The Nome daily nugget., 1935-02-16

designed structure with thick walls we'll cal culated to withstand the fire of any cannon that could ever be dragged through the wilderness to be used against the fort. Incidentally De Lery's original plans were discovered in the French archives by the late Dr. Frank H. Severance of Buffalo nearly two centuries later and they have been used in the restoration work which has recently been completed.
 Work on the fort began in 1725 and when the French kings belated permission for Vaudreuil to build such post arrived Gin 1726), 1t was well under way Because of the difficulty of supply ing the builders with stone and timber, the work dragged along slowly and the fort was not com pleted until late In 1727.
 For the next three decades Fort Niagara was an important link In the chain of forts which the French were building to control the Interior of North America. At the outbreak of the French and Indian war, when France and England came to grips In their last struggle for mastery of the continent, Fort Niagara became one of the chief objectives of the British. The first plans for the expedition of the illfated Braddock contemplated his capture of Niagara after he had successfully reduced Fort Duquesne but the disaster which overlook him on the Monongahela changed all that. Meanwhile the French engineer POuchot was strengthening Fort Niagara and by 1759 It was the last important outpost held by the French.
 Accordingly General Amherst, British com manderin-chief, sent General Prideaux with a force of 5000 men, more than half of them New York provincials, and 600 Indians under the renowned Sir William Johnson to lay siege to Niagara. Pouchot had only 800 men. but even with this small force he held out successfully l for awhile against the blundering siege tactics of Prideaux relief force of Indians and cour- fer du bois from the Ohio country was sent to his aid. but Sir William Johnson did to them what the French and Indians had done to Brad dock. On July 24, 1759, Pouchot had to give up the struggle and the French lilies were lowered over Fort Niagara and the British flag run up in Its place.
 For the next 40 years the fort was an impor- tant trading center for the British and played a leading role in colonial frontier history. After the end of the Pontiac conspiracy more than 2,5OO Indians gathered there at the invitation of Sil William Johnson, Indian agent for Ills Majesty, the king of England, and the result of the council was the cession by the Indians 10 the British of tract of land four miles wide on either side of the river and reaching from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario.
 At the outbreak of the Revolution Niagara | became the haven for hundreds of Tories who | were forced to flee from their homes. and It was also the base of operations for young Walter Butler and his Rangers and Indians who wrote their names in red on the map of New York and Pennsylvania. Although several expeditions against the fort were planned by the Americans none of them ever developed and the British | held the post until the close of the war-fai beyond it. in fact For 1t was not until August II, 1796, that the British garrison crossed the