Picture courtesy of biographi.ca
In City Park across West St. from the intersection of West St. and Lower Union.
Commemoration
Early in his celebrated career the explorer La Salle played a principal role in the expansion of the French fur trade into the Lake Ontario region. In 1673 he arranged a meeting between Governor-General Frontenac, who wanted to shift the centre of the fur trade away from Montreal, and representatives of the Iroquois at Cataraqui, the site of present-day Kingston. Placed in command of Fort Frontenac, the post the governor ordered built here, La Salle soon gained control over trade in the area by acquiring ownership of the establishment as a seigneurial grant. Using the fort as a base, he then undertook expeditions to the west and southwest in an attempt to expand his Cataraqui operation into a vast fur-trading empire.
Background
LaSalle was born in Rouen, Normandy, France. He explored all through the Great Lakes, down the Mississippi and in to the Gulf of Mexico. It was LaSalle’s discoveries that were the basis of France’s claim to much of the continent of North America. He was killed by mutinous followers in modern day Texas.
LaSalle lives on in the names of many places where he planted the French flag.