Tekontaroken

Tekontaroken lies at the passage between Lake George and Lake Champlain, where falls interrupt the waterway linking the Hudson and St Lawrence valleys. Travellers carried boats and goods overland past the rapids, amid the wooded hills of the Adirondack region. The crossing later became known as Ticonderoga.

In 1755 the French built Fort Carillon here to guard the route between Canada and the British colonies. French defenders repelled a much larger British assault in 1758, but withdrew the following year as another army advanced. The British repaired the fort and renamed it Ticonderoga. In May 1775 Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold captured its small garrison; Henry Knox later carried its guns across the winter roads to the American army outside Boston. During the British invasion from Canada in 1777, General John Burgoyne placed cannon on the heights above the fort. The American defenders withdrew, leaving the way south open until Burgoyne's campaign ended in defeat at Saratoga.