What's Cooking at Ticonderoga




There would be no better way to visit two important colonial eastern states at once than tour the ramparts of the old 'star fort' at Ticonderoga, located at the bottom of Lake Champlain upstate New York, officially, but sharing the border with Vermont.  Located as it is at the center of all these 

waterways – the St. Lawrence, Champlain, the Hudson River, and Lake George – it's no wonder this was a highly tactical position to possess for the French and British at its creation during the French and Indian Wars, 1758.  

As history quickly evolved, though, it was no longer the fur trade that dominated the scene, but the upcoming Revolutionary War.  The British held the fort up until the second major battle at Ticonderoga occurred in 1775, when a mere token force of 400 British was overtaken by Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys, a militia first formed in the 1760's to defend against New York's 'Loyalist' plans to overtake and claim the area. Allen, demanding the surrender of the Fort below, and later credited with becoming one of the founders of the state of Vermont, would serve as one of the perfect examples of the sort of patriot

that was part of the Siege at Boston.  It would have been his capture of the fort and correspondence to the then surrounding militiamen at Boston, including Washington, that there was inactive artillery available for placement elsewhere.

In a continuing chain of cause and effect, this would have led to the 25 year old bookseller Knox to make his storied journey north to pack the much needed armaments and begin the the 3-month trek back down through treacherous frozen waterways to Boston at Dorchester Heights.  The Fort would continue to be a vital communication link between any occupying force and the northern waterways.

Today Ticonderoga is used for educational purposes, where courses are taught on how to convey the importance of living history and the location's importance to events in the French and Indian Wars.  I think I can see Abby, Julia and Carly now walking around the triangular bastions, maybe even visiting the old concrete bakery that used to serve upwards of 60 loaves of bread a day.