History

With so much wind and being further north, you’d expect more leaves to be down.

Wouldn’t you?

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My photographer father spent hours waiting for the Sun to come out. True, it is frustrating when you just get the camera focused and lined up only for the light to fade.

Never the less. Give me clouds any day!

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We’d run out of that nice new road surface, but this was quite acceptable.

And traffic was very sparse.

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We have a sign on the back of the car: “We slow for hay bales”

No, we don’t. But we should! They demand to be photographed.

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Oh, look, a lovely blue lake! It was the southern end of Lake Champlain.

Though I wasn’t able to get a decent picture, it was a brilliant aquamarine blue.

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To get a really good shot, I’d need to have been aboard this Canadian Pacific train. The tracks run right along the shore. Travelling by rail is such a great way to view the countryside.

And the slums! It is required that trains arrive in cities via the seediest part of town.

At least every one I have ever been on.

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You can see the colour of the lake through the trees. It looked quite tropical!

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From Wikipedia:

Fort Ticonderoga (/taɪkɒndəˈroʊɡə/), formerly Fort Carillon, is a large 18th-century star fort built by the French at a narrows near the south end of Lake Champlain in northern New York. It was constructed between October 1755 and 1757 by French-Canadian military engineer Michel Chartier de Lotbinière, Marquis de Lotbinière during the French and Indian War, sometimes known overseas as the “North American theater” of the Seven Years’ War. The fort was of strategic importance during the 18th-century colonial conflicts between Great Britain and France, and again played an important role during the American Revolutionary War.

During the 1758 Battle of Carillon, 4,000 French defenders were able to repel an attack by 16,000 British troops. In 1759, the British returned and drove a token French garrison from the fort. The British controlled the fort at the beginning of the Revolutionary War, but the Green Mountain Boys and other state militia under the command of Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold captured it on May 10, 1775. Henry Knox led a party to transport many of the fort’s cannon to Boston to assist in the siege against the British, who evacuated the city in March 1776. The Americans held the fort until June 1777, when British forces under General John Burgoyne occupied high ground above it; the threat resulted in the Continental Army troops withdrawing from the fort and its surrounding defenses. The only direct attack on the fort during the Revolution took place in September 1777, when John Brown led 500 Americans in an unsuccessful attempt to capture it from about 100 British defenders.

The British abandoned the fort after the failure of the Saratoga campaign, and it ceased to be of military value after 1781. The United States allowed the fort to fall into ruin, and local residents stripped it of much of its usable materials. It was purchased by a private family in 1820 and became a stop on tourist routes of the area. Early in the 20th century, its private owners restored the fort. The Fort Ticonderoga Association now operates it as a tourist attraction, museum, and research center.

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Until quite recently I’d considered this too long a journey for me, so we have never been to the fort which is closed at the moment, but it certainly has historic significance and maybe next year we’ll visit.

That will of course be the Bisesquicentennial. Can it really be 50 years since the Bicentennial?

The Revolutionary War was largely fought in the area we regularly explore, but I have the impression no-one much cares about preserving these historical sites, something I find curious and quite sad. I remember feeling the same way when we visited Whitehall last year.

Whitehall claims to be the birthplace of the US Navy, yet you would hardly notice the place. What really offended me was the WW1 memorial which was positively shoddy. I was so incensed by it that I sent an email to the town board, or whatever they call themselves. Needless to say, there was no reply.

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History was not my favourite subject at school and I don’t know nearly as much as I should, but I do think it’s important and I am always fascinated by historic sites.

When it comes to war memorials I feel it is our obligation to treat them with respect.

Better, in my view, for there to be no memorial than one that is in sad repair.

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Would you believe it, we’re only 15 minutes further than when I last finished off…

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