1

Antoine de Lamothe Cadillac
2000
The Windsor Wood Carving Museum

2

Detroit was founded in 1701 by a French trader named Antoine Laumet de La Mothe Cadillac, who built a fort on the river and named it Fort-Pontchartrian-du-Detroit in honour of his patron. (the french word detroit meaning "strait" ) Later the British called it Detroit. In the 20th century the city's name became synonymous with the American automotive industry.

3

Cadillac arrives in Detroit
24 June 1701
Detroit River, Detroit U.S.A

4

French soldier, explorer, and administrator in French North America, founder of the city of Detroit in 1701, and governor of Louisiana. Going to Canada in 1683, he fought against the Iroquois Indians, lived for a time in Maine, and first served in present-day Michigan as a commandant of the important frontier post of Mackinac. (1694-97)

5

''The Landing of Cadillac, By: Leo Boistel''
1701
Detroit River, Detroit U.S.A

6

With permission of King Louis XIV, Cadillac established a Great Lakes fur-trading post and founded Fort-Pontchartrain du Détroit, later called Detroit. He governed there until 1710, when his enemies, in Quebec and Paris forced his removal to the new French colony of Louisiana. Increasingly unpopular there and himself dissatisfied with his appointment, Cadillac was recalled to France and he was briefly confined in the Bastille. He lived the rest of his life in retirement in Lanuedoc. The city of Cadillac MI, Cadillac Mountain, Maine; and the Cadillac automobile are all named for him.

7

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

8

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.