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Once important as a deep-water port, pocket-sized PRESCOTT , 20km east of Brockville, was rendered pretty much obsolete by the St Lawrence Seaway, though it is at least close to the bridge over to Ogdensburg, New York, and this has saved some of its commercial bacon. A General Robert Prescott founded the town in 1810 with land granted to him in thanks for his efforts during the American Revolution, and locals raucously celebrate their Loyalist origins in the third week of July, when the ten-day Loyalist Days Festival includes the largest military pageant in Canada. The pageant takes place at Fort Wellington National Historic Site , beside Hwy 2 on the east side of town (mid-May to Sept daily 10am-5pm; tel 613/925-2896; $3). Like Kingston's Fort Henry, this fort guarded the vulnerable St Lawrence frontier and owes its present shape to a hurried refortification commissioned in the tense days following the War of 1812. The Americans never attacked and the fort soon fell into disrepair, though there was another spurt of imperial activity during the rebellion of 1837 when the bloody Battle of the Windmill was fought nearby, and again during the short-lived Irish-American Fenian raids of 1865. Today, the four original 1813 structures are surrounded by artillery-resistant earthworks, while the 1838 stone blockhouse contains a guardroom, armoury, powder magazine and barracks, all refurnished as of the mid-nineteenth century. Just 5km east of Prescott, there's a choice of routes: Hwy 416 cuts north to Ottawa , while Hwy 401 carries on east to pass the Upper Canada Village en route to Montreal.
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