The Structural Evolution of Fort Frontenac

Northeast Historical Archaeology Volume 14 Article 3 1985 The trS uctural Evolution of Fort Frontenac W. Bruce Stewart Follow this and additional works at: http://orb.binghamton.edu/neha Part of the Archaeological Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Stewart, W. Bruce (1985) "The trS uctural Evolution of Fort Frontenac," Northeast Historical Archaeology: Vol. 14 14, Article 3. https://doi.org/10.22191/neha/vol14/iss1/3 Available at: http://orb.binghamton.edu/neha/vol14/iss1/3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB). It has been accepted for inclusion in Northeast Historical Archaeology by an authorized editor of The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB). For more information, please contact [email protected]. The trS uctural Evolution of Fort Frontenac Cover Page Footnote The uthora would like to acknowledge the contributions made by staff nda field crew over the three years of research represented by this summary. It is largely through their interest and commitment that the study was possible. Drafted plans included in this paper were produced by Sue Bazely. Special thanks are due to Dr. Brian Osborne, Queen's University's Geography Department, and Nick Adams, Staff Archaeologists with the Cataraqui Archaeological Research Foundation, for providing critical comments during the production of this paper. Funding for the research at Fort Frontenac has been provided by various agencies within the federal, provincial, and municipal governments, and by the members of the Cataraqui Archaeological Research Foundation. Access to the areas under excavation was kindly provided by the City of Kingston, Ontario, Canada. This article is available in Northeast Historical Archaeology: http://orb.binghamton.edu/neha/vol14/iss1/3 38 Evolution of Fort Frontenac!W.B. Stewart THE STRUCTURAL River and Lake Ontario. The site is domi nated by the intersection of Ontario and EVOLUTION OF FORT Place d' Armes streets and the present Fort FRONTENAC Frontenac-Department of National De fense Complex (FIG. 1). In 1937 (Hagarty 1953) and again in 1953 (Kitching 1953), the W. Bruce Stewart military undertook trenching within the Fort Frontenac, located at the eastern end of Lake present Fort Frontenac complex in order to Ontario, in Kingston, Ontario, is among the ear locate and display various structural compo liest European sites in the Great Lakes Basin. The nents of the fortifications. The present pro post was established in 1673 by Count Frontenac, gram of archaeological and historical re then Governor of New France, as a means of search was initiated in the fall of 1982 with intercepting furs destined for the Dutch and, later, a four-week test excavation (Stewart 1983). the English merchants at Albany, New York. As The testing was undertaken to accurately the result of ongoing archaeological and historical research, a comprehensive structural history of the determine the location of the French fortifi post has been developed. As the archaeological cations and to assess the archaeological po investigations have been restricted to the north tential of the site. The positive results west bastion of the fort, that area will serve as the achieved through testing resulted in the focus of the present review. development of a proposal for four years of archaeological and historical research on the site. The program was implemented in Introduction April 1983 under the sponsorship of the Since September 1982, the site of Fort Cataraqui Archaeological Research Founda Frontenac, located in Kingston, Ontario, has tion. been the scene of an intensive program of Because of limitations imposed by the archaeological research. As the earliest Eu presence of existing streets and buildings, ropean military establishment within the excavation has been restricted to that area Great Lakes drainage basin, the fort has of the site located to the west of Ontario played an important role in the exploration Street (FIG. z). During the 1982 and 1983 field and exploitation of the western frontier of seasons investigations extended over much New France. The present investigations of the accessible area. While several of the have focused on the northwest bastion and excavation units dealt directly with struc adjacent curtain walls of the fort. tural components of the fort, the primacy During the 85 years of French occupation objective was to determine the nature of site at the site, from 1673-1758, the defensive development and use beyond the delineation works and interior structures of Fort of the fort walls. Frontenac underwent a number of alter In the spring of 1984, the City of Kings ations which, to some extent, reflect the ton redesigned the Place d' Armes-Ontario changing function of the site relative to the Street intersection, providing direct access expanding frontier of New France. In this to the northwest bastion for the purposes of paper, the author will discuss the structural excavation and reconstruction. Investiga remains exposed during excavations on the tions in 1984 and 1985 focused on the bas site and indicate the direction of future tion, the north curtain wall, and adjacent research into Fort Frontenac's place within interior structure which had formerly the history of the frontier. underlain Place d' Armes Street (Stewart 1985). Analysis of the data recovered from the Archaeology at Fort Frontenac archaeological and historical investigation Fort Frontenac is located in downtown of Fort Frontenac is far from complete. It is Kingston at the confluence of the Cataraqui possible, however, to provide a brief over- Northeast Historical ArchaeologyNol. 14, 1985 39 Composite Plan FORT FRONTENAC based on 1726 a 1738 mops Place O'Armes at Ontario Street Kingston, Ontario 1984 Figure 1. Composite plan of Fort Frontenac, Kingston, Ontario, depicting the Fort (1726-1738) and the present configuration of streets and buildings. view of the archaeological data relevant to North America. Colbert was strongly op the development of the fort during the posed to the westward expansion of New French period (1673-1758). Because of the France and sought to diversify the colony's preliminary state of the analysis, this over economy while concentrating its population view will deal primarily with structural along the banks of the St. Lawrence River evidence, with only limited reference to the (Eccles 1969: 104). Despite the official pol artifact assemblage. icy, and in part because of some of its rami The periods of frontier development rele fications, westward expansion was sup vant to the study of Fort Frontenac are: the ported by the local representatives of the Fur Trade Frontier, 1663-1700; the Imperial Crown and justified in terms of exploration, Frontier, 1700-1750; and the Military Fron military necessity, and missionary activi tier, 1748-1760 (Eccles 1969). ties. The westward expansion of New France continued even more aggressively under the The Fur Trade Frontier (1663-1700) direction of the Compte de Frontenac, ap In 1663 Louis XIV appointed Colbert to pointed Governor of the Colony in 1672. the post of Ministre de Marine, where, Frontenac's motives for pursuing the west among his other responsibilities, he took ward expansion of the colony have been the over direction of the French colonies in subject of numerous debates (Eccles 1959: 40 Evolution of Fort Frontenac!W.B. Stewart Kingston Horbourfront Archaeological Project--Phase II R FORT FRONTENAC Bb Gc-8 1985 s met' es T 0-..............-- 2 4 (> u v w X y 10 II 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Figure 2. Composite site plan of Fort Frontenac, detailing structural elements exposed within the area of the northwest bastion, 1982-1985. 206-207; Preston 1972: 54). Frontenac him of the Iroquois Nations at the mouth of the self claimed to have the interests of the Cataraqui River. While Frontenac sought to colony in mind (Preston and Lamontagne overpower the Iroquois with words and gifts, 1958: 108-114), while those opposed to his his men were busily involved in the con policies suggested that he was seeking per struction of a fortified post at Cataraqui. sonal gain by illegally participating in the The original fortification consisted of a log fur trade (Preston and Lamontagne 1958: palisade within which were constructed two 131-132). Whatever his motives, one of the 46-ft-long buildings located on opposite sides first actions was the establishment of Fort of the enclosure and a 20-ft-long building. Frontenac on the eastern end of Lake On The smallest of the structures was described tario. as a storehouse for provisions and ammuni In the summer of 1673, Frontenac under tion. Supplies sufficient to sustain 30 men took his first of many voyages into the for one year were sent up river from Mon western frontier of the French colony treal to the fort. Among the supplies were (Pritchard 1973). The stated purpose of his cows, pigs, and poultry, which were kept as a voyage was to provide a show of strength to source of fresh meat for the garrison. To the the Iroquois, who posed a threat to France's west and south of the fort, an additional 20 role in the lucrative fur trade. arpents (6.84 ha) of land was cleared to On the advice of La Salle, his trusted provide land suitable for cultivation (Pres counsel, Frontenac met with representatives ton and Lamontagne 1958: 113). Northeast Historical ArchaeologyNo/. 14, 1985 41 \ In 1675 La Salle was granted the fort and adjacent lands as his seigneury (feudal land holding) (Preston and Lamontagne 1958: 119-120). La Salle immediately took up his post and began to initiate programs that would have long-term effects not only upon Fort Frontenac, but also on the exploration and development of much of North America. One of La Salle's first undertakings was to replace the palisade that had been built hastily by Frontenac with a more substan tial and functional construction.

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