Happy Photo Guy
Little Fort Niagara 4
Niagara Falls, New York
The Old Stone Chimney, is located in the city of Niagara Falls, New York. It is a masonry chimney built as part of a two-story barracks on the site of the French "Fort du Portage," or "Fort Little Niagara," [1] by Daniel de Joncaire in 1750, when the Niagara River and its shores were part of New France on the North American Continent. The Chimney has been repurposed several times since by British and American interests. Relocated twice (in 1902 and 1942), it currently sits extant along an embankment of the Robert Moses Parkway, close to the exit ramp to John B. Daly Boulevard.[2] The Old Stone Chimney is 31 feet tall and weighs approximately 60 tons
This relic of bygone days is the chimney of Fort Little Niagara, a structure built to defend the terminus of the famous Portage road that allowed "canow" (canoe) and bateaux to detour around the unnavigable rapids and falls of the Niagara River. Initially this was a crude path, and later a roadway, which ran from Lewiston (then “St. Louis”), just below the escarpment (near present-day Artpark) to this spot, along the upper Niagara, a mile upstream from the Falls. The fur and other trade in the 1700s between Detroit (then the great western metropolis) and Quebec by way of Ft. Niagara was wholly dependent on this route and its connection with the upper Niagara river and Lake Erie. So great was the value of the traded goods going west and east along this route, that the French saw need to build fortifications at both ends and along the portage route to protect the commerce.
In 1751, fortifications called Fort Little Niagara - being a dependency of the larger Fort Niagara at the Lake Ontario end of the river - were built, consisting of three log blockhouses with strong surrounding palisades. Near these were barracks for soldiers, as well as huts and cabins for the Frenchmen and Indians employed in the portage trade thereabouts. At one end of the barracks was built the stone chimney, which is the only remnant still standing today.This structure, called the Fort Schlosser chimney, although it was built ten years before Fort Schlosser, was erected in 1750. Except the old “castle” (main building) at Fort Niagara (which was constructed in 1727 under the auspices of the French engineer Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Lery), this chimney is the oldest extant piece of masonry west of Albany, NY. Fort Little Niagara was abandoned by the French in 1759 and burned under command of it’s master, Chabert Joncaire Jr., who was summoned with his 60 men in defense of the greater fort against the besieging British.
The chimney originally stood west of the Portage route, but after the Niagara Falls Power Company purchased the lands along the river to build the Adams Station it was moved 100 ft. eastward, in 1915. At that time, the Niagara Frontier Historical Society placed a plaque on it (still present), inscribed as follows...
“...Built by French, 1750, one hundred feet westward in Fort Little Niagara’s barracks, which they burned in 1759. To it British built in 1761 the Stedman house (where that master of the portage lived until United States occupation in 1796) which, in 1808, became Broughton’s tavern. Burned by British in devastation of 1813. Re-erected here in 1898 by Niagara Falls Power Company. Marked by the Niagara Frontier Historical Society in 1915...”
Little Fort Niagara 4
Niagara Falls, New York
The Old Stone Chimney, is located in the city of Niagara Falls, New York. It is a masonry chimney built as part of a two-story barracks on the site of the French "Fort du Portage," or "Fort Little Niagara," [1] by Daniel de Joncaire in 1750, when the Niagara River and its shores were part of New France on the North American Continent. The Chimney has been repurposed several times since by British and American interests. Relocated twice (in 1902 and 1942), it currently sits extant along an embankment of the Robert Moses Parkway, close to the exit ramp to John B. Daly Boulevard.[2] The Old Stone Chimney is 31 feet tall and weighs approximately 60 tons
This relic of bygone days is the chimney of Fort Little Niagara, a structure built to defend the terminus of the famous Portage road that allowed "canow" (canoe) and bateaux to detour around the unnavigable rapids and falls of the Niagara River. Initially this was a crude path, and later a roadway, which ran from Lewiston (then “St. Louis”), just below the escarpment (near present-day Artpark) to this spot, along the upper Niagara, a mile upstream from the Falls. The fur and other trade in the 1700s between Detroit (then the great western metropolis) and Quebec by way of Ft. Niagara was wholly dependent on this route and its connection with the upper Niagara river and Lake Erie. So great was the value of the traded goods going west and east along this route, that the French saw need to build fortifications at both ends and along the portage route to protect the commerce.
In 1751, fortifications called Fort Little Niagara - being a dependency of the larger Fort Niagara at the Lake Ontario end of the river - were built, consisting of three log blockhouses with strong surrounding palisades. Near these were barracks for soldiers, as well as huts and cabins for the Frenchmen and Indians employed in the portage trade thereabouts. At one end of the barracks was built the stone chimney, which is the only remnant still standing today.This structure, called the Fort Schlosser chimney, although it was built ten years before Fort Schlosser, was erected in 1750. Except the old “castle” (main building) at Fort Niagara (which was constructed in 1727 under the auspices of the French engineer Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Lery), this chimney is the oldest extant piece of masonry west of Albany, NY. Fort Little Niagara was abandoned by the French in 1759 and burned under command of it’s master, Chabert Joncaire Jr., who was summoned with his 60 men in defense of the greater fort against the besieging British.
The chimney originally stood west of the Portage route, but after the Niagara Falls Power Company purchased the lands along the river to build the Adams Station it was moved 100 ft. eastward, in 1915. At that time, the Niagara Frontier Historical Society placed a plaque on it (still present), inscribed as follows...
“...Built by French, 1750, one hundred feet westward in Fort Little Niagara’s barracks, which they burned in 1759. To it British built in 1761 the Stedman house (where that master of the portage lived until United States occupation in 1796) which, in 1808, became Broughton’s tavern. Burned by British in devastation of 1813. Re-erected here in 1898 by Niagara Falls Power Company. Marked by the Niagara Frontier Historical Society in 1915...”