Fort Ticonderoga

Fort Ticonderoga is a large 18th-century star fort built by the French at a narrows near the south end of Lake Champlain, in northern New York. The site controlled a river portage alongside the mouth of the rapids-infested La Chute River. It was strategically placed for the competition over trade routes between the British-controlled Hudson River Valley and the French-controlled Saint Lawrence River Valley. During the 1758 Battle of Carillon, 4,000 French defenders were able to repel an attack by 16,000 British troops near the fort.

About Fort Ticonderoga in brief

Fort Ticonderoga is a large 18th-century star fort built by the French at a narrows near the south end of Lake Champlain, in northern New York, in the United States. The site controlled a river portage alongside the mouth of the rapids-infested La Chute River. It was strategically placed for the competition over trade routes between the British-controlled Hudson River Valley and the French-controlled Saint Lawrence River Valley. During the 1758 Battle of Carillon, 4,000 French defenders were able to repel an attack by 16,000 British troops near the fort. The only direct attack on the fort during the Revolution took place in September 1777, when John Brown led 500 Americans in an unsuccessful attempt to capture the fort from about 100 British defenders. The British abandoned the fort after the failure of the Saratoga campaign, and it ceased to be of military value after 1781. After gaining independence, the fort was allowed to fall into ruin; local residents stripped it of much of its usable materials. Purchased by a private family in 1820, it became a stop on tourist routes of the area. A foundation now operates the fort as a tourist attraction, museum, and research center. The name \”Ticonderoga\” comes from the Iroquois word tekontaró: ken, meaning \”it is at the junction of two waterways\”. In 1642, French missionary Isaac J. Jogues was the first white man to traverse the portage between the Huron and Huron-Iroquois tribes.

Indians had occupied the area for centuries before French explorer Samuel de Champlain first arrived there in 1609. In 1691, Pieter Schuyler built a small wooden fort at the western point on the western shore of the lake. In 1754, the French decided to construct a fort here following the Battle of Lake George, which began the front of the Seven Years’ War. The French, who had taken over the Saint. Lawrence River valley to the north, began contesting the area as early as 1691 with the Dutch settlements that became the New York Province of New York to the south. The battle between the French and the Dutch in 1754 was the beginning of the North American theater of the seven-year war, often referred to in the US as the French and Indian war. The fort was destroyed in 1781 by the U.S. government. It is located at the southern end of the Great Appalachian Valley, where Ticondoga Creek, known in colonial times as the La Chute River, enters the lake, carrying water from Lake George. Although the site provides commanding views of the southern extent of Lake Champlain, Mount Defiance, at 853 ft, and two other hills overlook the area, and two others hills overlook the  area. In 1641, French explorer Isaac Jonderogues was the first French missionary to traverse the portage between the Hudson River and Lake George.

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