Historical Development of the Fort
Fort Denonville, 1687
- 2 Large Building, 1687-88
- 3 Commandant's Cabin, 1687-88
- 4 Quarters, 1687-88
- 5 Bakehouse, 1687-88
- 6 Storehouse, 1687-88
- 7 Quarters, 1687-88
- 8 Quarters, 1687-88
- 9 Father Millet's Cabin, 1687-88
- 30 Present location of "French Castle", 1726
Unlike Fort Conti, the post erected by Governor Denonville in 1687 was intended primarily for military purposes. Had it been possible to supply and maintain this fort in the face of Iroquois hostility, it might have been possible for the French to firmly establish a presence at Niagara.
Historical accounts, supported by the computer map study, indicate that Fort Denonville probably stood atop the lake bank terrace between the gully and the river. It was probably placed on the ruins of La Salle's fort and the later site of the Castle. Although Denonville ordered a plan drawn in 1687, it has not been located. This sketch is therefore conjectural as to the layout of Fort Denonville and the arrangement and dimensions of the structures within its walls. Contemporary accounts are quite specific as to the number, relative size and purposes of the buildings. The gate is shown on the river side in conformance with the conjectural plan of Fort Conti, actual renderings of the 1726 Fort Niagara and topographical features.
Fort Denonville was a square wooden stockade constructed of sixteen-foot pickets. It probably had a bastion at each corner, and at least three of these had been begun by the time Denonville's army departed in August 1687. By the time the fort was abandoned in September 1688, a simple ditch had been excavated around the walls, and a well and at least eight log and plank buildings stood within the stockade. The latter included a bakery, storehouses and quarters for one hundred officers and men. In the spring of 1688 Father Pierre Millet erected an eighteen foot-tall oak cross in the center of the parade to mark Good Friday and offer thanks for the survival of twelve members of the original garrison. Their eighty-eight less fortunate comrades. had been interred somewhere in or near the fort, perhaps at a site east of the gully where early European-style burials were discovered in 1929 near the modern "Flag Circle".
When Fort Denonville was abandoned in September 1688, the stockade walls were pulled down. The buildings were then left to the elements. By 1708 visible remnants had disappeared, and a visiting French officer referred only to "the site of the former fort." Much of the land upon which Fort Denonville is thought to have stood has been eroded by Lake Ontario.