A short lived French

New France

New France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period beginning with the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Spain and Great Britain in 1763...

 fort established in 1686 by Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut

Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut

Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut was a French soldier and explorer who is the first European known to have visited the area where the city of Duluth, Minnesota is now located and the headwaters of the Mississippi River near Grand Rapids...

. Its heyday was in 1687 when about two hundred coureurs de bois, about five hundred Algonquian

Algonquian peoples

The Algonquian are one of the most populous and widespread North American native language groups, with tribes originally numbering in the hundreds. Today hundreds of thousands of individuals identify with various Algonquian peoples...

, Henri de Tonti

Henri de Tonti

Henri de Tonti was an Italian-born soldier, explorer, and fur trader in the service of France.-Early life:Henri de Tonti, a Sicilian, was mostly likely born near Gaeta, Italy in either 1649 or 1650. He was the son of Lorenzo de Tonti, a financier and former governor of Gaeta...

, Nicholas Perrot, Oliver Morel de La Durantaye

Oliver Morel de La Durantaye

Oliver Morel de La Durantaye was an Officer of New France. Born in Notre Dame Gu Gaure Nantes, France, he served as commandant of Fort Michilimackinac, in what is now Michigan, from 1683 to 1690. In 1684 he traveled to Fort St...

, and thirty French soldiers gathered there under Marquis de Denonville's orders to prepare for an attack on the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy

Iroquois

The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...

 during the Iroquois Wars

Iroquois Wars

-First Invasion:In January 1666, the French invaded the Iroquois homeland in present-day New York. The first invasion force was led by Daniel de Rémy de Courcelle. His men were greatly outnumbered by the Iroquois and were forced to withdraw before any significant action could take place...

. It proved to be a wild party and it took some time to get the unruly group to move on to the business at hand.

In 1688 the fort's commander Louis Armand de Lom d'Arce, Baron de Lahontan wearied of the lonely outpost, decided it was not worth maintaining, burned it and moved to the lively Fort de Buade

Fort de Buade

Fort de Buade was a French fort at the present site of St. Ignace in the U.S. state of Michigan. It was garrisoned between 1683 and 1701.-The mission:...

 in St. Ignace

St. Ignace, Michigan

Saint Ignace, usually written as St. Ignace, is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2000 census, the city population was 2,678. It is the county seat of Mackinac County. From the Lower Peninsula, St. Ignace is the gateway to the Upper Peninsula.St...

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