Crown Point sits on a narrow peninsula on the western shore of Lake Champlain, commanding the narrows where the lake contracts between the Adirondack highlands and the Green Mountains. For more than two centuries before the Revolution it was the most strategically significant location in northeastern North America: the point through which any army moving between the St. Lawrence Valley and the Hudson Valley had to pass. Whoever held Crown Point controlled the only practical invasion corridor between Canada and the American states.
PEOPLE
Ethan Allen
Green Mountain Boys Commander, Vermont Land Speculator, Patriot Leader
Henry Knox
Continental Army General, Chief of Artillery, Bookseller
Colonel Seth Warner
Green Mountain Boys Colonel, Continental Army Officer, Vermont Militia Leader
Benedict Arnold
Continental Army General, Lake Champlain Fleet Commander, Traitor
KEY EVENTS
Saratoga Campaign Ends at British Surrender
Oct 1777
Battle of Valcour Island: Arnold's Fleet Destroyed
Oct 1776
Knox Transports Crown Point and Ticonderoga Cannon to Boston
Dec 1775
Seth Warner Seizes Crown Point
May 1775
Arnold Builds the American Lake Champlain Fleet
Jul 1776
French Alliance Reshapes the Northern Theater
Feb 1778
STORIES
MODERN VOICE
The Door Between Continents
Most visitors are surprised by how complete the ruins are. The stone walls of the 1759 British fortification are still standing, still enormous, still commanding the narrows. The lake narrows here to ...
HISTORICAL VOICE
The Battle He Lost on Purpose
Benedict Arnold understood something about the battle he was sailing into on October 11, 1776 that is easy to miss if you only look at the casualty figures: he was not trying to win. The British fleet...