Fort Niagara

Hard to tell what you're looking at here, but it is the entrance to Fort Niagara situated on the point where the Niagara River enters Lake Ontario.

We spent a Saturday morning in mid-July here when we were visiting daughter Sarah, son in law. William and granddaughter in their new environs of Buffalo, NY.

As forts go this is a large one with a storied past.

It's a New York State Park now and filled with stuff to make your visit interesting including ...

re-enactors.

What's strange about this fort is this French looking chateau inside the walls.

Fort Niagara was first a French fort.  And the French not wanting to upset the native peoples built the chateau as their fort in 1726.

If you know your history, Britain beat the French in the French and Indian War so the fort became British.  Battlements were built by the British.

It stayed in British hands through the American Revolutionary War but was handed over once the colonies won independence.

During the War of 1812 the British recaptured it.

But the British had to give it back once the war was settled.

Re-enactors stage a demonstration of the cannon.

Below is when it fired.  It startled me so much I couldn't stay centered.

This building is called the French Castle.

Here's the rooms of the Fort commandant.

Here is one of them.

Fort Niagara is directly across the river from Niagara on the Lake which was settled by Loyalists during the American Revolution.  There was some mention at the fort of Patriots burning that settlement to the ground but I could find no mention of that when I searched to refresh my memory of the history.