NICKELSVILLE-A child's overactive imagination made Mrs. J. Carl Bell, Rock Springs Road, see wild Indians behind every bush when she lived in the Old Kilgore Fort House here.

     Mrs. Bell, born Mabel Dickerson, recalls that the property on which the fort was built had been in her family for several generations, and in fact her father was born in the old house.

     Her grandparents had since built a large white farmhouse nearby, and when she was five her parents and brother and sister moved into the Fort House.

     "There really were some Indians living on the bluff near us at that time. My grandfather hired them to work for him occasionally. But the stories I had heard about the Indian raids made me quite afraid of them.

     "We children, my brother, my sister and I, would go into the loft of the old building and watch the Indians through the small gun windows, and we were sure they were getting ready to attack the fort at any moment. "She recalls the children slept in the upstairs portion of the old building, and would sometimes get up at night and look out "just to be sure the Indians weren't creeping up on us."

     The children looked for and found a number of arrow heads, which they used as toys. Sometimes her brother strung the larger arrow heads on a string and pretended they were fish; sometimes they tried to make arrows from them with small sticks.

     "We moved from there when I was about seven, and as far as I know I'm the only person living who ever lived in the old house," Mrs. Bell recalls. "My parents and my brother and sister are all dead now."

     "I was so glad to hear the old fort is being restored," said the mother of Coach John Robert Bell. "It still seems like home to me, and I hope I can be there the day they open the building for the public to see." The old fort near here which is presently being restored is the only Indian fort of its era still standing in eastern United States.

     It has been placed on the National Register of Historic Sites, and will be open to the public when the restoration is completed.