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 Founder’s Day Weekend
July 23-24, 2011
250th Anniversary Commemoration of the French & Indian War
Founder’s Day Weekend is the unofficial kick-off to the Ogdensburg International Seaway Festival. This weekend is sponsored by the Fort La Présentation Association, which is working to reconstruct Fort La Presentation on its original grounds on the banks of the St. Lawrence River at Lighthouse Point in Ogdensburg at the mouth of the Oswegatchie River.
Fort La Presentation was founded in 1749 by Abbé Francois Picquet as a missionary fort to convert the Iroquois Confederacy to Catholoicism and to bring them to the side of France as his nation prepared for war with Great Britain. By 1755 more than 3,000 Onondagas, Senecas and other Iroquois joined the side of France. By 1759, Fort Levis was constructed on Chimney Island to prevent a British attack up the St. Lawrence River on Montreal and Quebec. Then in 1760, for five days and nights, 300 French soldier at Fort Levis, fought off 10,000 Anglo-American troops delaying their trip to Montreal. Although they lost the battle, it was the last physical battle of the War.
Founder’s Day commemorates this place in history. Fort La Présentation was held by the French, then the British and the U.S. It was renamed Fort Oswegatchie, and was also used during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812.
Founder’s Day include re-enactors with land and river battles. Encampments, military drills, children’s games and activities, colonial period sutlers (vendors), lectures, music, and a special Sunday Mass.
For more information about the Association or the event visit the Association’s website.
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