Crown Point

[Thaddeus Kosciuszko]

Earlier this month, after the MS ride, I visited some historical sites in the area.  One place I stopped at was Crown Point on Lake Champlain.  It was the site of a French fort, an English fort, and a lighthouse dedicated (much later) to Samuel de Champlain.

In the 1700’s Crown Point gained military significance when the French built a fort there consisting of a four-story citadel surrounded by two-story walls.  This irritated England because the fort was built well south of the territorial line established by treaty.

This satellite view shows the outline of the French Fort next to the bridge, the outline of the much larger English fort, and the lighthouse off the right.  (I didn’t take this picture.)

The French constructed their fort close to the water as it brought the entire section of the lake and part of the far shore under their cannon. 

A view of the ruins of the French fort walls

 

A view of the lake, looking north, from the French fort.

 

The English eventually showed up with an army many times larger than the French force occupying the fort, so the French blew up their fort and retreated northward toward the treaty line.  The English army then started building their much larger fort. 

What remains today are mostly the earthen piles, but if you can imagine at least two stories of wooden walls on top of the earth that remains, you’ll have an idea of how tall the walls were.  In several pictures you’ll see bare rock.  In building the walls the soldiers building the fort scraped off the soil down to the rock, exposing it – and it remains exposed today.  For another perspective compare the height of the earthen remains of these walls to those of the French fort.

 

The gap in the earth walls where the fort main gate was.

 

After walking through the main ‘gate’, the officers’ barracks appear on the left, the enlisted men’s barracks straight ahead, and an unfinished barracks off to the right.  The parade ground lies between all three.

I found several interesting carvings in the bare rock of the parade ground.

 

These unremarkable pits in the ground show where the gunpowder magazine was.  Unfortunately, a chimney fire in the enlisted men’s barracks caught the fort’s wooden walls on fire.  The fire found its way to the gunpowder, whereupon the entire magazine blew up.  It also blew up the walls in that area of the fort, effectively rendering the fort useless, indefensible, and beyond repair.  The English abandoned it.

 

The lake, viewed from a far corner of the fort.

 

One section of preserved wall with the original stone construction, the earth wall, and a flag pole.  The wooden walls would have been atop the stone wall and just about as high as the top of the flag pole, making the fort quite formidable to an opposing army.

 

From the English fort I went to visit the Champlain Memorial Lighthouse.  Originally built as a functioning lighthouse in the mid 1800’s, it was converted in 1912 to a memorial honoring Samuel de Champlain.

 

The artist Auguste Rodin completed the bust ‘France’ for the dedication, and it faces the lake.

 

The Memorial also features a bronze sculpture that (supposedly) depicts Champlain, another Frenchman, and a Native American guide. 

 

But here’s where local lore departs from the official history...

Local lore has it that the English king found out the French fort being in English territory in violation of the Treaty of Utrecht.  So he sailed to America, rode up to the gates of the fort, and demanded the French surrender, open the gates, and let him in.  Naturally, the French would have none of it and laughed at him.  The English king, only accompanied by a few knights, was forced to retreat.  (You may have seen the historical documentary.)

This local lore is, in fact, supported by the letters carved into the stone, adjacent to the bronze sculpture.

 

The light house was open, so I climbed the steps to the top.  With this picture you can best see why both the French and the English fortified this place, especially since at that time the lake was the fastest and easiest means of transportation in the area.

 

From here I went to the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, which is, perhaps, a story for another day...

[Kirby]

Beautiful scenery and interesting history.  Thanks for posting the pics.

[Wilbur ★]

Excellent report TK!

[MickinMD ★]

Those earthen walls are called "ramparts" as in the stars and stripes that "o'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming."

I've stood on the ramparts mentioned in the National Anthem at Fort McHenry in Baltimore - and heard Patti Labelle and her group "Labelle" sing "Lady Marmalade" and other songs from a stage on the inside of the ramparts there on July 4, 1996, during the bicentennial celebration, where fireworks were fired from the "British" ships in the river.

By the way, the British attack on Fort McHenry in 1814 was just a diversion!  A few rowboats of British troops went toward shore but were surprised and shot up by some mini-forts that had been set up along the river flanking Fort McHenry. So the British fired at the Fort from ships without any further attempt to actually take the Fort, It was a diversion for the real attack - which was happening by land!

Before the firing on Fort McHenry began, a couple thousand British veteran troops, fresh from defeating Napoleon at Waterloo, were landed at North Point, a Peninsula to the NE of Baltimore, and began marching on the city. The British wanted to burn Baltimore because it was where the fast sloops were being built that could out-sail and raid British shipping and were greatly harming British commerce. But unlike Washington, D.C., which had been burned down the previous month thanks to poor planning and troops running away in panic, the military organization at Baltimore was superb under the leadership of Major George Armistead. As the British troops marched, there was a combination of hit-and-run attacks from the flanks and American units firing from trenches, then retreating when the larger British numbers got too close.  Two brothers picked off the British commander, General Ross, killing him. A Colonel Brooke took over command of the British land force.

But, when the British finally reached the eastern outskirts of Baltimore, they found ramparts that were miles long and bristling with cannon and large numbers of armed men.  British Colonel Brooke decided Baltimore couldn't be taken and ordered a retreat back to the British ships.

Brooke sent word back to the British Ships that the attack was being called off - AND THAT'S WHAT CAUSED FRANCIS SCOTT KEY TO WRITE THE NATIONAL ANTHEM!

At 3 am, British Admiral Cochrane decided there was no use in wasting ammunition since the attack was canceled, so he called off the diversionary firing at Fort McHenry.

Francis Scott Key was a Baltimore Lawyer who happened to be on a British Ship because he was trying to secure the release of an American farmer who had fired on British troops when they tried to steal from him as they marched on Washington the previous month.  At 3 am he noticed the British guns had fallen silent.  He worried that Fort McHenry had surrendered.  "And the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night, that our flag was still there."  But now there were no rockets or bombs going off. So the Star Spangled Banner is not a song about the rockets and bombs - it's about waiting in silence for dawn to see if "our flag was still there."

So the party of lawyers and the farmer on board were thrilled to see the American flag flying over Fort McHenry when dawn illuminated it. Or maybe they were thrilled when they were informed it was still there - there's a good argument that the ship they were on was too far away to actually see the flag.

But, even on Maryland Public Television, documentaries about the Battle of Baltimore almost exclusively talk about Fort McHenry, filled with false b.s. about the "heroic defense, prevailing against all odds" of the seaborne attack by the British Navy!

[maddmaxx ★]

Thanks for the pics and story TK.  

[Digital_photog ★]

When I saw the thread title i thought you was visiting a dirty city in Northwest Indiana.  Your Crown Point is better. ?

[jsharr ★]

[TrentonMakes]

11 hours ago, Thaddeus Kosciuszko said:

This satellite view shows the outline of the French Fort next to the bridge, the outline of the much larger English fort, and the lighthouse off the right.  (I didn’t take this picture.)

Thanks for that clarification. 

Great photos and history lessons.  Thank you!

[Indy]

Looks nothing like Crown Point, Indiana

[jsharr ★]

[maddmaxx ★]

TK, how far afield do you go to visit these historical sites?  You would have liked the guided tour of St Augustine womaxx and I took several years ago.  Our guide had little to do that day as it was out of tourist season so she almost doubled the tour.  Even the old town has interesting implications such as windows closer to the ground than modern homes would have.  It turns out that the average height of the Spaniards was under 5 ft at the time the fort and city was built.

[parodybot]

I mistook the English fort as the French fort and could not find the English fort, so I made this map.

[Guest]

I’ll be going thru Crown Point next week on my way to NH.

[dinneR ★]

On 8/26/2018 at 6:46 PM, Thaddeus Kosciuszko said:

 

But here’s where local lore departs from the official history...

Local lore has it that the English king found out the French fort being in English territory in violation of the Treaty of Utrecht.  So he sailed to America, rode up to the gates of the fort, and demanded the French surrender, open the gates, and let him in.  Naturally, the French would have none of it and laughed at him.  The English king, only accompanied by a few knights, was forced to retreat.  (You may have seen the historical documentary.)

This local lore is, in fact, supported by the letters carved into the stone, adjacent to the bronze sculpture.

 

The light house was open, so I climbed the steps to the top.  With this picture you can best see why both the French and the English fortified this place, especially since at that time the lake was the fastest and easiest means of transportation in the area.

 

I always wondered where that line came from. Good research.

I visited the site of the little known Pig War recently. I bet you'd enjoy the riding there.

The Pig War was a confrontation in 1859 between the United States and United Kingdom over the British–U.S. border in the San Juan Islands, between Vancouver Island and the mainland. The Pig War, so called because it was triggered by the shooting of a pig, is also called the Pig Episode, the Pig and Potato War, the San Juan Boundary Dispute or the Northwestern Boundary Dispute. With no shots exchanged and no human casualties, this dispute was a bloodless conflict.

[12string]

I've only seen that from the other side.  By the time we got to the bridge, there was just too much traffic to bike across.  Now that I've seen the pictures, w may have to try it again.  Very cool