying to restore it as a tourist attraction. But, in the meantime, the park has become rundown.

Karen Mayer from Paducah has fond memories Fort Defiance Park. On Friday she brought her friend to the historic area so the pair could admire the meeting of the mighty Mississippi and Ohio rivers.

"It was just a beautiful place to come. And it was cool, even though it was warm, it was still cool to be down here and to listen to the rivers and everything else. It was a really neat place.'

This is not the place Karen remembers...

"I was just devastated when I came down here and saw how the mud is just cracked, there's debris all over there, all the drift wood and just everything. Nothing has been taken care of."

I spoke with city officials who tell me they are responsible for the maintenance here at Fort Defiance. They say, the drift wood is the result of the rise and fall of the river. But, they provided no explanation as to the condition of the rest of the park.

As we gathered the last of our video, Cairo Mayor Judson Childs arrived at the park... Following Childs, some visitors...

"I'm gonna have to ask you all to leave right now. It should be closed. I don't know who opened the gate, but it should not be open," he told the teens as they piled back into their car.

Childs says, no one was supposed to be in the area, and the chains keeping the gate closed had been cut. He also told me, he expected the river to rise again.

So, I asked him, "Is that why the park, in late June, has not been maintenanced yet?"

And Childs responded by saying, "You're making me feel like I'm on trial. I am not on trial. Ok? So at this point I'm asking you to leave. Ok?"

The gates to Fort Defiance were immediately chained and locked.