Irondequoit Bay, whose name comes from a Native American word meaning “Where the Lake Turns Aside,” served Native people as access to the lake and was used for fishing, hunting, travel, and an extensive network of trails and portages between the lake, inland villages, and the Genesee River. Inlets along the Seaway Trail coast were explored as possible water routes to the continent’s interior, and explorers hoped the bay might lead to China or to the Orient. The bay became a crossroads for commerce and a gateway from Lake Ontario to inland water routes for early traders and merchants. Étienne Brule was the first European to see the bay in 1610, it appeared on Champlain’s map in 1612, and René Robert Cavelier Sieur de La Salle explored it in 1669, 1678, and 1679 while seeking the Ohio Trail and a water route to the Orient; during the third visit, Father Hennepin built a chapel. Louis Thomas de Juncaire, a French merchant, built the fur trading post Fort de Sables at the lake shore in 1717, the English built Fort Schuyler in 1721, and in 1741 the English bought the bay from the Senecas. In 1687 French Governor Denonville led a military-style invasion aimed at punishing the Senecas but succeeded only in making enemies. In 1788 Oliver Phelps acquired title to the bay. The bay itself was cut by the ancient Danville River before glaciers advanced across the area; glacial deposits then dammed that river, the flow was diverted to the Genesee River channel, a rising post-glacial lake flooded the ancient valley, and Irondequoit Creek now drains into the remnant valley.