Fort de Buade - The Mission

The Mission

The French-Canadian settlement at St. Ignace began with the Mission of Saint Ignace, founded by Father Jacques Marquette, S.J. in 1671. By 1680 it had become a considerable community consisting of the mission, a French village of a dozen cabins, a walled Huron Indian town and an adjacent Ottawa town, also walled. In 1681, the assassination of the Seneca chief Annanhac by the Huron and Illiniwek at Saint Ignace warned the French that this community bore watching. Sharp practice by the fur traders also caused tensions. In 1683, Governor Antoine le Febvre de La Barre ordered Daniel Greysolon Du Luth and Olivier Morel de La Durantaye to establish a strategic presence on the north shore of the Straits of Mackinac, where Lake Michigan and Lake Huron come together. They fortified the Jesuit mission and La Durantaye settled in as overall commander of the French forts in the northwest: Fort Saint Louis des Illinois (Utica, Illinois), Fort Kaministigoya (Thunder bay, Ontario), and Fort la Tourette (Lake Nipigon, Ontario). He was also responsible for the region around Green Bay.

In the spring of 1684, La Durantaye led a relief expedition from Saint Ignace to Fort Saint Louis des Illinois which had been besieged by the Seneca. That summer and again in 1687, La Durantaye led coureurs de bois and Indians from the straits against the Seneca homeland in upper state New York. During these years, English traders from New York penetrated the Great Lakes and traded at Michilimackinac. This, and the outbreak of war between England and France in 1689 led to the construction of Fort de Buade in 1690 by the new commandant Louis de La Porte de Louvigny.