Fort Chécagou

Before the arrival of the French missionaries, the swampy area was inhabited by small settlements of Native Americans on the southern coast of Lake Michigan.

[2] A number of small, temporary fortified trading posts were constructed in the area in the late seventeenth century.

The exact location of most of these trading posts is uncertain, and, although they were sometimes referred to as "forts," there is no evidence of a permanent French military fortification in the area during this period.

In a letter written by the explorer de LaSalle dated June 4, 1683, he notes that two of his men had constructed a temporary stockade at the Chicago Portage in the winter of 1682.

[4] In October 1687 Joutel, and a party of de LaSalle's men left Fort St. Louis bound for Canada.

[6] The Mission of the Guardian Angel was built in 1696 by the French missionaries in order to facilitate the conversion to Christianity of the local Amerindians.

[2] The first known foreigner to permanently settle in the area was Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, who was a Haitian of African and French ancestry.