Ancient Fortifications of Oswego

According to a tradition long current among the people of Oswego, the Fort built upon the high ground on the West side of the River, near the present junction of Van Buren and Sixth streets, the the ruins of which have, with a few years, been effaced by the march of improvements, has been called the “Old French Fort,” and generally supposed to have been built by the French.

This tradition, which never had the sanction of history, is entirely upset by the publication of the London and Paris documents relating to the Colonial History of New York. The French, who established themselves at Quebec in 1603, soon after explored the St. Lawrence and the Lake regions through to the Mississippi, and established trading posts at various points, but not at Oswego.

At the commencement of the last century, the English discovered Oswego, and it importance as a trading and military post, and in 1721 the Colonial Government of New York authorized the erection of a trading house, which was commenced in 1722, on the West side of the River. In 1723 an active fur trade was carried on between Oswego and Albany.

In 1727 the English built Fort Oswego, a work of considerable strength, on the west side of the river, near its entrance into the Lake. From this period the English kept up a garrison here, down to the breaking out of the “old French war” in 1753. Then Oswego became the theatre of active war-like operations, and in 1755 the English built Fort Ontario on the East side, and what was called “New Oswego Fort” upon the West side, subsequently became known as the “Old French Fort.”

All these Forts were taken by the French under Montcalm in August 1755 but were immediately abandoned to the English after being dismantled. No vestige of them survives the invasion and obliterating power of a hundred years, to tell where they stood, except Fort Ontario is perpetuated by a new creation upon its ancient site.