Description of the First French Fort in Present day Ft. Wayne in 1749
Site of the first French fort in present day Ft. Wayne, Indiana. The fort was adjacent to Coldfoot village that was located on the east side of Van Burean Street. The sign erected by the Allen County Historical Museum is incorrect.
THE SITE OF FORT WAYNE was the scene of growing bitter strife between the two powerful European nations which told of the waning power of France in the West. Slowly but certainly the English gained the alliance of the powerful leaders of the more easterly Indian tribes, and even the friendship of the Miamis for their French brothers became a doubtful matter.
"The fort of the Miamis was in a very bad condition when we reached it. Most of the palisades were decayed and fallen into ruin. There were eight houses, or, to speak more correctly, eight miserable huts which only the desire of making money could render endurable. The French there number twenty-two; all of them, including the commandant, had the fever. Monsieur Raimond did not approve the situation of the fort and maintained that it should be placed on the bank of the St. Joseph a scant league from the present site. He wished to show me the spot, but the hindrances of our departure prevented me from going hither. All I could do for him was to trace the plan for his new fort. The latitude of the old one is 41 degrees, 29 minutes."10.
This decaying fort stood on the right bank of the St. Mary's river in the bend of the stream a short distance north of the present Nickel Plate railroad bridges. It is not difficult to picture the commandant, ill with fever, seeking the advice and assistance of these visitors from a civilized section of the world, who declined to discommode themselves to aid him further than to give him a rough draught to guide him in the building of a new fort. But, perhaps, the depression of spirit extended also into the heart of the Celeron. "On the 26th," said he, "I called to me Cold Foot, chief of the Miamis at Kiskakon. and other principal Indians, to whom I repeated, in the presence of M. de Raimond and the officers of our detachment what I had said at the village of LaDemoiselle and the answers I got from them. After listening with much attention, he [Cold Foot] arose and said to me : 'I hope I am deceived, but I am sufficiently attached to the French to say that LaDemoiselle will be false. My grief is to be the only one who loves you, and to see all the nations of the earth let loose against the French." Cold Foot's prophecy was true. LaDemoiselle grew stronger in his opposition to the French and finally drew upon himself a tragedy which marked the beginning of the French and Indian war. Unable to secure a sufficient number of canoes to transport his company by water down the Maumee, Celeron sent some of his men overland to Detroit, at which place the expedition arrived eight days later.
