Fort Beversreede (after 1633–1651) was a Dutch-built palisaded factorij located near the confluence of the

Schuylkill River The Schuylkill River ( , ) is a river in eastern Pennsylvania. It flows for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map(). accessed April 1, 2011. from Pottsville, Pennsylvania, Pottsville ...

and the

Delaware River The Delaware River is a major river in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and is the longest free-flowing (undammed) river in the Eastern United States. From the meeting of its branches in Hancock, New York, the river flows for a ...

. It was an outpost of the colony of New Netherland, which was centered on its capital,

New Amsterdam New Amsterdam (, ) was a 17th-century Dutch Empire, Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''Factory (trading post), fac ...

in present-day

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

, New York City, on the North River, now the

Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...

Location

A 1655 Swedish map shows the fort on the west bank of the

, on Providence Island, just south of Minquas, also known as Eagle's Nest or Mingo Creek. Scharf & Westcott put it on the east bank of the

, opposite Minquas Creek. A 1770s map of Philadelphia's naval defenses shows a fort on the island, but it is unidentified. Directly adjacent to (or opposite) the fort was the terminus of the Great Minquas Path, an 80-mile (130 km) trail from the

Susquehanna River The Susquehanna River ( ; Unami language, Lenape: ) is a major river located in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, crossing three lower Northeastern United States, Northeast states (New York, Pennsylvani ...

to the

. This was the primary trade route for furs from the Susquehannock people, and the Dutch named the trail "Beversreede" or "Beaver Road."

Swedes

Though never recognized by the Dutch, the

Delaware Valley The Philadelphia metropolitan area, also known as Greater Philadelphia and informally called the Delaware Valley, the Philadelphia tri-state area, and locally and colloquially Philly–Jersey–Delaware, is a major metropolitan area in the Nor ...

region was effectively under control of the Swedish colony of

New Sweden New Sweden () was a colony of the Swedish Empire between 1638 and 1655 along the lower reaches of the Delaware River in what is now Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Established during the Thirty Years' War when Sweden was a g ...

, which was first settled in 1638 at Fort Christina (now

Wilmington, Delaware Wilmington is the List of municipalities in Delaware, most populous city in the U.S. state of Delaware. The city was built on the site of Fort Christina, the first Swedish colonization of the Americas, Swedish settlement in North America. It lie ...

). Though the Swedes' colony included Dutch residents, the only official Dutch presence in the area was across the

at Fort Nassau, at the mouth of Big Timber Creek (south of today's Gloucester City, New Jersey). In 1642, members of the

Connecticut Colony The Connecticut Colony, originally known as the Connecticut River Colony, was an English colony in New England which later became the state of Connecticut. It was organized on March 3, 1636, as a settlement for a Puritans, Puritan congregation o ...

attempted to settle in the area, but their homes were burned and the nascent colony was repelled. The Swedes had a competing claim for land at the mouth of the Schuylkill River, and they often vandalized Fort Beversreede. In 1648, they built a stockaded 30-by-20-foot blockhouse directly in front of it, called Fort Nya Korsholm. The Swedish building was said to be only twelve feet from the gate of the Dutch fort. It was meant to intimidate the Dutch residents and intercept trade. In 1651, the Dutch abandoned Fort Beversreede and dismantled and relocated Fort Nassau to the

Christina River The Christina River is a tributary of the Delaware River, approximately 35 miles (56 km) long, in northern Delaware. It also flows through small areas of southeastern Pennsylvania and northeastern Maryland. Near its mouth, the river ...

, downstream from the Swedes' Fort Christina. The Dutch consolidated their forces at the rebuilt fort, renamed Fort Casimir. It was not until 1655 that control of the area was regained by the Dutch in a military expedition led by Director-General of New Netherland Petrus Stuyvesant, establishing a regional capital at New Amstel.

Site

There is no remnant of either Fort Beversreede or Fort Nya Korsholm. Nearby Mud Island became the site of Fort Mifflin in 1771. Widening of the Schuylkill's channel, subsequent

land reclamation Land reclamation, often known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new Terrestrial ecoregion, land from oceans, list of seas, seas, Stream bed, riverbeds or lake ...

, as well as other transportation and industrial infrastructure have dramatically changed the area. But the site of the forts (whether on the east or west bank of the Schuylkill) is probably south of the mouth of Mingo Creek and north of the George C. Platt Bridge.

References

{{coord, 39, 53, 53, N, 75, 12, 42, W, region:US_type:landmark, display=title

External links

Amandus Johnson detailed map of Delaware Valley 1638-1655Current map of Province Island
Dutch-American culture in Pennsylvania Beversreede New Sweden History of Philadelphia

Location

Swedes

Site

See also

References

External links