JULY 24, 1701

Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, a 43-year-old French army officer, selects a site at le détroit ("the straits")—the waterway between Lakes St. Clair and Erie—and establishes a French settlement. Cadillac had convinced King Louis XIV's chief minister, Count Pontchartrain, that a permanent community at present-day Detroit would strengthen French control over the upper Great Lakes and repel British advances. The 100 soldiers and workers who accompany Cadillac built a 200-square-foot palisade and named it Fort Pontchartrain. Cadillac's wife, Marie Thérèse, soon moved to Detroit; she was one of the first white women to settle in the Michigan wilderness. At the same time, the French strengthened Fort Michilimackinac at the Straits of Mackinac in order to better control their lucrative fur-trading empire. By the mid-18th century, the French also occupied forts at present-day Niles and Sault Ste. Marie. However, they lost their North American empire after the British defeated them in the French and Indian War (1754-1763). By 1760, the Union Jack flew over the Great Lakes.

• Learn more about the French in Michigan:
  • visit the Michigan Historical Museum in person
  • see the online version of the museum's First People Gallery

Updated 06/23/2011