Fort Ontario
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Fort Ontario is an historic fort situated by the City of Oswego, in Oswego County, New York in the United States of America.
Fort Ontario was one of several forts erected by the British to protect the area around the east end of Lake Ontario. The original Fort Ontario was erected in 1755, during the French and Indian War. At that time its name was the "Fort of the Six Nations," but the fort was destroyed by French forces and was rebuilt in 1759.
During the American Revolution, colonial troops destroyed the fort after the British abandoned it, but the British returned and held the location until two years after the peace accord ending the war.
2nd Brigade of the U.S. 1st Infantry Division called Fort Ontario home until the brigade was inactivated on June 1, 1940.
During World War II Fort Ontario was home to approximately 982 Jewish Refugees, from August 1944 to February 1946. Fort Ontario was the first and only attempt by the United States to shelter Jewish refugees during the war. After the end of the war the refugees were kept in internment due to disagreements concerning whether or not to make them United States citizens. It wasn't until January of 1946 that the decision was made to allow them to become citizens, by February all Jewish Refugees had been allowed to leave Fort Ontario.
The restored fort is open to the public as a state historic site.
Fort Ontario was built with two other forts in the period, Fort George and Fort Oswego.
