Fort George

Carleton’s Raid in 1780 Devastated Saratoga, Warren, and Washington Counties

September 20, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The 1780 Carleton Raid devastated the present-day New York State counties of Saratoga, Warren, and Washington. It was known as the “Great Burning” because many of the structures along the “Old Military Road” south of Fort George at the southern end of Lake George were destroyed.

British Maj. Christopher Carleton’s raid was part of a larger strategy that played out across upstate New York and Vermont. Together with Carleton’s raiders, Sir John Johnson swept across the Schoharie and Mohawk Valleys, Col. John Munro attacked Ballston Spa, and Lt. Richard Houghton raided Royalton, Vermont during the autumn of 1780. [Read more…] about Carleton’s Raid in 1780 Devastated Saratoga, Warren, and Washington Counties

The Battlefield Visitor Center: Lake George’s Newest Attraction

September 15, 2022 by Anthony F. Hall 2 Comments

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

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

February 10, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

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’

The Revolutionary War in the Adirondacks

October 10, 2020 by Editorial Staff 3 Comments

During the Revolutionary Era much of New York State was a heavily forested frontier, sparsely populated but bitterly divided.

Although the only major campaign in the Adirondacks would end at the Battle of Saratoga, factional raiding parties traversed the mountains and valleys of the Adirondacks throughout the war.

Author Marie Danielle Annette Williams details many of those frontier raids in her new book The Revolutionary War in the Adirondacks: Raids in the Wilderness (Arcadia Publishing, 2020). [Read more…] about The Revolutionary War in the Adirondacks

Lake George Archeology Digs Subject of Barroom Talk

January 7, 2020 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

New York State Museum Cultural Resource Survey Program (CRSP) archaeologists Barry Dale, Aaron Gore, and Steve Moragne will speak on excavations they led of prehistoric and colonial remains adjacent to the historic Lake George Million Dollar Beach. [Read more…] about Lake George Archeology Digs Subject of Barroom Talk

Rev War Remains: The 1st Pennsylvania At Ft George, Lake George

March 25, 2019 by Anthony F. Hall 1 Comment

The remains dislodged from an 18th century military cemetery at a Lake George construction site will, in all likelihood, be reinterred on the grounds of Fort George Park, say Village officials.

The Village’s Board of Trustees has adopted a resolution calling upon New York State to permit the remains to be buried at the state-owned park, said Mayor Bob Blais.

Blais said New York State officials support the proposal, although the remains will be in the possession of state archaeologists for at least a year, undergoing examination and analyses. [Read more…] about Rev War Remains: The 1st Pennsylvania At Ft George, Lake George

The Battle of Diamond Island on Lake George

June 21, 2015 by Bruce Venter 2 Comments

Today it’s a State-owned island – a day use area for picnics – but Diamond Island witnessed a horrific bombardment by gun boats manned by Patriots during the American Revolution. The fight occurred during British Lieutenant General John Burgoyne’s 1777 campaign to capture Albany. Initially, Burgoyne’s 9,000 man army had successfully captured Fort Ticonderoga and Mount Independence in July.

When Burgoyne’s progress stalled near Skenesborough (present-day Whitehall, NY), his supplies were quickly eaten up by his extended campaign. Since his large army could not easily live off the land, except for shooting an occasional deer or bear, or boiling up a captured rattlesnake or turtle, the 54-year old general established a long supply line back to Canada.

It was anchored by Fort George at the southern end of Lake George and by Fort Ticonderoga at the northern end. Between the two forts, a supply depot, guarded by two companies of the 47th Regiment of Foot under Captain Thomas Aubrey was fixed on Diamond Island. [Read more…] about The Battle of Diamond Island on Lake George

Russell Bellico: Empires in the Mountains

November 13, 2010 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Meeting Russell Bellico, 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. [Read more…] about Russell Bellico: Empires in the Mountains