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Antoine de la Mothe, sieur de Cadillac (/ ˈ k æ d ɪ l æ k /, French:; March 5, 1658 – October 16, 1730), born Antoine Laumet, was a French explorer and adventurer in New France, which stretched from Eastern Canada to Louisiana on the Gulf of Mexico.
Antoine Laumet de La Mothe Cadillac (born March 5, 1658, Les Laumets, Fr.—died Oct. 15, 1730, Castelsarrasin) was a French soldier, explorer, and administrator in French North America, founder of the city of Detroit (1701), and governor of Louisiana (1710 to 1716 or 1717).
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
In 1701 Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founded the site that would become the city of Detroit. He was born Antoine Laumet on March 5, 1658 in southern France. At the age of 25, he arrived in the New World and, as a coastal trader, soon became an expert on the continent’s Atlantic coast.
But why was it named Cadillac and why is that name associated with Maine, Detroit, Louisiana, or the Bastille prison in Paris, France? The French explorer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac is the answer to all these questions.
The site that was to become the city of Detroit was established on July 24, 1701 by Antoine de la mothe Cadillac, a French military leader and trader. Cadillac had traveled widely in New France and the western Great Lakes and was the commander of Fort Michilimackinac at the junction of Lakes Huron and Michigan.
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Jan 7, 2008 · Antoine Laumet, known as “de Lamothe Cadillac,” explorer, seigneur in Acadia, commandant of Fort Michilimackinac, founder of Detroit and of the first colony in Ontario, governor of Louisiana (born 5 March 1658 at Saint-Nicolas-de-la-Grave, France; died 16 October 1730 at Castelsarrasin, France).
Cadillac and his men reached the Detroit River on July 23, 1701. The following day, July 24, 1701, the group traveled north on the Detroit River and chose a place to build the settlement. Cadillac named the settlement Fort Ponchartrain du Detroit in honor of King Louis's Minister of Marine.
