Fort Ontario State Historic Site

Fort Ontario State Historic Site in Oswego is a star-shaped fort overlooking Lake Ontario, dating to the early 1840s with improvements made between 1863 and 1872. It is the fourth fort on the spot, built over the ruins of three earlier fortifications that saw three French and Indian War battles and two from the War of 1812.

Visitors can explore guardhouses, a powder magazine, barracks, exhibits and videos, then walk the windswept ramparts for lake views and tour the underground stone casemates. The fort also holds a remarkable chapter of American history: from 1944 to 1946 it served as the only refugee camp in the United States for mostly Jewish victims of the Holocaust.

What to Know

• The grounds are open year-round from dawn to dusk.
• A post cemetery holds the graves of 77 officers, soldiers, women and children who served at the fort.
• The Army occupied the fort through World War II, and New York later housed veterans and their families there until 1953.
• It opened as a state historic site in 1949.
• Dress for the wind, because the ramparts sit right above Lake Ontario.