Fort Sainte Anne (Isle La Motte, Vermont)

Isle La Motte · Vermont · Iroquois Wars

Quick BriefBuilt by the French in 1666, Fort Sainte Anne was the first permanent European settlement in Vermont. The French built a fort on Isle La Motte, to protect New France from the Iroquois. Fort Sainte Anne was the most vulnerable to attacks by the Iroquois, because it was the last of five forts stretching along the Richelieu River going south. It was the site of the first Catholic Mass celebrated in Vermont.

History & Significance

Lieutenant Général Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy, who had been sent to New France to end the threat of the Iroquois to the colony had the forts built by soldiers of the Carignan-Salières Regiment. Fort Ste Anne was built on the northwest shore of Isle La Motte in 1666 by French soldiers under the command of Captain Sieur de La Motte of the Carignan.

The fortress itself was a simple structure measuring about 144′ x 96′ with double log palisade 15′ high and four log bastions. In September 1666, about 600 veteran troops of the Carignan-Salieres regt., together with an equal number of volunteers, (or habitans) met here with approximately 100 Huron warriors, prior to marching against Iroquois villages.

The fort's garrison faced hardship; soldiers at Fort St. Anne, unlike those at Forts Richelieu and Saint-Louis, had not had time to develop farming to provide their own food. Therefore, the soldiers relied on food sent from St. Lawrence settlements to the north.

The fort was abandoned in 1671. All traces of the wooden fort were obliterated by the mid-1800s. The location now features a Catholic Shrine.