Some years later, Cadillac again enlists Jean-Baptiste and Joseph to travel with him to set a post on a river connecting Lakes Erie and St. Clair. He names the post with the French term for narrow straights: Détroit. The boys stay here for the early days of this city in the wilderness which will become a focus of the remainder of the Allard Series. Photo: Detroit today, Cadillac’s Fort was located on land just to the left of the Renaissance Center. Read More
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The Griffin
October 20, 2013
During a scouting party for Cadillac in now northern Michigan, the boys encountered a wooden ship hidden on a small river. The lost ship of LaSalle and first ship on the Great Lakes, the Griffin, had been abandoned with a hold full of furs. When Cadillac discovers this, he swears the boys to secrecy and uses the furs to his personal advantage, later taking the empty boat into the lake and sinking it in deep water where it would remain for centuries. Needless to say, some of this story is my invention. Read More
Michillimackinac
October 13, 2013
Following a few years raiding English ships with the famous French-Canadian privateer, Francois Guyon, Antoine Cadillac appeared at the home of young Jean-Baptiste Allard, now eighteen years of age. In a local tavern, he had heard the story of Jean-Baptiste and Joseph’s heroism against the Iroquois raiding party. Like most unreliable people, Cadillac trusted almost no one, but he developed a trust in Jean-Baptiste that would serve them both for some time. Jean-Baptiste and Joseph agreed to accompany him as personal guards to set a fort and trading post at the straits between what are now known as the upper and lower peninsulas of Michigan. A place the natives called Michillimackinac. Read More
Antoine Cadillac
October 5, 2013
Antoine Cadillac is, in my opinion, one of the four most interesting historical figures in the history of Detroit (Gabriel Richard, Augustus Woodward and Henry Ford are the others). I’ll touch on them later. Cadillac came to New France as a young adventurer; he brought with him an impressive pedigree which, as with many things Cadillac, was false. He detested the Jesuits, held the natives in the lowest regard, was able to convince the authorities of whatever suited him, and was constantly in search of what benefitted him. Read More