March 2017 | Business View Magazine

162 163 Amherstburg, Ontario sits on the banks of the Detroit River at the mouth of Lake Erie, approximately 16 miles south of Detroit, Michigan. It was first set- tled in 1784 by Loyalists who were granted land by the British Crown after the American Revolutionary War. In 1796, Fort Amherstburg was established, and the Loyalist refugees laid out a town site named Malden. During the War of 1812, the fort was used as a base by General Isaac Brock to capture Detroit, but was then, itself, captured and oc- cupied by American forces from 1813 to 1815. By the late 1830s, the fort and the town were known by each other’s names, Malden and Amherstburg. During the days of the Underground Railroad, before the American Civil War, fugitive slaves from the southern states often used Fort Amherstburg as Amherstburg, Ontario A choice destination