American History – June 2019

Fort Niagara...

...at Youngstown, New York, between Rochester and Buffalo, dominates the

mouth of the Niagara River. The limestone bastion and dependencies overlook

Lake Ontario at the point where France first controlled access on that waterway

to the American interior. Not the locale’s first French edifice, the fort has proven

the most durable. France, eager for otter, beaver, and deer pelts, obtained Iro-

quois Confederacy assent to a trading post in the 1600s and in 1726 built the

fort. French officials swore the compound, which included a powder magazine,

a bakehouse, and well, was a “house of peace.” However, the enclosing pali-

sade’s martial air offended local Seneca. Between the Seven Years’ War and the

War of 1812, the parcel was a shuttlecock. The British captured the place in 1759,

holding the fort until the 1790s, when ownership went to the United States. In

1813, British troops shelled their way back into possession. Two years later, the

Treaty of Ghent returned American hegemony. During WWI troops trained in

mock trenches still in place. In the 1930s, the Old Fort Niagara Preservation As-

sociation restored the buildings, which during WWII housed German POWs.

Now, with the state, the association runs the 250-acre expanse as a historical

site—bit.ly/FortNiagaraPark. —Sarah Richardson

72 AMERICAN HISTORY

Holding the Fort

In sunlight or by

moonlight, Fort

Niagara dominates

the east bank of the

river of the same

name as it enters

Lake Ontario, as its

builders intended.

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