the next day, but was unable to persuade his native allies to pursue the raiders. The Spanish returned to St. Louis on 6 March without incident. Pouré delivered the British flag to Cruzat. Some historians have described the attack as Spanish retaliation for the attack on St. Louis in the previous year. When Cruzat wrote about it to Governor Gálvez, he justified the raid as needing to appear strong to his Native allies, and to forestall British actions in the region. Although Cruzat treated the raid as an act of Indian affairs, the looting and destruction of goods held at Fort St. Joseph also dissuaded a second British attack into Spanish territory. Jay's Treaty The British finally abandoned the fort after the United States victory in the Northwest Indian War and the signing of Jay's Treaty in 1795. The fort gradually fell into ruin and was overgrown. Based on its Fort St. Joseph expedition, Spain claimed lands east of the Mississippi River, but this was not recognized by the United States. With the signing of Pinckney's Treaty (1795) with the US, Spain gave up any claim of land east of the Mississippi. Because of the long dispute over the land, the diplomats Benjamin Franklin and John Jay considered the Spanish campaign at Fort St. Joseph to have been little more than a ploy to claim the Northwest Territory. Franklin warned they want to "shut us up within the Appalachian Mountains." Rediscovery to present Pothunters in the late 1800s recovered hundreds of artifacts from the fort site, which are now displayed in the Fort St. Joseph Museum in Niles. They include "trade silver, musket parts, glass beads, buttons, gunflints, knife blades, and door hinges." The specific location of the 15-acre fort site was forgotten, and part of it is likely underwater since a dam downriver raised the water level. The site was not rediscovered until an archeological survey in 1998. Support the Fort, a local interest group founded in 1992, has helped sponsor a major archeological excavation on site, which began in 2002. The team from Western Michigan University (WMU) has conducted a public archeology program as the project has developed. A total of 10,000 visitors have attended the annual two-day field school. WMU's related activities have included workshops for graduate students and volunteers, three week-long training programs for middle school and high school teachers, and community outreach, including biweekly lectures