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 1762. The square fort was built to guard a portage known as the Oneida Carrying Place during the French and Indian War.
Following this war, the British military abandoned the fort and American troops occupied it beginning in 1776, for the duration of the Revolutionary War. Fort Stanwix is historically significant for the successful American defense of the fortification in August 1777, a defense that proved a major factor in blunting a British invasion from Canada during the Saratoga campaign.
The fort was also the site of the negotiation and signature of the Boundary Line Treaty (1768) and the Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1784), both of which had controversial and significant historical impacts for the nascent United States and the Native American Indian nations who signed the treaties.
Fort Stanwix National Monument occupies approximately 16 acres in present-day Rome, NY. The park includes a reconstruction of the historic Fort Stanwix which is based on historic research and archaeological excavations. The site of the original fort—although not the reconstruction itself—is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
The national monument also includes three short trails encircle the reconstructed fort, one of which follows a portion of the Oneida Carry, and the Marinus Willett Collections Management and Education Center, which 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.
