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Battle of Lake George

Lake George Battlefield, More Than Just A Setting for Cooper’s ‘Last of the Mohicans’

February 10, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

A scene from the film The Last of the Mohicans (1992)In February 1826 one of America’s seminal works of historical fiction, James Fenimore Cooper‘s The Last of the Mohicans, was first published.  Last of the Mohicans has also been adapted to film at least eight times, most recently in 1992 starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Madeleine Stowe. The novel is one of five Cooper wrote that make up the Leatherstocking Tales series, all of them set in Upstate New York between the years 1740 and 1804.

Warren County, NY is where many of the real-life actions of 1757 depicted in the novel occurred, including at what is now Lake George Battlefield Park, the location of several other important historical events. [Read more…] about Lake George Battlefield, More Than Just A Setting for Cooper’s ‘Last of the Mohicans’

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Arts, History Tagged With: Battle of Lake George, Fort George, Fort William Henry, French And Indian War, French History, Haudenosaunee, Hendrick Theyanoguin, Indigenous History, Iroquois, Issac Jogues, James Fenimore Cooper, Lake George, Lake George Battlefield Park, Lake George Battlefield Park Alliance, Literature, Military History, Mohawk, New France, Robert Rogers, Warren County, William Johnson

Fort William Henry Corp Under New Leadership

February 4, 2019 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Fort William Henry Hotel The Board of Directors of Fort William Henry Corporation has announced the election of Kathryn Flacke Muncil, Sebastian J. Luciano, and Nancy Flacke Reuss to a new executive leadership team.

The first Fort William Henry Hotel opened in 1855. The resort, one of the oldest and largest on Lake George, now includes the Fort William Henry Hotel and Conference Center, the Best Western Hotel at Exit 21 and the recreated Fort William Henry, site of a pivotal 1757 French and Indian War battle.

[Read more…] about Fort William Henry Corp Under New Leadership

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Battle of Lake George, Fort William Henry, Lake George

Comments Sought On Lake George Battlefield Management

April 27, 2018 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Adirondack Park Agency (APA) and the Lake George Park Commission (LGPC) has announced they are holding a joint public comment period to solicit comments for the Lake George Battlefield Park Unit Management Plan.

Public comment will be accepted until May 3, 2018. [Read more…] about Comments Sought On Lake George Battlefield Management

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Battle of Lake George, French And Indian War, Lake George

French & Indian War Bayonet Discovered In The Adirondacks

August 2, 2017 by Glenn Pearsall 1 Comment

Loon Lake - Johnsburg Area in 1805Last fall a rusted old military bayonet was unearthed on private property just east of Loon Lake in Warren County. It was taken to David Starbuck, a noted local historical and industrial archeologist who has written extensively on Fort William Henry on Lake George.

Coincidentally, on that day Jesse Zuccaro, a student who has focused his studies on early bayonets, happened to be visiting Starbuck. Together they inspected this new find. After careful examination they concluded it was French in design and probably dated between 1728 and the 1740s. Twenty thousand of these bayonets were made and sent to New France prior to the American Revolution. [Read more…] about French & Indian War Bayonet Discovered In The Adirondacks

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Adirondack Park, Battle of Lake George, French And Indian War, King George’s War, Loon Lake, Military History, Warren County

Lakes to Locks Passage: New York’s Great Northeast Journey

May 20, 2017 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Lakes to Locks Passage has completed the third in the series of Waterways of War guidebooks. Waterways of War: The Turning Point of the American Revolution focuses on the 1777 northern campaign of British General John Burgoyne. The book is also the centerpiece of a broader initiative to develop the Turning Point Trail, a narrated driving tour from Plattsburgh to Albany. [Read more…] about Lakes to Locks Passage: New York’s Great Northeast Journey

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Books, History Tagged With: American Revolution, AmRev, Battle of Lake George, Lake Champlain, Lake George, Military History

Last of the Mohicans: Fiction Trumps History

February 5, 2015 by Bruce Dearstyne 6 Comments

First edition Last of the mohicansIn early February 1826, Carey & Lea, one of the nation’s most prominent and successful publishers, announced the publication of James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757. Cooper was already a best-selling author, widely hailed for presenting non-stop, exciting adventures set in the wilderness, wartime, or other bracing settings. Carey & Lea, hoping that his new book would do as well as his previous ones, had paid the author a $5,000 advance.

They were not to be disappointed. The Last of the Mohicans was an instant best-seller, reprinted many times, made into movies a number of times, and became one of the most important books in American literary history. [Read more…] about Last of the Mohicans: Fiction Trumps History

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Battle of Lake George, Fort William Henry, French And Indian War, Indigenous History, James Fenimore Cooper, Lake George, Literature, Native American History

‘Live Free Or Die’: The Life And Wars Of John Stark

January 25, 2015 by Editorial Staff 4 Comments

John Stark BiographyFew men contributed as much to the American victory in the Revolutionary War, yet have been as little recognized, as a New Hampshire farmer and lumberman by the name of John Stark. Although he is not well known outside of New Hampshire, a few words he wrote live on there today: Live Free or Die. A new biography by John F. Polhemus and Richard V. Polhemus, Stark, The Life and Wars of John Stark: French & Indian War Ranger, Revolutionary War General (Black Dome Press, 2014) should help bring this remarkable man’s life into appropriate perspective.

Stark served as a captain of rangers with Robert Rogers in the French and Indian War, and as a colonel and general in the Revolution at Bunker Hill, Trenton, Princeton, Westchester, Springfield, Saratoga, Ticonderoga and West Point. His greatest achievement however, was at the Battle of Bennington. The Battle of Saratoga and the surrender of Burgoyne on October 17, 1777 was the turning point of the American Revolution, but the Battle of Bennington on August 16th set the stage. [Read more…] about ‘Live Free Or Die’: The Life And Wars Of John Stark

Filed Under: Books, History Tagged With: American Revolution, Battle of Bennington, Battle of Lake George, Fort Ticonderoga, French And Indian War, Robert Rogers

Winnie LaRose: An Informal Tribute

March 30, 2014 by Guest Contributor 1 Comment

Winnie LaroseEditor’s Note: This tribute to Lake George’s Winnie LaRose was written by the late Robert F. Hall and republished in his 1992 collection of essays, Pages from Adirondack History. He included this piece in the collection because, he wrote, “Winifred S. LaRose, who died on December 6, 1979, was the very embodiment of the environmentalist – a person whose love of her own native place and whose determination that its beauty would not be spoiled led her to the forefront of the environmental movement, not only in Lake George, but throughout New York State.”

Governor Hugh Carey proclaimed August 21, 1980, as Winnie LaRose Day, but any day would have served because that lady was busy every day of the year for the past 30 years in battling for the environment.

The governor chose that date because it coincided with a memorial service to the late Mrs. LaRose at the Fort George Battleground Park on the Beach Road at Lake George. This was an appropriate site for the service because Winnie, more than anyone else, was responsible for turning this swampy piece of ground into a park for people to enjoy. But it was done not only for people. As Victor Glider, a good friend and now retired as director of Environmental Conservation Field Services, told the gathering, Winnie insisted on clearing away the brush so that the statue of the martyred Father Jogues would have a good view of the lake where he served his mission in the 17th century. [Read more…] about Winnie LaRose: An Informal Tribute

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, History Tagged With: Adirondacks, Battle of Lake George, Gender History, Historic Preservation, Lake George, Lake George Historical Society, Women's History Month, womens history

New NY Military History: Empires in the Mountains

November 13, 2010 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Meeting Russell Bellico, as I did briefly several years ago, you’d think you were in the presence of an old sea captain spending his retirement in the softer wind and spray of Lake George. You’d be surprised to know that he spent 35 years in the economics department at Westfield State College in Massachusetts.

You’d be glad to hear that Bellico spent his time away from Westfield at Lake George, where as a summer resident he invested himself in local history. He has spent over three decades photographing shipwrecks and historic sites on Lake George and Lake Champlain. He served as a consultant on the National Park Service’s Champlain Valley Heritage Corridor, a trustee of the Lake George Battlefield Park Alliance, and a board member of Bateaux Below, the organization founded by the archaeological team (which included Bellico) that documented the 1758 radeau Land Tortoise which lies underwater at the southern end of Lake George.

Bellico is the author of a score or more articles and five books on the maritime and military history of Lake George and Lake Champlain published by Purple Mountain Press. His first two projects were Chronicles of Lake George (1995) and Chronicles of Lake Champlain (1999). Both were aptly subtitled Journeys in War and Peace, as they were mostly drawn from primary sources by diaries, journals, and other early first hand accounts.
His third major effort, Sails and Steam in the Mountains: A Maritime and Military History of Lake George and Lake Champlain, earned a place as the go-to resource on the region’s maritime history.

His interest in boots on the ground history has no doubt contributed to some of Bellico’s most unique contributions to the region’s history – his careful looks at what remains. For example, Bellico weaves together histories of not just the events (through archaeology, primary sources, and first hand accounts) but of what remains of those events on the landscape.

Bellico’s latest effort, Empires in the Mountains: French and Indian War Campaigns and Forts in the Lake Champlain, Lake George, and Hudson River Corridor, is the fruit of three decades of the author’s work to understand the military and maritime importance of the region. His first volume to focus entirely on the campaigns and forts of the Great Warpath during the French & Indian War (1754-1763), Empires in the Mountains covers the epic battles of the war in the lake valleys, as well as the building of the fortresses and battleships in Northern New York’s wilderness.

And true to his authoritative and thorough style, Bellico explores this history with one eye toward what happened after those great events of 350 years ago. He reviews the history of the abandonment, the excavations, and the exploitation of French and Indian War sites from Bloody Pond (which Bellico seems to suggest may in fact be correctly marked on Route 9 south of Lake George) and Fort Gage (bulldozed by a local developer avoiding APA oversight) to the more popular spots like Fort Ticonderoga, Fort Edward, Fort William Henry, and Fort George.

It’s that concluding epilogue, “Forts Revisited” that is perhaps the most valuable chapter of the book for local historians, and those interested in how we remember, and exploit, local history. For that chapter alone, this book belongs on the shelf of those interested in local history, regardless of your particular interest in the French and Indian War.

Note: Books noticed on this site have been provided by the publishers. Purchases made through this Amazon link help support this site.

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Books Tagged With: Battle of Lake George, French And Indian War, Lake Champlain, Lake George, Military History

The Two Hendricks: A Mohawk Indian Mystery

May 15, 2010 by Editorial Staff 6 Comments

In September 1755 the most famous Indigenous person in the world was killed in the Bloody Morning Scout that launched the Battle of Lake George. His name was Henderick Peters Theyanooguin, but he was widely known as King Hendrick.

In an unfortunate twist of linguistic and historical fate, he shared the same first name as another famous Mohawk leader, Hendrick Tejonihokarawa, who although about 30 years his senior, was also famous in his own right. He was one of the “Four Indian Kings” who became a sensation in London in 1710, met Queen Anne, and was wined and dined as an international celebrity. [Read more…] about The Two Hendricks: A Mohawk Indian Mystery

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Books Tagged With: Battle of Lake George, French And Indian War, Haudenosaunee, Hendrick Theyanoguin, Indigenous History, King William’s War, Lake George, Military History, Mohawk, Mohawk River, Polish History, Political History, Queen Ann, Warren County, William Johnson

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