The History of Fort St Joseph

Danial Duda is a librarian specializing in military history at the
Rutherford Library, University of Alberta.

The British Army constructed Fort St. Joseph in the 1790s to counter the
threat of the nearby American Fort Mackinac. St. Joseph Island is
located at the point at which Lakes Superior and Huron meet. The fort
was British Canada’s guard in the western Great Lakes region against
American invasion during the War of 1812. Its commander, Captain Charles
Roberts, accompanied by a handful of regular British soldiers and
several hundred Canadian militiamen and Indian allies, captured Fort
Mackinac at the beginning of the war.

The History of Fort St. Joseph is intended for a general audience, and
specifically for tourists visiting the area. In addition to recounting
the fort’s political/military history, the authors describe the
island’s natural history. Their final chapter deals with efforts over
the past 50 years to preserve the fort as a historical site. Glyn Smith,
a local resident of the island, believed that the fort would attract
tourism and at the same time remind Canadians of their rich history;
whether or not those goals have been achieved remains an open question.