October 12th, 2015
Oswego, NY

Fort Ontario, located in Oswego, has seen many incarnation since it was originally built by the British about 1755. It has alternately been occupied by British or American forces, and has been destroyed at least once each by the British and the French.

What exists today is a stone and earth star-shaped fort, externally pretty identical to how the Americans rebuilt it during the Civil War. This is surrounded by a larger area that had many buildings after WWI. It was pretty much continuously occupied through WWII.

The battlements and buildings are all pretty original, though the interior displays are all modern recreations. Still a very cool place to visit with exceptionally friendly people running it.

But the larger post has an even more curious place in history. From 1944 to 1946 it served as a refugee camp for about 1000 Europeans displaced from Nazi controlled areas of Europe. Most were displaced Jews, but some were Catholic. FDR ordered them brought here from Italy by executive order and their legal status here was shaky. All had promised to return to Europe after the war, but few did after they were eventually granted citizenship.

Overall, a very cool historic site.

Front Gate

Looking across parade ground

Recreated barracks.

Faux cat.

 

One of the many casements from which guns would have been fired.

 

A gun on one of the earthen battlements.  The wooden cover was made to be pulled away quickly to operate the gun which swivels on the rear wheels.

History and modernity mixed.  Just over the white part of the building on the right, some miles distant, is the cooling tower from the Nine Mile Point nuclear reactor.