Among my favorite childhood memories are my family's visits to a place we knew as The French Fort.

My family's visits began in the mid-1930s. Photos on this page might have been taken during their very first visit to the fort, located on Onondaga Lake Parkway in Liverpool .

The French Fort would remain a favorite family place for about 50 years. It was later redone as a living museum tended by men and women in colonial costumes who expected visitors to speak as though it were the 18th century. Thus it was not as entertaining as when visitors could wander as they pleased and let their imaginations run wild without facing a pop quiz from one of the guides.

The revamped French Fort, called Sainte Marie Among the Iroquois, lasted about ten years before it was undone by budget cuts. (That name was a change from the original, Fort Ste. Marie de Gannentaha, built by Jesuits in 1656 to protect a small French settlement.)

Apparently it is now operated as a museum devoted to the history of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois). For information, visit this website:
www.skanonhcenter.org

— JACK MAJOR