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Our first stop in New York wasn’t far from where we crossed Lake Champlain: Fort Ticonderoga. The strategically located fort stands on a peninsula that juts out into Lake Champlain. The lake was once an important part of a network of waterways; it is near Lake George on one end and connects to the St. Lawrence River (and almost the Hudson River) on the other. Clearly an advantageous waterway and during the 1700s both the British and the French wished to control it. The French constructed forts to protect their fur-trading routes while the British built forts to protect their fledgling colonies.

It seems the area was prone to disputes, Samuel de Champlain recorded that he and his men clashed with Iroquois on the peninsula in 1609. The French began construction on Fort Carillon in 1755 and it served as the staging point for their successful attack on a nearby British fort in August of 1757. Fort William Henry was located at the southern end of Lake George which was then the northern edge of the British territory.

The British retaliated with an assault on Fort Carillon in July of 1758. The British advance on the fort was slow which allowed the French ample time to strengthen their defenses on the plain in front of the fort. Ditches were dug and whole trees were uprooted and placed with their sharpened branches facing the enemy. The British chose not to bring cannons and instead relied on their 16,000 member fighting force.

The frontal attack was ill-conceived and resulted in devastating losses for the British troops. One regiment, the Scottish 42nd Highland “Black Watch”, fought the hardest, longest, and suffered the most losses. In the museum they have a disturbingly accurate diorama depicting a member of the Black Watch continuing to skirl his bagpipes even as he bled to death (based on a true story). The eerie sound of the bagpipes was said to instill fear in the enemy; somehow I can believe that if the sound was foreign to you it might just do that.

The French knew that their inferior force of 4,000 would not be able to repeat their luck on the battlefield so when the British returned the following July the French blew up their fort and retreated. The fort’s involvement in the French and Indian War was over. The British rebuilt the fort and named it Fort Ticonderoga. After the French ceded all of their northern holdings in 1763 the fort was no longer crucial and the British removed all but 40 of their men.

Then along came the American Revolution. After fighting broke out in Concord and Lexington in 1775, Benedict Arnold, Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys set their sights on Fort Ticonderoga. The fort was not strategically important but it would prove a point by forcing the British from the area and, as a bonus, the fort held a large store of munitions.

The taking of the fort was quite an easy task as the soldiers in the fort were unaware war had broken out. The single sentry guarding the gate was frightened by the approach of 200 armed men, so he shot his musket—but it misfired. The scared sentry then ran inside the fort but he forgot to… close the gate. Allen, Arnold and company walked in, woke up the commanding officer and demanded he surrender the fort, which he sleepily did. The only injury suffered was by a British soldier who Allen hit over the head with his sword.

The Americans held Fort Ticonderoga until 1777 though the fort saw little action. In 1783 George Washington made his only visit to the fort to decommission it. The fort and surrounding land were given to the state of New York which gave it to the state colleges. Nothing was done with the fort and soon it slowly disappeared as settlers “reused” parts of the old building. The land was finally purchased in 1820 by the William Pell family. The pile of rubble and a few uncovered trinkets fascinated one of the Pell grandchildren and he set about having it rebuilt. It opened as a tourist attraction in 1909.

It is an impressive edifice, the star-shaped fort has been rebuilt according to the original French plans of 1755. From the third story of the fort the view over Lake Champlain is commanding. Back at home on the grounds is one of the original cannons that the Americans won from the British after they took over the fort. The cannon was one of the many transported all the way to Boston by a determined Henry Knox and his men during the winter of 1775/76 . Those canon and the accompanying munitions helped General George Washington and his army end the siege of Boston.

After leaving the fort we meandered through Adirondack Park. The 6.1 million acre park encompasses most of the Adirondack Mountains. Adirondack is a corruption of a Mohawk word meaning “they who eat bark.” It was a derogatory reference to the Algonquin tribe that lived in the area. The park was established in 1892 to protect the area but over half the land is privately owned. Purportedly the landowners must obey strict rules but from what we saw of the many houses crowding the lake front, it didn’t look much like a state park.

Don’t get me wrong, it was still beautiful; the trees in between the houses were tall and green, and the water in boats’ wakes was clear and blue. Not far from us was the village of Lake Placid which has twice hosted the Winter Olympics; once in 1932 and most notably in 1980. I don’t know much about hockey but I’m sure all hockey fans remember the Miracle on Ice game between the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A. Thinking back at what I had been taught at the time, any U.S. victory over the “evil” Russians was a good thing. So a lot of nationalistic pride was involved when the amateur young American team took the ice against the top-ranked pros from Russia.

Like a Hollywood movie (it later was made into two movies titled Miracle on Ice and Miracle respectively) the underdogs, the scrappy Americans, played their hearts out and won. After that win put them in the final game with the Finns, winning the gold seemed anti-climatic. I always root for the underdogs, so clearly, had ice hockey been on my radar at the time, I would’ve rooted for them, honest.

Now that we’re talking sports, let’s talk baseball. If you’re a true fan of the sport where is the one place you want to visit? Other than Fenway Park. Other than Wrigley Field. Cooperstown, to visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, of course! So we did. The Hall of Fame opened in the small village of Cooperstown in 1939 because it was thought that the game originated there.

The story was that Abner Doubleday invented the game in 1839 and that his ball field was a farmer’s field in Cooperstown. At the time, the country was eager for a uniquely American sport, and one invented by a Civil War hero who not only fought at Fort Sumter, but later at Gettysburg, was even better. In all likelihood the game sort of evolved from numerous children’s games that also led to the rise of cricket. Regardless of how it happened, baseball in America is a major industry with many fans, Lance being one of them.

I am a bad weather fan. Meaning that unless I join family or friends at a game I will not watch a game on TV unless bad weather keeps me inside. That said, I will admit to admiring the seemingly super-human skill that some players exhibit. I do have two favorite teams, the Arizona Diamondbacks and whoever is beating the Yankees at the moment, but I certainly do not watch all the games every season (close to nine million right?).

I found the Museum to be quite entertaining. They start you off with a short introductory movie in a small theater designed like the Old Comiskey Park in Chicago. The movie ends with the “announcer” leading the “fans” in “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”, which all of us sang rather enthusiastically. Later we learned that the song was written by Jack Norwoth and Albert Von Tilzer, a couple guys who had never even been to a ball game!

Although Lance had been here before with his family as a kid (his Dad is a big baseball fan) the museum still offered plenty for him. I was impressed with the layout and the attention deservedly given to the African American League and the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, both of which did much to keep Americans interested in the game through the years.

While the Hall of Fame only contains tributes to roughly one percent of the players the adjacent A. Bartlett Giametti Research Center has a file for every player who ever played in Major League Baseball. That includes Eddie Gaedel who at 3’7” (only 1 inch taller than the maximum length of a regulation baseball bat) appeared at the plate once where he earned a quick walk. After the museum we walked past the silent Doubleday Field where exhibition games are occasionally played.

We were lucky to be treated to a baseball game at our RV park. Our park capitalizes on its closeness to Cooperstown with both a little league field and a Major League regulation field. They even have a small field of corn planted around the outfield to remind everyone of one of the best baseball movies, Field of Dreams. We caught part of a semifinal game of the Long Island Stan Musial Baseball League playoffs. It was really fun to watch as the men of all ages took the field. To make it even more perfect, as the sun was setting, in the bottom of the ninth, the underdog team pulled out a surprise victory. Yeah!!

And since we’re in this area I have to tell you who this town is named after. William Cooper was the first to settle on the shores of Lake Otsego, New York in the late 1700s. Not only did William found the town but he became a judge and eventually served in Congress. William must have been fairly prominent for the renowned Gilbert Stuart even painted his portrait. It was one of William’s sons, who was expelled from Yale and quit the Navy shortly after marrying into money, that is the most famous of the Cooper family.

James Fenimore Cooper was born in New Jersey in 1789 not long before his family moved to the frontier near Lake Otsego. His wanderings as a youth in northern New York provided him with the basis for his Leatherstocking Tales featuring Natty Bumpo. One of the stories of Natty Bumpo’s adventures, The Last of the Mohicans, is set against the backdrop of the French attack of Fort William Henry.

Cooper was a prolific writer who strayed far from his frontier tales to seafaring stories and even political treatises. While popular with the general public at the time, Cooper was oft-criticized by many, including Mark Twain. In a highly amusing piece called “Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses”, Twain critiques Cooper’s style or, as Twain asserts, lack of it. Since I have never finished any of Cooper’s books I cannot judge but Twain’s piece is a fun read regardless.

Eastern New York proved to be quite interesting. Who knows what else we will encounter as we move west through the state? Find out next time on Lance and Erin’s Travel Adventures.

Photos: View our photographs from Eastern New York.

Notes: We stayed in Eastern New York from 09/01/07 to 09/07/07.