OGDENSBURG — Fort LaPresentation Association’s LeSiege du Fort de La Presentation, formerly Founder’s Weekend, will be held July 15 and 16 at the fort site on Van Rensselaer Point.

The event will bring re-enacters from throughout the U.S. and Canada to help celebrate Ogdenburg’s French colonial history and demonstrate life as it was during the French and Indian War.

For more than a decade re-enactors have assembled on Van Rensselaer (Lighthouse) Point to commemorate Ogdensburg’s French colonial history. The military re-enactment and living history event draws re-enactors, historians, colonial artisans and event attendees from New York, Ontario and Quebec, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and other states and provinces.

Participants dressed in clothing from the time period show how they lived, made sashes, wove baskets, started fires and threw tomahawks. Planned re-enactment activities include French, British, Native and Maritime Encampments; children’s activities; historical talks; demonstrations; exhibits and food vendors.

Admission to LeSiege du Fort de La Presentation is $5 for adults, $2 for children 6-16. Free admission for children on Sunday with paid adults.

Fort de la Présentation was founded in 1749 by Abbé Francois Picquet as a mission to Roman Catholic Iroquois and their allies.

In the mid-1750s, the surrounding native populations from both shores of the St. Lawrence River and adjacent islands neared 3,000 from which warriors joined the French in their conflict with England during the French and Indian War.

Fort de la Présentation was abandoned in 1759 when the British gained the upper hand in the war and most of the Native population dispersed.

In 1760, the two-part Battle of the Thousand Islands signaled the end of the French régime in North America.

The French vessel L’Outauaise was captured by British gunboats off Isle Royale in August and later that month Fort Lévis (on what is now known as Chimney Island, located opposite the Ogdensburg shoreline) surrendered to the British after more than a week long artillery bombardment.

Fort de la Lévis, defended by about 300 French, Canadian troops and Native Americans fell to an Anglo-American Army over 10,000 strong.

In September 1760, Montreal surrendered and Canada officially joined the other American colonies as part of the British Empire after the signing of the Treaty of Ghent in 1763.