St. Babs 2012: Great Lakes

The details are coming together for the Great Lakes St. Babs, to be held from May 15-20, 2012. The conference will begin in Kingston, Ontario, on Tuesday evening, May 15, and end on Sunday afternoon, May 20, in Toledo, Ohio. Bring your passport – we will be crossing the US-Canadian border multiple times.

The conference will be a different format from previous conferences where we studied one – or in some cases two – harbors. This year we will explore twelve fortifications along the US-Canadian border, stretching from Prescott, Ontario, to Toledo, Ohio. We will see a wide variety of structures, some of which saw significant action and some of which stood as silent sentinels. One of the forts was begun by the British, completed by the Americans, then underwent a siege by the British.

The overall cost of the conference is $150 per person, and includes the admission fees for all the sites that will be visited. As always, meals are on your own other than the Annual Banquet on Friday, May 18, in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. Please make checks payable to John Weaver and write CDSG 2012 on memo line.

We are not able to do “partial registrations” for the conference – the $150 registration fee applies no matter how many days are attended. Additionally, logistics prevent us from doing a “banquet only” registration for this conference.

We have time available for presentations each evening, except the evening of the banquet. We are limiting presentations to a maximum of 30 minutes, and will give priority to presentations that favor either temporal or geographical synergies with the sites to be visited. Please indicate your desire to give a presentation on the registration form, and list the subject of the presentation.

The conference begins in Kingston, Ontario, on Tuesday evening with registration, an introduction to the conference, and presentations. From our base at the Peachtree Inn in Kingston, we will visit the magnificent Fort Henry, two Martello towers, and drive to Prescott where we will visit Fort Wellington. We then return for a second night in Kingston.

Thursday will be our longest day. We will cross into the United States and follow the southern shore of Lake Ontario to Oswego, New York, where we will visit Fort Ontario. For those wishing a side trip, the Safe Haven Museum is on the Fort Ontario site. On this closed base, a number of Holocaust survivors were housed in the waning days of World War II. From Oswego, we will continue to Fort Niagara where the Niagara River meets Lake Ontario. We will then cross into Canada and go north to Niagara-on-the-Lake, where we will spend the next two nights.

On Friday we will visit the British/Canadian defenses overlooking the Niagara River: Mississauga Tower, Fort George, and Fort Erie. We will return to Niagara-on-the-Lake for our annual meeting and banquet Friday evening.

On Saturday, we will travel to Amherstburg, Ontario, to Fort Malden, then cross the Detroit River to Fort Wayne on the US side of the river. A wonderful preservation project is underway at Fort Wayne, and it will be nice to be able to see the progress that has been made. Additionally, Fort Wayne has particular interest in being an active fortification and post from the 19th century through the Vietnam War. Many original buildings from all periods exist on the site. We will spend the night just south of Fort Wayne, near the Detroit Metro Airport, where we will have our final presentations of the conference.

On Sunday we will continue south to Fort Miegs, a large, nicely reconstructed fort that saw significant action during the War of 1812. We will end the conference early in the afternoon to allow people to return home.

As usual, members are responsible for making their own reservations. Please mention CDSG to receive the special conference rate (as well as to reach the hotel minimum for the conference rooms). Reservations must be made by April 15, 2012, to receive the CDSG rate. A block of rooms has been set aside at each hotel, but reservations are on a first come, first served basis. Please indicate on the registration form the nights that you will be reserving a room in the conference hotel. If you will be staying with someone reserving a room, that doesn’t count – only if you are reserving a room. This will help us in determining the number of rooms reserved. If we have enough rooms reserved, we can have the meeting rooms at no charge.

Kingston, Ontario: The Peachtree Inn, 1187 Princess Street, Kingston, Ontario K7M 3E1, 1-800-706-0698 www.peachtreeinn.net. The discounted rate for CDSG is $72 (CAD) per night for a single or double, and includes a free continental breakfast, free wireless connection, free local calls, and free parking. We will be checking in on Tuesday, May 15, and checking out on Thursday morning, May 17.

Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario: Niagara Residence and Conference Centre, 137 Taylor Road SS#4, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario L0S 1J0, (905) 641-4435, mparente@stayrcc.com, www.stayrcc.com/notl. Single and double rooms are $74.95 (CAD), triple occupancy is $79.95 (CAD), and quadruple occupancy rooms are $84.95 (CAD). All rates include a continental breakfast. We will be checking in on Thursday, May 17, and checking out on Saturday morning, May 19.

Detroit, Michigan: Courtyard by Marriott, Detroit Metro Airport, 30653 Flynn Drive, Romulus, MI 48174-2239, (734) 721-3200. Room rates for single or double occupancy are $80 (USD). The rates do not include breakfast, but breakfast is available at the hotel or in several nearby locations. We will be checking in on Saturday, May 19, and checking out on Sunday morning, May 20.

As usual, most transportation for the conference will be in personal vehicles. Generally, CDSG members will “team up” with other members, minimizing the number of cars (and gas usage) and sharing information from the diverse areas of expertise in the group. We will attempt to identify cars with space on the evenings prior to each day’s events and recommend people share driving and costs appropriately.

There has been an interest expressed in providing a rental van for those flying in for the conference and not riding with other CDSG members. We are happy to provide such a van (or vans, if necessary), and have arranged for two volunteer drivers. The cost for the van and fuel will be divided between those using the van. The plan is for the van to leave the Detroit airport by 10:00 am on Tuesday, arriving in Kingston in time for the evening presentations. It will return to the Detroit airport on Sunday afternoon. There are two options for riders – 1) Fly into and out of Detroit (least expensive option) and take the van both ways; and 2) Fly into Kingston and out of Detroit, taking the van only from Kingston to Detroit. Since the van will need to make the round trip in any event, the cost for either option will be the same. The cost will be determined based on the number of people choosing this option.

Fort Wellington is an earthen and wood fort with a restored blockhouse and a masonry caponier. Overlooking the St. Laurence River in Prescott, Ontario, it is a great example of British fortification technology in the mid-19th century. The sophistication of the design of the fort and its outworks bring the concept of an earth-and-wood fort to new levels.

Fort Henry is a very large masonry fort with a large masonry ravelin facing Lake Ontario. Built on the high ground overlooking Kingston Harbor, this magnificent fort is the epitome of British fortifications on the Great Lakes. This fort boasts several unique features in its land defenses, and a towering presence over Lake Ontario and the mouth of the St. Lawrence River.

Fort Frederick is a classic Martello Tower surrounded by an earth-and-stone fort. Located on the grounds of the Royal Military College of Canada, it is a beautifully preserved and interpreted example of a “bolstered” Martello Tower.

Murney Tower is of a very similar design as Fort Frederick, but without the surrounding fortifications. It is a classic Martello Tower with internal land defenses, including caponiers at the base of the tower.

Fort Ontario is period to the American Third System, with similar design features to Third System forts. This masonry fort was built by various engineers over its construction period, with each engineer putting his own “spin” on the design. This provides the fortification historian a unique look at differing methods of achieving the same defensive goals, all in the same structure. Also on the grounds is the Safe Haven Museum, commemorating the residence of 1,000 holocaust survivors near the end of World War II.

Fort Niagara is the oldest of the forts to be visited, and is a “roadmap” of the evolution of fortification technology. While the oldest portions of the fort date to 1726, the land defenses of the fort were designed and constructed during the Third System

Mississauga Tower is a square tower, similar in design to a true Martello Tower, with a surrounding earthen fortification. The earthworks surrounding the tower are surprisingly well preserved, as are the masonry magazines, sally port, and postern. This fort – and nearby Fort George – were built as a counterpoint to Fort Niagara, within sight across the Niagara River.

Fort George is an earth-and-wood fort of very large proportion, with many very interesting features. On the landward side is a blockhouse connected to the main fort by a tunnel, and defensive barracks are located on the parade of the fort. This massive fort is a must-see for anyone interested in 19th century fortifications. While it did not carry a coast-defense mission per se, it provided landward protection and barracks to the Mississauga Tower.

Fort Erie is a masonry fort begun by British but captured by the United States before it was completed. American engineers modified the design and completed more of the fort, then defended the fort when the British laid siege upon it. It was successfully defended – with the help of some luck when a powder magazine blew up killing many of the attacking British soldiers. This is a very interesting masonry fort with very substantial supporting earthworks. The blend of American and British defensive philosophies is clear in the construction.

Fort Malden is an earth-and-wood fortification with masonry buildings on the parade of the fort. This well designed fort was a base of operations against Detroit and south during the War of 1812, and portions of the fort have been nicely restored.

Fort Wayne is a brick-masonry fort period to the Third System. Originally built as a wood-and-earthen fort guarding the Detroit River, it was reworked by Montgomery Miegs in the mid-19th Century. Unique to this fort is the sally port located in a bastion flank. A ravelin overlooks the Detroit River at its narrowest point, and the parade is dominated by a beautiful stone barracks. Outside the old fort is a base that was active from the early 19th Century through the Vietnam War. Buildings from all periods have been restored, most recently the Spanish-American War guardhouse. Also on the grounds are a Native-American burial mound and the Tuskegee Airmen Museum.

Fort Miegs is a very large earth-and-wood fort overlooking the Maumee River is Perrysburg (suburb of Toledo), Ohio. Designed with a large parados, many cannon positions, and corner blockhouses, this fort was a critical defensive position during the War of 1812.