Ever since I was young, my dad got me interested in local
and world history. One of our interests was in the local history of the people
living in the area during the 1700s-1800s. We would drive by the Fort St. Joseph
commemorative rock and Father Allouez cross, visiting them every month when we
would take trash to the Berrien County dump. Around 1965, we began stopping at
the Fort St. Jospeh Museum in Niles after we unloaded our trash. My dad and the
museum’s curator Mrs. Johnson at the time didn't know exactly where the
location of the fort was, but we knew it was on the east side of the St. Joseph
River, north of the rock.
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| Rex washing artifacts from the 2021 field school! |
Four years later, while in Jr High School, I asked my
history class teachers the question I had always wanted to know the answer to, “Who
knew the exact locations of the Fort?” And I always got the same answer, “We
don’t know.”
This made me more determined to know more about the fort and
its location. At the time, you could look across from the rock monument to the
west side of the river and see the high cliffs that would have kept enemies and
harsh weather out. The cliffs stop as you approach downtown Niles where the Pawating
crossing is. Native groups used this crossing to walk across the shallow part
of the river. I thought the Pawating crossing would have been a good place for
the fort because it could be accessed from all directions land or river.
However, the actual location of the fort (just upstream) makes more sense to me
now.
The Jesuits arrived in the area now known as Fort St. Joseph
in 1680s when the French government allowed them there. Jesuit Priests traveled
with trappers and traders from France. The Catholic Church authority in France
wanted to convince the Native American Tribes in the entire territory that they
didn't want war for land, but a trade policy. I learned later, from French
documents, that missions and Jesuit priests were relocated to many French
territories on every continent.
Some questions that remained in my head were: “Why was the
Fort St. Joseph after so many years not built over, and at the same time, not
important enough to seriously look for? Did the distance from lake Michigan and
the affect of the seasons on the water have an answer to the location of the
Fort? Did the amount of time it took to get from Lake Michigan to the Fort matter?”
For 10 plus years, I have rowed on the local rivers and creeks and in the dark
almost everything in the water or near it is more visible. Did this impact the
fort’s location?
It was the Native Americans in the area, and throughout New
France, that controlled the trade and who could live near them. The history of Fort
St. Joseph and the occupants’ relationships with the Native Americans are what interested
me the most first. Tribes in this region, like all others had truces and their own
boundaries and borders all throughout the land. Local native tribes moved often,
so did the French use this to establish the fort’s location? What changes happened
to all the people involved?
I read a lot of books, articles and historical documents before
this class even began. Pictorial pictures of the great lakes had images of the
French king during the fort years and his copy of the map of this French
territory. His map had drawn the fort on the east bank of river about 20 plus
miles south of Lake Michigan, before the south bend. The river could be
traveled north, where it empties into Lake Michigan or south in order to reach the
Mississippi. So, who would desert a fort with that proximity and the routes
even if the fur trade was declining? There was still a land trail to Detroit
and all the portages going south after the Seven Years War. During almost 100
years of its use (1691-1781), I believe that someone would have recorded its correct
location and the logic behind the decision made at that time.
Now, 330 plus years later, the Project is excavating the
fort site in its original location. At last,
the city of Niles has a serious partner that cares about this history. I hope
that one day it will become a National Historic site with an exhibition the shows
the artifacts recovered from where it was constructed.
Work Cited
H. Hatcher, Eric Walter. Pictorial Pictures of the Great
Lakes
Joseph Peyser. Letters from New France
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