A DESCRIPTION OF THE MOST IMPORTANT
SITES ON THE FOUR TRAILS
SITES ON THE FOUR TRAILS
RED TRAIL (.6 mile)1. Hospital: The trail follows a line of stones which indicates the foundation site of the hospital. At the end of its long narrow remains is an excavation, perhaps a root cellar or cistern. Built in April 1777, it had a capacity of about 600. It was a two-floor, frame building of sawed planks, rather than blocks or logs.
2. Building: A well-preserved, three-sided stone foundation, possibly an officer's quarters.
3. Lookout: This fine lookout point provides a view of Mount Defiance, directly across the lake, and to the right the red roofs of Fort Ticonderoga are clearly visible. Turn around and continue following the red markers.
4. Gravestone: The inscription on this stone is not typical of the Revolutionary War period. It is believed the stone was placed here by a local family in the late Nineteenth Century. The date (1760) on the stone is not correct for the period of the British occupation of the Mount.
WHITE TRAIL (.8 mile)
1 . Blockhouse: The foundation and remains of one of five British and Hessian 1777 blockhouses, situated to thwart an American counterattack by land.
2. Building: The foundation of a building, possibly a powder magazine or quarters for a gun crew, located behind the southern battery. It is one of the best preserved foundations on The Mount.
3. Battery: This well-preserved battery position once protected The Mount from attack from the southern shore and dock area, and from the Hubbardton road. it commands a view south, up the lake to Chipman's Point, and east toward Orwell.
4. Blockhouse: This British blockhouse supports the battery just seen. The many bricks suggest a fireplace and chimney. These bricks are thought to have been brought from ruins of the fort at Crown Point in 1776-1777.
ORANGE TRAIL (2.5 miles)
1. Barracks: This is the barracks square within the Star Fort, the central stronghold on Mount Independence, located at the highest point. The parade-ground clearing here is still square, marked by cedars which have grown up along the lines of the barrack walls. Logs have been placed to indicate the outline of the star-shaped stockade. The well at the northwest corner is thought to be of Revolutionary War origin.
2. Crane: This foundation, roughly 30 feet square, was used as the base for a gigantic crane used to lift cannon, heavy equipment and supplies from the lower shore and meadow 200 feet below. Vessels were anchored in Catfish Bay and the loads carried to a ramp from which they were hoisted to the top. Turn and follow the trail markers.
3. Artificers'Shops: The shops for blacksmiths, armorers, rope makers, wheelwrights, turners, shingle makers and other indispensable skills were in this area.
4. Horseshoe Battery: The horseshoe-shaped earthen walls or parapet enclose a crescent-shaped gun platform and a 1963 stone memorial placed here by the Society of the Colonial Dames. The memorial is located where a Revolutionary War flagpole once stood. Cannon at this position commanded the lake to the north and the narrows separating Fort Ticonderoga.This fortification is believed to be, at least in part, the work of Polish patriot Thaddeaus Kosciuszko, chief engineer at Saratoga and West Point. You may now either follow the trail down to the shore to sites 5-7 and back up, or turn and follow the markers from here.
5. Shore Battery: Remains of an earthen parapet to the right and left, mark the location oi an extensive battery which guarded the vulnerable north shore with numerous cannon.
6. Bridge Site: The gentle slope of the old road may be observed as it leads down to the take-off point at the former floating bridge connecting to Fort Ticonderoga. The Bridge was 12 feet wide and was anchored to 22 sunken piers. The trail proceeds up the old road to the left.
7. Masting Point: This rock outcropping is believed to be the spot where masts for boats in Arnold's fleet were stepped. The straight drop from this height into the water supports this theory. It is also thought that this may be the remains of an earlier French blockhouse built during the 1750's. The French had stone quarrying and wood gathering forays here while they occupied the present site-of Fort Ticonderoga. Some of this wall/ foundation show traces of mortar which the French used in their construction; none of the remaining American foundations indicate the use of mortar.
8. Observation Shelter: A well-preserved L-shaped foundation, possibly the remains of a lookout hut or shelter, since it is positioned so as to command a view of East Creek.
9. Building: This rectangular foundation may have been a blockhouse overlooking East Creek. It is about 200 feet east of the stockade wall of the Star Fort. Below is a large area of black chert used for thousands of years by Native Americans for making tools and weapons and also used during the Revolutionary War for flintlocks.
BLUE TRAIL (2.2 MILES)
Pick up this trail via the Orange or the Red Trail This Trail roughly follows a Revolutionary War supply road that went between the Hospital, number one on the Red Trail, and the Bridge Site, number six on the Orange Trail.
1. Forge Area: Large amounts of charred debris and slag suggest that this was the location of a forge for working iron for small arms and tool repairs.
2. Supply Road: On this rocky incline some of the original stonework for the supply road built by the American troops is visible.
3. Quarry: This quarry site dates from the 1750's when French occupation and control of the Champlain Valley predominated; the French were ousted by the British in 17,59 at the end of the French and Indian War. Stone quarried here was hauled over ice across the lake to build Carillon, the name of the French fort which the British re-named Fort Ticonderoga.
4. Building: This is the foundation of a rectangular building. Over time the bank has eroded, causing part of the foundation to slide down the bank towards the shoreline.
5. Spring: General St. Clair's court martial papers of 1778 give reference to a water source "on the west side of Mt. Independence, on the low ground, near the lake; it was very steep and about one half a mile distant from the fort." This is thought to have been the major water source for the fortress. Notice the large flat slabs of stone that appear to be steps leading down into the spring.
6. Garden Area: This large open meadow is believed to be where the three brigades stationed at the Mount cultivated vegetable gardens. Colonel Jeduthan Baldwin's journal entry for April 2, 777 states "went with ye Qr. M. Genl. and laid out a large gardin at ye foot of the Mount." Several long narrow depressions running east west across the meadow from the cliff-side towards the lake are remains of drainage ditches between the gardens.
7. Crane Ramp: Situated about 75 feet away from here at the base of the cliff are the remains of a ramp from which supplies were hoisted to the top. (See #2 under Orange Trail for further description.) Black powder was made at the site from sulfur found in large deposits in these cliffs and from saltpeter (potassium nitrate) and charcoal which were available on site.
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