Ft. Ticonderoga

After a very cool and foggy morning, we got on the road to do some exploring of this area. We went straight to the restored Fort Ticonderoga. In 1783 Washington decommissioned the fort and the local residents carried the timbers and stones off to use in their own construction. Although the huge base rock foundations were still in place, almost all of the fort walls and buildings were built from other known star shaped forts of the same period. Originally a French fort built in1755 as a response to English expansion northward it's position at the narrowest part of Lake Champlain proved critical in the Seven Years War(English vs French) and the American Revolution. If you saw the movie "Last of the Mohicans" it depicts Lord Montcalm moving forth from Fort Carillon(Ticonderoga) to successfully rout the British and destroy Fort William Henry located just over the hills on Lake George in 1758. Fort Carillon was later taken by the British and renamed Ticonderoga which was a native word for "land between the lakes".
The first American victory in 1775 was the capture of Fort Ticonderoga without a shot being fired! However the British held Boston and had won almost all battles fought to date and the Americans needed the Cannon from the captured fort. A very young Henry Knox convinced G. Washington that he could move the cannon from Ticonderoga to Boston. He successfully moved the cannon down to Boston in only 40 days, in the dead of winter, and placed them on the heights around Boston. The British immediately withdrew from Boston.
The fort's museum has numerous artifacts from the fort and even two of the cannon Knox had moved to Boston. They also have a few of George Washington's possessions on display that Jim was able to photograph. Every place else that owned Washington artifacts refused to allow photographs taken of the items..They preferred you buy postcard photos of the artifacts!! The pistols and the corkscrew were his.
We traveled back to our camp on roads that led us thru some beautiful hilly farm country. When we entered the town of Whitehall we discovered that they claim to be the place of the U.S. Navy's birth. It was here Benedict Arnold built the first ships to fight the British on Lake Champlain. He lost. Had to destroy his boats after losing a short engagement and walk overland back to American held territory. Whitehall also has the last lock(lock 12) on the canal that connects the Hudson river to Lake Champlain. Originally completed in 1819 the Champlain Barge Canal is historically known as "Waters of the revolution" and allows boats to move from the mouth of the Hudson(New York City) through Lake Champlain and on into the St. Lawrence River.