Oliver Morel de La Durantaye (17 February 1640 – 28 September 1716) was an Officer of New France

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...

. Born in Notre Dame Gu Gaure Nantes, France, he served as commandant of Fort Michilimackinac

Fort Michilimackinac

Fort Michilimackinac was an 18th century French, and later British, fort and trading post in the Great Lakes of North America. Built around 1715, it was located along the southern shore of the strategic Straits of Mackinac connecting Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, at the northern tip of the lower...

, in what is now Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

, from 1683 to 1690. In 1684 he traveled to Fort St. Louis to assist Henri de Tonty against the Iroquois

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...

, and it is thought that during this journey he constructed a temporary fort that Tonty visited in the winter of 1685/1686, and later referred to as the Fort of Chicagou.