Crossroads of Empire: Old Fort Niagara

FAIN: BH-50266-08

Niagara University (Niagara University, NY 14109-9809)
Thomas A. Chambers (Project Director: March 2008 to June 2010)

Old Fort Niagara is one of the most significant eighteenth-century military sites in the United States, and is among the nation's oldest extant fortifications. It served as a vital crossroads between the empires of the Iroquois Great League of Peace, France, Great Britain, and, later, the United States as they battled each other for control of the North American continent. We propose two, one-week workshops for forty teachers each to run July 20-25 and August 3-7, 2009. The workshops will combine leading scholarship, key primary source readings, and Fort Niagara's material resources--specifically its buildings, interpretive programs, archival resources, archeological dig sites, and geographic location--to introduce participants to the history of Native-European interaction and trade, imperial conflict, early national warfare, and the westward expansion of the United States.