In the early 1750s, the French were establishing trading posts and building forts along western the frontiers of the British colonies. In the fall of 1753, in part to protect his own land claims, Virginia Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddie had sent 22-year-old George Washington (then a militia leader and surveyor) to deliver a letter to Fort Le Boeuf at what is today Waterford in northwest Pennsylvania, demanding they stop. [Read more…] about The French and Indian War: A New York Perspective
Battle of Lake George
The Battlefield Visitor Center: Lake George’s Newest Attraction
For more than 25 years, historian Russ Bellico and the leaders of the Lake George Battlefield Alliance, including the late archaeologist David Starbuck, argued that grounds as historically rich and as hallowed as the head of Lake George deserve a visitors’ interpretive center.
Now we have one. [Read more…] about The Battlefield Visitor Center: Lake George’s Newest Attraction
Comic Book Artist Jack Binder & Fort William Henry History
What might Lake George have looked like 265 years ago, on the eve of the French attack on Fort William Henry?
That’s the focus of the display in the entryway to the Fort museum and historical attraction. It includes three figures – an American provincial, a British regular and a ranger, all created by the late Jack Binder for the reconstructed fort, which opened to the public in 1955. [Read more…] about Comic Book Artist Jack Binder & Fort William Henry History
Lake George Battlefield, More Than Just A Setting for Cooper’s ‘Last of the Mohicans’
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. [Read more…] about Lake George Battlefield, More Than Just A Setting for Cooper’s ‘Last of the Mohicans’
Fort William Henry Corp Under New Leadership
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
Comments Sought On Lake George Battlefield Management
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
French & Indian War Bayonet Discovered In The Adirondacks
Last 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
Lakes to Locks Passage: New York’s Great Northeast Journey
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
Last of the Mohicans: Fiction Trumps History
In 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
‘Live Free Or Die’: The Life And Wars Of John Stark
Few 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 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) help’s bring this remarkable man’s life into appropriate perspective. [Read more…] about ‘Live Free Or Die’: The Life And Wars Of John Stark