Encountering Fort Ticonderoga

My week of study at Fort Ticonderoga on the peninsula overlooking Lake Champlain was replete with activities and deep discussion.  When I arrived on my first day, I arrived in the morning, with very people on the site.  The first video I took of Lake Champlain and Mount Defiance shows not a single soul and emphasizes the serenity of the site when not on high alert.  This, coupled with time on the mountain, time on the water, time in the fort, time in the garden, time in the displays, time in the collection, and time in the classroom, made for quite the crash course in fort history.

Here is a list I created to document most of my experience at Fort Ticonderoga in July of 2019:

1. Woke up at 3:30 am
2. Received special treatment and hugs from the flight attendant
3. Flew over some Great Lakes
4. Stepped on Vermont for the first time
5. Visited a cemetery with graves Revolutionary and Civil War soldiers
6. Arrived too late to participate in the Vermont State Cornhole Tournament
7. Saw a giant maple syrup jug, a giant gorilla holding up a Volkswagon Bug, and a dinosaur
8. Passed Lotsawater Road and Hardscrabble Road
9. Celebrated the moon landing’s 50th anniversary in John Deere’s hometown
10. Stepped on New York soil for the first time
11. Waited for an Amish buggy to turn off the road
12. Took a picture of a lock on the Champlain Canal
13. Stood where Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold woke the British to take Fort Ticonderoga
14. Watched the inspection of French troops
15. Sampled vintage chocolate
16. Observed the steps to firing a cannon
17. Discovered the arrival of British invaders on the La Chute River
18. Marched to battle with French drums and fifes
19. Watched the British attack at the Heights of Carillon
20. Witnessed French troops successfully defending the fort against a force four times as large as their own
21. Met educators from at least 10 U.S. states and the District of Columbia
22. Ate crab soup
23. Ate Sausage and Chicken Alfredo
24. Shared our class website with other participants of the Fort Ticonderoga Teacher Institute
25. Observed the landscape from Mount Defiance
26. Walked through the King's Garden
27. Rode in a replica 1920s canal boat
28. Floated past historic locations from the 17th and 18th centuries
29. Searched for Champ, the Champlain monster
30. Viewed Revolutionary bridge pylons on the floor of Lake Champlain
31. Saw a sunken boxcar and a failed, floating railroad bridge on sonar
32. Learned about a World War I ambulance driver
33. Contrasted the French and Indian War with WWI
34. Discussed why nations go to war
35. Explored the trenches at the Heights of Carillon
36. Failed miserably at a rousing game of Fort Ticonderoga trivia
37. Held Surgeon Daniel Dwight’s 1759 powder horn
38. Held soldier’s commission papers of the Marquis de Lotbinièr signed by King Louis XVI
39. Held 1742 British musket
40. Turned the pages of a 1731 book, printed in Nuremburg
41. Read Stephen Pell’s WWI letters from France
42. Learned about Leonard Wood and the Plattsburgh Movement
43. Discussed how we memorialize and remember war
44. Rode around the peninsula in a bateau
45. Got caught in a thunderstorm while floating up the La Chute River
46. Drove to the hotel in soaked clothing
47. Ate at McDonald’s four times
48. Explored the ruins of British and French forts at Crown point
49. Discovered graffiti carvings from the 1700s and 1800s
50. Took almost 800 photographs
51. Watched fishermen and sailboats in the deep water
52. Visited the Samuel de Champlain monument and lighthouse
53. Watched cannon and musket demonstrations after dark
54. Saw cannons taken from Fort Ticonderoga by Henry Knox
55. Learned about the flaws of Fort Carillon’s design
56. Watched the sunset
57. Stitched uniform material
58. Stitched shoe leather
59. Learned about Red Devon cattle and how to drive them in yoke
60. Sawed a rocker to be fitted onto a new bateau
61. Completed 45 hours of professional development focused on the French and Indian War and WWI
62. Crossed the Champlain Bridge
63. Drove past the Vermont Teddy Bear factory
64. Spent too much for gasoline
65. Noticed only one Bernie Sanders bumper sticker in Vermont (and it was for 2016)
66. ​Waited for flights in Burlington, Vermont, and O’Hare International in Chicago, Illinois
67. Took 800 photographs
68. Hit the runway hard when landing in Joplin after dark

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Read more about this incredible experience on my Fort Ticonderoga page.