Fort #4 was the Northwestern most holding in the British empire in the early 1700’s. It was a ‘civilian fort’, which meant that 10 families paid for a charter to Massachusetts to build their homes 30 miles from the nearest settlement. They chose to build them with touching walls, in a square. They also dug a 4 foot trench around the buildings and buried posts to protect them from being attacked. They were attacked repeatedly, by Native Americans, as well as the French, their crops (outside the fort) were burned repeatedly, their men were taken hostage and/or killed, and flaming arrows were shot in, setting the homes on fire. Some of the families had 12 children, which I can’t even imagine. When state lines were re-drawn, the families had to re-pay their charter to the new state, New Hampshire. There were very few people there when we were, and the volunteers who re-enacted life at the time were amazing, spending a lot of time with us and giving detailed descriptions of how they made cloth from flax and talking about how politics played a role in these people’s lives. Also, an announcement from Ash and some face time pics.
Jim and Sherry's RV Life 