Once an important French fort on the route to the Mississippi River, Fort St. Joseph (present-day Niles, Michigan) had fallen into disrepair under the control of the British and was an easy target for a force of Spaniards who traveled from St. Louis, Missouri. The Spaniards' one-day occupation of Fort St. Joseph allowed Niles residents to boast later that theirs was the only Michigan community over which four flags (French, British, Spanish and American) had flown.