Fort St. Joseph National Historic Site of Canada

Fort St. Joseph was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1923 because:

• it symbolizes the commercial and military alliance that existed between the British and the First Nation Peoples of the western Great Lakes region in the aftermath of the American Revolutionary War through the War of 1812;
• the site contains a remarkable assemblage of archaeological features which in their undeveloped state reveal part of the complex pattern of military, domestic and commercial life – Aboriginal and European - in this frontier outpost;
• the ruins of the fortifications and the archaeological resources dating from the 1796-1812 period are considered to be of national significance.

The heritage value of Fort St. Joseph National Historic Site of Canada resides in its location and remote setting and in the extensive collection of archaeological remains from the 1796-1812 period. Old Fort St. Joseph Point was a military and a British Indian Department post established by the British in 1796-1799, and vacated in 1812. Rains Point was the site of Milford Haven, a 19th-century tract settlement for British settlers. LaPointe Point was the site of a private 20th-century hunting camp. Efforts to construct a road to this camp in the 1940s resulted in damage to the east half of Old Fort St. Joseph Point and structures on Rains Point.