Fort Presque Isle
Posted by: 
Kordite
N 42° 07.956 W 080° 04.615
17T E 576288 N 4664911
Market at 6th & Parade Streets, Erie.
Waymark Code: WM4G6
Location: Pennsylvania, United States
Date Posted: 12/04/2005
Views: 99
The marker reads: "Fort Presque Isle: Two forts stood four blocks north. French fort, built by Marin, 1753, abandoned, 1759. British fort, built by Col. Bouquet, 1760, and captured by Pontiac's Indians, 1763. The French Road to Fort LeBoeuf began there."
In the spring of 1753, French forces departed Montreal to establish a chain of forts in the Ohio country. Originally ordered to go to the Chautauqua area, they received new orders changing their destination to Presqu’ile (modern day Erie, PA). The French force arrived at Presqu’ile on May 3, 1753. They began work preparing the site for the fort on a bluff overlooking the peninsula and Lake Erie, near Mill Creek.
The French fort was 120' square with triangular bastions at the points and walls 12-15' high. It was abandoned in 1759 when the British took Ft. Duquesne. After the French left, the British built the square stockade Ft. Presque Isle here in 1760. When Pontiac's Rebellion erupted in spring 1763, Fort Presque Isle was one of the first posts to fall to Indian attack. A combined force of Senecas, Ottawas, Hurons, and Chippewas laid siege to it on June 19, and the garrison capitulated a few days later.
There is a historic marker nearer to the site of these forts and overlooking the lake at N 42° 08.2542
W 80° 04.7952.
Marker Name: Fort Presque Isle
County: Erie
Date Dedicated: 10/01/1946
Marker Type: Roadside
Location: 6th & Parade Sts., Erie
Category: Military, Native American, Forts, French & Indian War
Website: [Web Link]
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