Fort Miamis

Location: Guldin Park, Van Buren Street Bridge, SW corner, and St. Mary's River boat ramp at Michaels Avenue, Fort Wayne. (Allen County, Indiana)

Marker replaces 02.1948.1 Site of Fort Miamis

Installed: 2000 Indiana Historical Bureau and Society of Colonial Wars in the State of Indiana

ID# : 02.2000.1

Text

Side one:

French built a palisaded fort on this strategic site in 1722; named Fort Saint Philippe des Miamis. One of three French forts built in what is now Indiana to protect French fur trade from encroaching English. First of five forts built over time within a square mile of the center of present-day Fort Wayne.

Side two:

Nearby confluence of St. Mary's and St. Joseph's rivers forms Maumee River, a strategic central part of the waterways system connecting Great Lakes regions with Mississippi River Valley. Using a portage between Maumee and Wabash rivers, travelers could journey nearly 2,500 miles by water from French Canada to Louisiana.

Keywords

Early Settlement and Exploration, Military