Fort Malden

Fort Amherstburg was built by the Royal Canadian Volunteers at the mouth of the Detroit River to replace Fort Detroit, which Britain was required to cede to the United States of America in 1796 as a result of the Jay Treaty. Built in the years before the War of 1812, Fort Amherstburg included "King's Navy Yard" for shipbuilding on the upper Great Lakes (Lakes Erie, Huron, and Superior). The War of 1812 began and escalated quickly with US General William Hull invading Canada in July 1812. Soldiers from the fort repelled the Americans at River Canard. After General Hull retreated back to Fort Detroit, British General Isaac Brock and the Shawnee Chief Tecumseh met at Fort Amherstburg to plan the attack of Fort Detroit in the British Indian Department building located outside of the fort grounds. After losing the Battle of Lake Erie (including the flagship HMS Detroit, which was built at the nearby Navy Yard Park), the British/Canadians destroyed the fort and retreated as most of the cannons normally placed in the bastions were put onto the ships to be used for the engagement on Lake Erie and subsequently were lost. The Americans built a new, smaller fort on the same site with a reduced perimeter. The north-west bastion and connected wall still remain today . After the end of the war, the British/Canadians reclaimed (what is now) Southern Ontario and Fort Malden. After the War of 1812, the British let the fort fall into disrepair until threats of rebellion grew in Upper Canada. The fort was repaired to full military use and was garrisoned with men from the 34th Regiment of Foot (made famous for their routing the French 34th regiment during the Napoleonic wars). After the 1837 rebellion was ended, the Fort again was not necessary as a military installation. It was changed from a military institution to a psychiatric institution. Its employees resided in the smallest barracks building, and the other two large barracks housed inmates sorted by gender. Trees were planted on and around the fort property to provide much-needed shade, which had not been wanted by the military as it would have obscured their view of an attacking force. After some time, the psychiatric institution moved to St. Catharines, Ontario, where it still exists today. After that second use for the grounds ended, the fort property was used as a woodmill until the property was sold off as private residences. The two large barracks buildings are no longer on the grounds. One was moved into the town of Amherstburg where it burned down during the 1920s while being used as a stable. The other barracks building technically still exists today. It has been moved from the fort grounds, divided up into three and sold as individual residences. They maintain the same shape as they had had as barracks, and at least one of the houses was found to have its original walls still intact. Fort Amherstburg still continues today in a military tradition and is a historic site (known as Fort Malden) that is frequently visited by tourists from around the world. Every Canada Day, an 1812 6-pounder field cannon is fired before a large display of fireworks is commenced. The Fort is garrisoned with summer staff who wear the same pattern of uniform and ladies who wear clothing styles of the early 19th century. Visitors can see what fort life was like in the early 19th century through cooking demonstrations and musket firing demonstrations. The biggest event at Fort Malden would be on the Canadian Civic Holiday weekend where re-enactors of time periods ranging from Ancient Rome to World War II gather and perform combat demonstrations and have a full encampment.

Park House is a historic house museum, located in Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada. It was built in 1796 in Detroit, but moved to Amherstburg in 1799. It has had many owners, the best-known being the Park family who owned it 102 years. In 1972 it was purchased by the Rotary Club of Amherstburg, becoming a local history museum and being renovated to portray life in the 1850s.

Amherstburg Royal Naval Dockyard was a Provincial Marine and then a Royal Navy yard from 1796 to 1813 in Amherstburg, Ontario, situated on the Detroit River. The yard comprised blockhouses, storehouses, magazine, wood yard and wharf. The yard was established in 1796 to support the Upper Canada Provincial Marine after Great Britain ceded a pre-existing shipyard on the Detroit River to the United States. Amherstburg Royal Naval Dockyard constructed four warships for the Lake Erie detachment of the Provincial Marine before and during the War of 1812. In 1813 the dockyard was abandoned and destroyed when the British retreated and never reopened. In 1928, the site was designated a National Historic Site of Canada.

Amherstburg First Baptist Church is a predominantly black church in Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by Anthony Binga Sr. and other Amherstburg residents in 1838. It was constructed in 1848–1849, and became a principal stop on the Underground Railroad. Under the leadership of Reverend Binga Sr. the church was the Mother Church of the Amherstburg Regular Missionary Baptist Association.It was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 2012.

Amherstburg Freedom Museum, previously known as 'the North American Black Historical Museum', is located in Amherstburg, Ontario, Canada. It is a community-based, non-profit museum that tells the story of African-Canadians' history and contributions. Founded in 1975 by local residents, it preserves and presents artifacts of African-Canadians, many of whose ancestors had entered Canada as refugees from United States slavery. They found it relatively easy to enter Canada from across the Detroit River. Although Michigan was a free territory and state, many refugee slaves continued to settle in Canada in order to be beyond the reach of the US Fugitive Slave Acts. The Museum complex which houses permanent and temporary exhibits, and consists of the museum building, the Taylor Log Cabin-a historic home from that period, and Nazrey African Methodist Episcopal Church, National Historic Site.

Boblo Island, is an island in the Detroit River on the Canadian side of the border and is part of Amherstburg, Ontario. The island is about 4.0 kilometres (2.5 mi) long, 0.80 km (0.5 mi) wide and 110 hectares (272 acres) in size. The main northbound shipping channel of the Detroit River currently lies between Boblo Island and the Amherstburg mainland. A stone lighthouse was built in 1836 on the southern tip of Boblo Island which marks the historical beginning of the Detroit River navigation channel for ships travelling upriver from Lake Erie in more modern times. It is now part of the Bois Blanc Island Lighthouse and Blockhouse.

Boblo Island Amusement Park is an abandoned amusement park which operated from 1898 until its closure on September 30, 1993. Its amusement rides were sold in 1994.The park was located on Bois Blanc Island, Ontario, just above the mouth of the Detroit River. The people of Detroit, Michigan, characterized it as the city's Coney Island.

Powder House Island (also known as Dynamite Island) is an artificial island on the lower Detroit River in southeast Michigan, directly adjacent to the Canada–United States border. It was constructed in the late 1880s by the Dunbar & Sullivan Company to store explosives during their dredging of the Livingstone Channel. It was constructed in a successful attempt to circumvent an 1880 court order forbidding the company to store explosives on nearby Fox Island. Powder House Island was the location of dynamite storage sheds, as well as a dynamite factory and several ice houses. During this time, it was the site of a series of accidents, including fires in 1895 and 1919 (which both burned the island "to the water's edge"). Twenty short tons (18,000 kg) of the island's dynamite exploded in 1906 after two men "had been shooting with a revolver" near it; while there were no deaths (and only minor injuries to the two men), windows were shattered 3 mi (4.8 km) away and the explosion was clearly audible from 85 mi (137 km) away. After the completion of the Livingstone Channel in 1912, the island continued to be used for storing explosives, including during later projects to deepen the channel in the 1930s. By the 1980s it was completely unused, and by 2015 the island was owned by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, managed by its Wildlife Division as part of the Pointe Mouillee State Game Area, and accessible to the public for hunting.

Stony Island is an island in the Detroit River, in southeast Michigan. It has been used for hunting and fishing as long as humans have inhabited the region; from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century, it was the site of a small settlement and served as a central location for the construction of the Livingstone Channel, as well as various civil engineering projects involving the Detroit River. By the 1990s, it had become completely uninhabited; it is now open to the public and administered by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

Fox Island is a naturally formed island in the Detroit River, in southeast Michigan, United States. In the late 1800s, it was used by the Dunbar & Sullivan Company to store explosives used for engineering projects in the Detroit River's shipping channels. When this was forbidden by a court injunction following an 1879 explosion, the company constructed Powder House Island several hundred yards to the east and relocated their explosive facilities there. Since then, Fox Island has served as a picnic location and campsite; in the early 20th century, it was the site of a vacation home owned by C. F. Parent. The island is now privately owned, but remains a fishing spot (notably for perch).

Amherstburg is a town near the mouth of the Detroit River in Essex County, Ontario, Canada. In 1796, Fort Malden was established here, stimulating growth in the settlement. The fort has been designated as a National Historic Site. The town is approximately 25 kilometres (16 mi) south of the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan, facing Wyandotte, Grosse Ile Township, Brownstown Charter Township, Trenton, and Gibraltar, Michigan. It is part of the Windsor census metropolitan area.

The East River Road Historic District is a historic district located along East River Road near the Grosse Ile Parkway in Grosse Ile, Michigan. The district is a small island community composed of eleven structures, including seven houses, two outbuildings, St. James Episcopal Church, and the Michigan Central Railroad depot. The district stretches from St. James Episcopal Church on the south to Littlecote on the north. The district was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1972 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. The historically significant 1870s customs house was moved into the district in 1979.