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Fort Pontchartrain
1701
Fort Pontchartrain, Detroit River, Detroit U.S.A

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Early Detroit 1701-1760

Detroit was founded July 24, 1701 by Cadillac, who landed in the vicinity on that date. With him were one hundred Frenchmen and a like number of Indians. Cadillac took possession of the land in the name of King Louis XIV. Fort Pontchartain was built to prevent the English traders from using the water route to the upper Great Lakes. The site was on the peninsula between the Detroit River and Savoyedard Creek, Huron, Ottawa and Potawatomi Indians accepted the invitation of Cadillac to settle near the fort Detroit he wished to develop as an agricultural settlement. Mesdames Cadillac and Tonty arrived later in 1701. Other families followed them. After Cadillac's removal in 1710, Detroit's growth was retarded for many years. In 1712 the French and their Indian Allies fought and destroyed a band of Indians camped north of the fort. The French crown encouraged the development of the colony in the 1740s by offering seed, livestock and farm equipment to settlers. Detroit then had a French population of about one thousand.