The Nome daily nugget., 1935-02-16

complete. For one of the high lights of the celebration will be the unveiling the fort of a new monument to the Rush Bagot treaty under which the Canadian-American iron tier of 5000 miles has remained unfortified for 116 years Thus in period of world unrest of smoldering hatreds and suspicious, and of in creasing armaments both on land and sea- this monument will stand as a symbol of the fact that two nations can live in amity side by side without having a boundary line bristling with concrete and steel for either defensive or offen- sive purposes.
 It Is especially appropriate that such a monll- ment should be erected at Fort Niagara, for 1t was focal point for nearly 150 years of almost endless conflict, first between the French and the British, later between the British and the Amer jeans and in both cases with Indian allies play ing a secondary but nonetheless important part. Then after this century and half of warfare came the century of peace that still prevails.
 Old Fort Niagara is not only one of the most historic posts on American soil but in one re- spect it is unique As part of the modern Fort Niagara military reservation, 1t Is the only United States army post over which fly foreign flags It has two of these which memorabilia the nations and the periods in history during which they held this post-the triple feur de lis of Louis XIV and Great Britain's Union Jack of 1759 with It's two crosses Above and between
 
 but 1t is one that seems strangely unfamiliar to Americans of today who visit the fort For 1t has 15 stars and 15 stripes, the reason being that 1t Is the American flag of 1796 when there were only 15 states in the Union.
 The history of Fort Niagara goes back to 1878 when the French explorer, La Sale, realizing the strategic value of fort where the Niagara river flows into Lake Ontario to control this gateway to the West, built there a crude wooden fertilization to which he gave the name of Fort Cont. Like his ship the Grifron, the fort was burned within year after it's building through the negligence or treachery of the sergeant and the men whom La Sae left in charge
 A decade later the struggle between France and Great Britain for mastery of the fur trade and control of the interior of North America was under way and in 1887 the Marquis de Nonyille, governor general of New France, reported that "the fur trade will be lost if the English occupy Niagara" So he asked the French government for two good battalions and the funds necessary to sustain the movement and occupy the post. !" These were supplied him and within three days there a timber stockade with four bastiOns which bore the official name of Fort De NOnville but which was commonly called Fort Niagara, a name that has persisted to this day.
 Fort De Nonve was destined to have the same fate as Fort Cont. Garrisoned by 100 men, all but 12 of them fell victims to the rigors of winter and the ravages of the scurvy, so that the fort was abandoned after Il months. Noth- ing more was done toward holding possession of this vitally important spot until 1724 when the Marquis de Vaudreull then governor-general of New France. alarmed by the threat of the Brit ish trading post at Osweg0, decided to build an other fort at Niagara. Submitting his plans to Louis XIV, Vaudreuil did not wait for the king s approval before beginning operations. Even more important than the French kings sanction of the project was that of the IroQuois Indians, the powerful Five Nations who held the balance of power between their French and English neighbors They were none too friendly toward the French because of various armed clashes in the past and d.they were pretty likely to look with suspicion upon the establishment of per manent post on their lands.
 Fortunately for Vaudreuil, French trader > named Louis de Joncaire who had been adopted into the Seneca tribe of the Five Nations. had a trading post at the foot of Niagara gorge and the governor-general made use of Joncalre to accomplish his purpose Various stories have been told of how the French tricked the IroQuois into giving their consent to the building of a fort at Niagara but the more believable one is that 1t was accomplished through Joncaire, who asked and obtained permission from the Indians to substitute a "stone house" for his trading shed of bark and logs.
 Under broad interpretation of the permis- sion given to Joncaire the French transferred the site of the post from the foot of the gorge to the bluff at the mouth of the river overlooking Lake Ontario, but they scrupulously observed the letter of the agreement by building "stone hOGse"-the plain, straight-walled, rectangular structure later called "The Castle" which stands there today The plans for 1t were drawn by the French engineer Chaussegras de Lery. who