Founder’s Day Weekend
Re-enactment and Colonial Trade Fair
July 21-22, 2012
Lighthouse Point, Ogdensburg, NY
Open Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Admission is $8/adult, $2/children 7 to 12 and children under six free.
For more than a decade, Founder’s Day Weekend has commemorated Ogdensburg’s French colonial history from the founding of Fort de La Présentation as a mission to Roman Catholic Iroquois in 1749 to the last battle of the French and Indian War, the Battle of the Thousand Islands in 1760.
As part of the commemoration, the Fort Association sponsors an essay competition for North Country students in grades 4-8 and grade 9-12. There will be three prizes in each of the grade groups. For more information, click here.
Military and native re-enactors from Canada and the United States commemorate this history each year. In their encampments, they demonstrate the daily lives of soldiers and warriors. With their colorful uniforms and painted bodies, they take period arms to re-enact battles on the river and on land. Colonial color is added by the sutlers, the merchants who followed the armies, selling just about anything an 18th-century soldier or 21st-century visitor could need. Period dancing, music, children’s activities, heritage demonstrations and a bateau race add something for everyone.
La Présentation, located at the top of the last rapids on the St. Lawrence River, was the transshipment point for supplies, soldiers, explorers and missionaries heading into the interior of North America from French settlements along the lower St. Lawrence River. Milled boards and snowshoes manufactured at the mission were sent to French inland posts. During the French and Indian war, warriors from La Présentation joined the French and Canadian troops in their battles with the English and American colonists in the Ohio and Mohawk Valleys, Lake Ontario and Lake George. The Battle of the Thousand Islands was fought in two parts in August 1760 near La Présentation, which had been abandoned in 1759 when the English gained the upper hand in the war.
British Gunboats capture French corvette l’Outaouaise during the
Battle of the Thousand Islands. The captured ship was renamed
HMS Williamson. National Gallery of Canada
The last French vessel, the corvette l'Outaouaise, was captured by five English row galleys off the vacated La Présentation August 17, 1760. The Anglo-American army of 11,000, under General Jeffery Amherst , moved down river and set up shore batteries to bombard Fort Lévis located on an island. The last stand of the 300 French and Canadians was commanded by Captain Pierre Pouchot, who was compelled to surrender with honor after five days of bombardment. General Jeffery Amherst moved his army down river to Montreal and took the surrender of New France September 6, 1760.
Founder’s Day Weekend is part of the Ogdensburg International Seaway Festival www.ogdensburgseawayfestival.org
The Canadian Friends of Fort de La Presentation www.cfflp.ca
and Fort Wellington in Prescott, Ontario www.pc.gc.ca support Founder’s Day Weekend.
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