When we were planning this trip I knew I wanted to see the
Ticonderoga area because of all its history. I had no idea the fort had
been reconstructed and would be so interesting. It was a day-long visit
yesterday.
Fort Ticonderoga is on Lake Champlain, roughly ten miles
south of Crown Point where we went Wednesday. It is an even more
important narrowing on the lake where control of the Ticonderoga peninsula
means control of whatever is traveling up and down the lake.
Commerce and war have traveled that route for a very long time. In 1666
soldiers of the Carignan-Salieres regiment camped on the peninsula on their way
to attack the Mohawks. The regiment was sent from France to Quebec in
1665 to deal with the Indian attacks and save the fledgling settlement from
annihilation. I haven’t been able to find out which companies were in the
group, or if it was the entire regiment, but between the two of us Jim and I
are direct descendants of at least eleven soldiers from the regiment (including
one we’re both descended from which makes us 8th cousins).
View of the fort (middle left) and peninsula from Mt.
Defiance. The lake is quite narrow around this point.
Close-up of the star-shaped fort from Mt. Defiance.
The French started building the fort at the peninsula in
1755. Nepotism was involved in choosing an engineer to place and design
the structure. Although the man was indeed an engineer he had never
before built a fort and he made a number of mistakes. He situated it
about 200 yards further from the lake than it should have been which
necessitated the building of a redoubt to protect the lake side. The
buildings were too tall which made them more vulnerable to enemy cannon
fire. And worst, as shown from the pictures above, Mt. Defiance
overshadowed the fort. In addition, the fort was too small, couldn’t
house enough soldiers, and a lot of their supplies had to be stored outside the
walls. In 1758 the British attacked the fort, outnumbering the
French by 4 to 1. The French won by defending the fort from entrenchments about
¾ mile away. (Does that say something about the fort when it had to be
defended from outside?)
When the British returned in 1759 there were only 400
soldiers at the fort because the rest were needed to protect Quebec and
Montreal which were also being threatened by the British. The British
took two 12-pounders (cannon) up to the top of Mt. Defiance and the French
quickly knew they couldn’t defend their position. One of the corner bastions of
the fort held the entire supply of gunpowder (20,000 pounds). As the
French soldiers were retreating during the night they set fire to slow-burning
fuses going to the powder magazine. The whole fort blew up as the British
reached it the next day. It was such a massive explosion it could be
heard 32 miles away on Lake George. Timbers and debris were thrown a mile
into the air. When the timbers came back down they went into the ground
like tent pegs. It took British soldiers three days to put all the fires
out.
The British worked to rebuild and improve the fort in 1759
and 1760 but it saw no further action. It was in a serious state of
disrepair in 1775 but was manned by a token force because it was still an
important location. Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold captured the fort
shortly after the start of the Revolution. Its cannons and armaments were
then hauled over 300 miles of frozen ground, lakes and rivers to Dorchester
Heights over Boston where they were instrumental in ending the Siege of Boston
and forcing the British to evacuate.
Back to the fort itself. It was in total ruins with
local people pilfering stones for their own use for several decades. In
1820 the property was bought by wealthy businessman William Ferris Pell who put
an end to the removal of artifacts. He built a summer home on the banks
of the lake below the fort. In 1909 the Pell family began the restoration
of the fort and created the museum which has wonderful collections of
historical items. Pell’s great-grandson, who had inherited the property,
was determined to reconstruct the fort. Fortunately he had an extremely
wealthy father-in-law who said, “Why not? Do it and send me the bill.”
He committed $500,000 to the project. In 1931 the fort was turned
over to a not-for-profit organization which runs it and is continuing
reconstruction efforts. It’s a very expensive endeavor which is partially
supported by entry fees but even more so by big donors. Just last year
they finished another barracks building which houses the Mars Education Center,
funded by a multi-million dollar donation from the Mars family (of Mars candy
fame).
British post-1759 style barracks.
The Mars family’s donation funded the new building on the
left. Note that it looks a bit different from the one on the right and the picture above.
This is because it’s in the French style of the original fort whereas the other
buildings are in the British style of the post-1759 fort. The fort was
not originally solid stone. It was timber with stone facing. The
timber is what went sky-high in the explosion and caused all the fires.
Performance of the Fife and Drum corps in their French
uniforms. The fort is open seasonally (no one wants to be here in
winter’s minus-zero temps) and each season has a different theme. They’re
doing the French period this year. Next year will be focused on the
British period. They keep things new and exciting for the visitors and so the performers don’t get bored.
One of the soldiers’ bunks which would have had three men
sleeping on each level.
Jim standing next to an officer’s bunk which would be slept
in by only one man. Half of Jim’s legs would probably hang off the
end. An average man’s height in the 18th century was about
5’5”, but George Washington was 6’2” so it certainly wasn’t unknown. It’s
no wonder President Washington had such a commanding presence.
Looking out towards Mt. Defiance and Lake Champlain from the
second story of one of the barracks buildings.
The King’s Gardens are below the fort next to the river with
masses of vegetables and beautiful flowers. This was the most interesting
resident…..an osprey chick in its nest built on a platform on a pole in the
garden. The chick and its parents were screeching at each other. It
sounded like they were saying, ”Bring me a fish!”…….”No, go get your own!”
The fort is a spectacular place. No effort is spared
to make guests’ visits interesting and entertaining.
Today we went to the Ticonderoga Historical Society and the
Ticonderoga Heritage Museum. The Historical Museum is in the Hancock
House, built in 1925 as a replica of John Hancock’s house and turned over to
the historical society the next year. It is full of interesting items
with this year’s focus being the end of World War II 70 years ago.
Unfortunately they had no air conditioning or fans on the second floor and it
was so hot and stuffy we didn’t stay as long as we would have otherwise.
The Hancock House in Ticonderoga.
Lady Liberty statue in Ticonderoga’s traffic circle in front
of the Hancock House.
Lower Falls on the LaChute River in Ticonderoga. It’s
the last of five falls which lower the river 220 feet from Lake George to Lake
Champlain. This is part of the town park which is on land donated by
International Paper.
The Ticonderoga Heritage Museum outlines the industrial
history of the area. The LaChute River’s five falls have driven the
economy of the area for over 200 years. Sawmills, woolen mills, paper
mills…..all depended on the power provided by the falling water. Pictures
of all the mills in their various incarnations show a world of industrial power
built on the river’s banks……dirty, cluttered, ugly, but providing jobs and
products and a basis for growing the town. Eventually all the mills
except paper went by the wayside, and all the paper mills were consolidated in
International Paper. In the 1970’s I.P. moved its operation four miles up
the lake, cleaned up the mess in Ticonderoga and donated the land for a town
park. We watched a video on the paper-making operation and were very
impressed with everything I.P. has done to protect the environment and make
their forest use sustainable.
We’ve been really impressed with the lack of air pollution
here. In talking to people today we found the air has been cleaned up
considerably since I.P. moved to its new operation. Like Champion Paper
in Canton, International Paper here used to be a big air and water
polluter. They have done a remarkable job of turning things around.
One final picture of this area: Lake George taken from the main road which is crammed
between the lake and the mountainside. We went down to the
tiny town of Hague this afternoon (5 miles south), hoping to walk around the
town park and see a little bit of Lake George. Not possible. Their
parking lot requires a permit for every space. Their tourist
information/visitor center has two parking places both of which were
occupied. The parking lot was clogged with a large sailboat in the
middle. They ban dogs and we’d taken Lovie with us. This is not a
town that welcomes visitors and it appears to make it as difficult as possible
for anyone to shop or eat there. When we told our campground owner about
it he just rolled his eyes and said that’s why he’s here and not there. He said
Bolton Landing and Lake George Village are much worse. It’s no doubt
because there are far more people who want to be here than there’s room for
with the mountains going straight down into the lake. It wouldn’t make
any difference if they were welcoming to visitors…..if there’s no place to
park, visitors and businesses are all out of luck.
Tomorrow we’re going 210 miles across Vermont and New
Hampshire to Hampton Falls which is on the Atlantic. We’re going there
for a week-long family get-together with my cousins from Zimbabwe who are
visiting their daughter, son-in-law and two grandsons for three weeks.
(Their daughter is a pharmacist in Exeter, NH.) Another cousin with
several members of her family are coming up from New Jersey so it’s going to be
a big event. We’ve met my Zimbabwe cousins in person only once four years
ago. We’ve never met their daughter and her family, and we rarely get to see my
NJ cousin, so this is really exciting. I doubt I’ll have time to email
again until after we leave Hampton Falls, so don’t anyone think something’s
happened to us. :-D
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