The French built a palisaded fort on this strategic site in 1722 and named it Fort Saint Philippe des Miamis. It was one of three French forts built in what is now Indiana to protect the French fur trade from encroaching English interests. It was the first of five forts built over time within a square mile of the center of present-day Fort Wayne. The nearby confluence of St. Mary's and St. Joseph's Rivers forms the Maumee River, a strategic central part of the waterway system connecting the Great Lakes regions with the Mississippi River Valley. By using a portage between the Maumee and Wabash rivers, travelers could journey nearly 2,500 miles by water from French Canada to Louisiana.