Yesterday was a lovely day in the great Northeast. As many of you know, this year marks the 225th anniversary of Gen. John (“Gentleman Johnny”) Burgoyne’s invasion of the Colonies from Montreal.* We decided to visit one of the MANY marvelous War for American Independence sites in the upstate NY and VT area. Our choice for today was Mt. Independence, which, as you know, is on the east shore of Lake Champlain just southeast of Ft. Ticonderoga. If you’re pressed for time and don’t intend to read any further, let me just give you one word of advice, “GO!”. <g> Mt. Independence got its name from Patriot soldiers after the reading of the Declaration of Independence. The soldiers stationed on the Mt. first heard the Declaration read to them on July 28, 1776. The Visitors’ Center at Mt. Independence is great - not huge, but more than large enough to house all the displays, etc., germane to the subject matter. There is a short movie that describes the history of the site, and there are artifacts that were found during various archaeological digs. There is a small area that serves as a gift shop where one can buy the usual tourist items, but the serious researcher can also purchase some wonderful and hard-to-find books! One display in particular, however, was my personal favorite. In the center of the main room is a concrete - uh - sculpture, if you will. It’s a huge piece of concrete “carved” into the shapes (very large) of soldiers, etc… On one end is the image of a British soldier and on the other is a Patriot soldier. No big deal, right? There’s more! Some very clever person has used a camera or other projection device to superimpose a movie clip of a man’s face over that of the concrete soldiers. As you gaze at the visage of the soldier, you see the eyes and mouth move as the statues “speak”. It’s fantastic! You know it’s a concrete image, but the film projection makes it look as if the soldiers are really speaking!!! The “actor-soldiers” tell the visitor about what life is like (yep, they speak in present tense) either as a British soldier taking the high ground there, or as a Patriot soldier dealing with the hazards and hardships of the environment, which they felt was far greater a challenge than fighting Burgoyne! Then, when you’ve steeped yourself in the historical facts surrounding Mt. Independence, out you go to hike around the trails on the top of the little peninsula. There are 2.5 miles of trails and along them are various places of interest: old foundation of an officer’s quarters, location of the hospital, barracks, various batteries, quarry, supply road, blockhouse, etc. And best of all there are places where you can easily see the lake and at least one spot from which you directly overlook the lake and see the distinctive red roof of Ft. Ticonderoga. It is great to actually SEE the layout of the staging area: the fort itself, the narrowness (1/4 mile!) of Lake Champlain, your own position atop Mt. Independence on the east side of the lake and Mt. Defiance on the west side and just to the south of the fort. Walking the trails was a joy! The trails are wide and well-kept, and there was no litter at all. Wonderful! And the entire place is surprisingly quiet. It was a Sunday in June, but the place was not overrun with tourists. In fact, I saw only one other small party as I walked the trails enjoying the wildlife, the greenery and the quiet interrupted only once by a train whistle from the NY side of the lake. If you’d like to read/see more about Mt. Independence, which is owned by the State of VT, here’s the URL: http://www.state.vt.us/dca/historic/mt_indy.htm Hope some of you will be able to make the trip to Mt. Independence to enjoy one of our nation’s historic treasures! Susan *The Northern Campaign, the organization that is coordinating a great series of reenactments and commemorations all the way down Burgoyne’s route, has a web site where you can read more about the schedule of events. http://www.thenortherncampaign.org/

At 07:01 AM 6/10/2002 -0400, you wrote: >We decided to visit one of the MANY marvelous War for American >Independence sites in the upstate NY and VT area. Our choice for today was >Mt. Independence, which, as you know, is on the east shore of Lake >Champlain just southeast of Ft. Ticonderoga. If you're pressed for time >and don't intend to read any further, let me just give you one word of >advice, "GO!". <g> This was a great post. It would be good if others would post their report of visiting significant Rev War sites, parks, etc. It would also be helpful if you posted such *upcoming* events before the fact so those in the area might have a chance to attend in person. A few years ago, I attended the first Kings Mountain forum, and wrote a report of it with a synopsis of what each speaker said. I still have it online somewhere. I received many emails from persons who appreciated being able to attend "vicariously". Why not share with the list your visits to significant Rev War sites and events in your area? Please try to keep it limited to (the very wide) topics of the list. John Robertson