Fort Stanwix

Fort Stanwix
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
U.S. National Monument
Aerial view of the Fort Stanwix reconstruction
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Location	100 North James St., Rome, New York
Coordinates	43°12′38″N 75°27′19″W / 43.21056°N 75.45528°W / 43.21056; -75.45528
Area	16 acres (6.5 ha)
Built	1758
Visitation	84,933 (2002)
Website	Fort Stanwix National Monument
NRHP reference No.	66000057
Significant dates
Added to NRHP	October 15, 1966[1]
Designated NHL	November 23, 1962[2]
Designated NMON	August 21, 1935

Fort Stanwix was a colonial fort whose construction commenced on August 26, 1758, under the direction of British General John Stanwix, at the location of present-day Rome, New York, but was not completed until about 1762. The bastion fort was built to guard a portage known as the Oneida Carry during the French and Indian War. Fort Stanwix National Monument, a reconstructed structure built by the National Park Service, now occupies the site.^[3]

Fort Stanwix is historically significant because of its successful defense by American troops during an August 1777 siege. The fort had been built by the British in 1758 at a strategic site along the water route from Lake Ontario to the Hudson River. After American forces captured and rebuilt the fort during the American Revolutionary War, they were besieged by a British army that invaded from Canada via Lake Ontario, hoping to reach the Hudson River. The British force abandoned the siege, a consequence that helped lead to the defeat of a larger British army during the Saratoga campaign.

Fort Stanwix was also the site of the 1768 Treaty of Fort Stanwix between Britain and Native American tribes, as well as of the 1784 Treaty of Fort Stanwix between the tribes and the American government.

Besides the fort reconstruction itself, the national monument includes three short trails that encircle it, one of which follows a portion of the Oneida Carry. The Marinus Willett Collections Management and Education Center preserves the monument's 485,000 artifacts and documents, displays exhibits about Fort Stanwix and the Mohawk Valley, and serves as a regional tourism center.^[4]