Niagara Falls City Map Poster

About Niagara Falls

The first Europeans who came to the area were French. They soon abandoned it in favor of trade with the Iroquois further downriver at Fort Niagara. The next European settlers were soldiers from the Third Regiment of the British Army, sent by Queen Anne to build and protect a fort at Grand Island (then called "Gananoque"). The small group of British troops built a stockade they called Fort Schlosser (Fort Schlosser was named after German-born Major General John Redman Schlosser). Although they spent only one winter there, their presence officially began Western New York's status as an English colony: part of New France under French control; later part of Great Britain's Province Of Quebec until 1763 when Quebec was ceded to Great Britain after defeat in that year's Seven Years' War; then finally becoming part owner with First Nations peoples through treaties following Pontiacs Rebellion. During this early period, relations between Native Americans and new British soldiers garrisoned there were often tense.