Lake Champlain… New France

Filed under: Blog, Historic sites, Lake Champlain - 400 years

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Are you surprised to see Lake Champlain associated with New France? Well, Lake Champlain was indeed part of New France for more than 150 years. And this week-end, Travel-Vermont.net was discovering what is left of such a heritage - in preparation of our Summer 2009 historic tour “When this land was called New France“.
As the 400th anniversary of Lake Champlain and its discovery by Samuel de Champlain in 1609 approach, we thought it was a good time to make such a voyage into the past.
Such trip took us all around Lake Champlain, on both the Vermont and the New York sides of the lake and all the way North into the Richelieu River, in Quebec.
The story starts in Isle La Motte, where Samuel de Champlain is said to have put foot in early July 1609. (At the end of July, he would fight the Iroquois in the area of Ticonderoga). On Isle La Motte, you can see one of the statues of Samuel de Champlain, with his Indian traveler companion. You will also learn that Isle La Motte is actually the first European settlement in Vermont (we did not know!)… a French settlement naturally, as Captain Pierre La Motte and its Carignan-Salieres regiment built Fort Sainte-Anne there in 1666.
Today, there is no trace of the wooden fort of Fort Sainte-Anne but the site is a nice place for a picnic… with grass, trees and a nice view of the lake… and definitely a superb place for a wedding, with its outdoors church (St-Anne’s Shrine)… what a setting!
At time passed, the French moved down the lake and built various forts to protect themselves (and their fur trade in Montreal) against the Indians first and then the British from the South.
At Crown Point (on the New York side, but accessible by a bridge from Chimney Point, VT), you can still see the ruins of the first stone fort built by the French (1731) which they called Fort Saint-Frederic. You will also see the ruins of the larger British fort of Crown Point, built later, with the British flag still standing high in the sky. Once again, a very nice setting with a great dominating view of the lake. Crossing the bridge to Chimney Point, you’ll also learn about the French settlements there at the first half of the 18th century.
As we drive down the lake on the New York side, you’ll come across Fort Ticonderoga, majestic stone star-shape fort with a rich history from the time of the French and Indian War (mid-1700s) and the American Revolution. Built by the French in 1755-1757, they had named it Fort Carillon. Its star-shape is highly characteristic of French military architecture of the time, and you may have seen other examples of it if you visited La Citadelle (1820) in Quebec City, Fort McHenry (1796-1803) in Baltimore or Fort Warren (1833) on George’s Island in Boston harbor. They are all designed according to a defense system developed by a 17th century French military engineer named Sébastien de Vauban.
Fort Ticonderoga definitely saw a lot of military action, captured successively by the British, the Americans (Ethan Allen and its Green Mountain Boys) and again by the British. Allow two to three hours for a visit and take the ferry to admire a great view of the fort, from the hills of Mount Independence historic site.
Our trip was not over yet, and the next day we discovered the 1750 Fort Chambly in Quebec, remarkably renovated and with a spectacular exhibit on the history of the whole region all the way from Quebec City to Albany, NY. But that will be for one of our upcoming articles!