Our Tree Lives On

Bert3 Earl Plato

Part 3: Bert - Our giant tulip tree watched as many years passed. The Senecas and others of the mighty Iroquois nation fished and hunted in the area. Researchers tell us that they made no permanent settlements here. Why? We wonder. Meanwhile our magnificent tree stood unscarred.
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Circa 1750 French fur traders erected a rough storehouse near the site of our present fort. It was easily visible from our tree. The surrounding area was quickly becoming an important location. It was a strategic site for control of the Great Lakes and the valuable fur trade with Europe.
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Many of us know of the following. The year 1764 and Captain John Montresor of the British army engineers arrived in the area. A new fort was to be built at the mouth of Niagara just a few miles from the giant tree. Fort Erie was established. Our tree saw many changes now. Countless trees were felled as a little community grew up. By 1780 discharged soldiers of Butler’s Rangers took up crown grants and settled in the area. It is not hard to picture Loyalist John Rose seeing our tree as he walked to and from Lake Erie from his home on Rose Hill. Soon there were rough roads that replaced the narrow Indian trails. The many wetland areas along the way were filled with corduroy (wooden logs) to traverse those spots. The Europeans had come to stay. Life would never be the same yet our magnificent tree remained untouched by human hands.
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The War of 1812-14 was a bloodbath here. The Siege of Fort Erie against the Americans within was a great disaster for us. Several hundred British soldiers lost their lives from a tremendous explosion that August day in 1814. Our tree stood posed far enough away from the cannon balls and flying shrapnel. It had a grandstand view of those final days of the War.
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Some fifty years passed. In June, 1866 the Fenians (I.R.A.) Irish-Americans fresh from victory in the American Civil war invaded Canada West (Ontario) , our Niagara Peninsula at Fort Erie. In here days they had withdrawn in well ordered haste. One long column marched by our tree on the way to the .ruins of Fort Erie. Here the Fenians waited anxiously for their barges to return them to Buffalo.
Our towering Tulip tree saw it all.
Next: Part 4: Canada is born.