Fourth of July Trip to Fort Ticonderoga

On my way up to Burlington to run Mad River Marathon this weekend, I stopped into Fort Ticonderoga. I heard about this fort in history class in grade school but don’t really quite remember much of the history, despite the fact that it was a famous fort in the 1700s.

By the time we got there, it was a bit past lunch time so we stopped into their cafe to get lunch. We both had the burger, which was pretty good. They also had some turkey, ham, tuna wraps, hot dogs, grilled cheese, cheese/chili fries and soup.

After lunch, we walked over to the fort. Originally, it was a French fort to keep the British colonists out of Lake Champlain. The fort was built to defend from an attack from the south.

The fort looked pretty small and I am not sure how it could support 4000 troops. in 1758, the French army of 4000 successfully defended against a British invasion, which killed more than 2000 British and American troops during the Battle of Carillon. Many of the fortifications and artillery were aimed at the lake and river to prevent access to Lake Champlain from the south.

Inside one of the buildings were an exhibit of battlefield medicine in the late 1700s. It highlights what type of wounds soldiers had and presented the history of military hospitals in the US. A doctor was tasked to start a system of military hospital from scratch in order to support troops all over NY state. My wife, being a doctor, was very interested in this section.

The below canons were pointed south towards Lake George.

On the second floor, they had a lot of exhibits of items found near the fort, like native American tools, arrowheads and bowls. There was another room of 1700 guns and swords, which were pretty cool. All of them were authentic and still looked very good.

The upper level of the museum has exhibits of U.S.S Ticonderoga, which was one of the first naval aircraft carriers in WWII. According to Wikipedia, there have been a total of 5 warships named after Ticonderoga. Much of the exhibits here was of U.S.S Ticonderoga as an aircraft carrier, which saw battle during WWII and that survived a kamikaze attack.

• 17-gun schooner from 1814 to 1825
• Sloop-of-war warship from 1863 to 1881
• Former German cargo ship that was in service 1917-1918
• Essex-class aircraft carrier between 1944 to 1973
• Guide-missile cruiser between 1981 and 2004

On our way to Burlington, we took Champlain bridge, which was pretty cool and scenic.