SEARCH FOR FORT ST. JOSEPH (1691-1781) IN NILES, MICHIGAN, THE

Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology, Fall 2003 by Nassaney, Michael S, Cremin, William M, Kurtzweil, Renee, Brandao, Jose Antonio

ABSTRACT

The site of Fort St. Joseph (1691-1781) was recently discovered by Western Michigan University archaeologists in Niles, Michigan. As one of the most important eighteenthcentury colonial outposts in the western Great Lakes, the fort was a major commercial center and a vital link in New France's communication and transportation network. A survey conducted in 1998 located a deposit of Colonial-period artifacts and animal food remains. Subsequent work in 2002 revealed the presence of preserved ecological, artifactual, and structural remains in undisturbed stratigraphic context associated with the Fort St. Joseph community. Here we discuss the historical and cultural context of this locality, our background research and survey methodology, together with our preliminary findings, and briefly present the results of our 2002 test excavations at the site. The site has great potential to contribute to a better understanding of the material and social conditions at an early colonial outpost in New France.

During the eighteenth century, one of the most important colonial outposts in the Great Lakes region was located at present-day Niles, Michigan (Figure 1). Fort St. Joseph, as the mission-garrison-trading post became known, was situated on the St. Joseph River near the strategically important St. Joseph-Kankakee River portage and at the junction of an ancient east-west trade route, the Great Sauk Trail. This position allowed French control of the southern Lake Michigan region and served as a hub of commercial, military, and religious activity for local Native populations and European powers from 1691 to 1781.

In 1998, Western Michigan University (WMU) initiated the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project to identify and evaluate the material remains of the fort (Nassaney 1999a, 2002a, 2002b). Reconnaissance survey conducted that year identified French, English, and Native American artifacts and associated faunal remains distributed over 15 acres. The 2002 WMU archaeological field school returned to the site and exposed eighteenth-century architectural evidence and other features in undisturbed stratigraphic context. In this paper we first present information on the significance of the locality in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and discuss the documentary sources that we consulted in planning our survey. We follow with a discussion of the survey methodology employed to locate these remains, present our preliminary findings, and link a spatial clustering of these materials to the French and English occupants of Fort St. Joseph. A summary of our recent efforts to establish site integrity, including the identification and excavation of intact cultural features, is presented, and we conclude by suggesting how the investigation of the fort contributes to a better understanding of the North American fur trade.

Early European Exploration and the Historical Significance of Fort St. Joseph

The Jesuit missionary Father Jacques Marquette and his two traveling companions, Jacques Largillier and Pierre Porteret, were probably the first Europeans to pass by the mouth of the St. Joseph River in 1675 (Donnelly 1968). In November 1679, LaSalle established a temporary post called Fort Miami at the mouth of the river while he prepared a harbor for his ship, the "Griffon." LaSalle remained at Fort Miami for a month. Fearing that ice would make the river impassible if he delayed any longer, LaSalle instructed two of his men to stay behind to await the arrival of his ship. Meanwhile, he and the remainder of his company embarked on December 3 in search of the portage by which they would reach the Illinois River. He undoubtedly passed by the future site of Fort St. Joseph.

Early French exploration of the region was aimed at locating a passage to the Pacific Ocean as well as a river route, the Mississippi, south to the Gulf of Mexico. The French were also driven by a desire to expand the fur trade (Eccles 1997; Heidenreich 1997). The establishment of a mission and, later, the post was designed to solidify relations with the western tribes and intensify the fur trade and at the same time to check the expansion and power of the Five Nations Iroquois Confederacy (Brandao 1997; Eccles 1972; Myers and Peyser 1991). The Confederacy had threatened local natives as early as 1640 and in the early 1680s tried to lead English fur traders westward to break the power of the French in the Great Lakes region. In 1684 the Iroquois captured Fort St. Louis in the Illinois country. In order to maintain control of the region, the French sought to strengthen their ties with the Miami Indians who had recently relocated along the St. Joseph River. In the 1680s the Jesuits were granted a tract of land for a mission along the St. Joseph River near the present-day southern boundary of Niles. When the French successfully defended Quebec against the English invasion of 1690, they regained the respect of the western Indians and were able to establish a military post near the mission. Fort St. Joseph, as the post became known, was primarily a military and commercial center designed to ensure a profitable trade with the Miami, Potawatomi, and other French-allied Indians. Since the post was garrisoned by only a handful of French soldiers, it never became a mighty military bastion. It was, however, a vital link in the colony's communication network and served a major commercial role in the exchange of manufactured commodities for the Natives' furs. By the eighteenth century, Fort St. Joseph ranked fourth among all posts in New France in terms of volume of furs traded (Harris 1987).