Named in honor of Henry Laurens, then president of the Continental Congress, Fort Laurens was built in 1778 in an ill-fated campaign to attack the British at Detroit. Supplying this wilderness outpost was its downfall, as its starving garrison survived on boiled moccasins and withstood a month-long siege by British-led Indians. The fort was abandoned in 1779.

Today, only the outline of the fort remains, but a small museum commemorates the frontier soldier, houses a video giving the fort's history and archaeological artifacts from the fort's excavation.

The large park surrounding the museum is an ideal picnic site, with two shelters, and the location for periodic military reenactments. The remains of the soldiers who died defending the fort are buried in a crypt in the museum wall and at the Tomb of the Unknown Patriot of the American Revolution.