Fort Ticonderoga

We took the opportunity to visit a fort while we were in the area camping. Fort Ticonderoga is on the New York side of Lake Champlain. I did not know much about the fort except I thought the Green Mountain Boys of Vermont had some Revolutionary War doings there. I was right, but there is more history than that. I won't tell you all of it but there is more.

First, isn't NY beautiful in the spring? I just love mountains and lakes, they seem to go together like peanut butter and jelly.

D and I are always reading the signs at historical sites. Why go there if you're not going to get any of the history?

Cannons they have them! I took way too many pictures of cannons. But isn't the detail work that goes into them amazing? 

I always thought of cannons as plain old hunks of metal that shot out other plain hunks of metal. Almost every one was decorated with some sort of seal. Seems like a great way to know whose cannon is whose. But the detail, wow.

I fell in love with this one the way the patina had been rubbed off. It was amazingly smooth and polished.

See I told you they had cannons! This is only one wall too.

The inner courtyard surrounded by barracks (plus cannons.) They had, well what do you call them? Actors, cultural interpreters, reenactors? Anyways there were people in Colonial dress that would answer your questions. Oddly enough I am way too shy to take pictures or ask many questions of reenactors. One gentleman bid us to come over and discussed how the Colonial armies cooked. Rations which included rice, an onion, salt pork, coffee and hardtack; how the cooking area could be a mile or so away from the camp; how they made more efficient underground cook stoves and other things I can not recall. It was quite interesting to hear someone speak on those topics. I think he really likes working there too.

We also found out the fort, in its current state is largely reconstructed. It fell into ruins and was rebuilt using private funds. I also think it is still privately held by a foundation. Can you see the old wall and the new wall?

 Take a look just to the left of that area and you can see how rebuilding works.

I liked the contrast between old and new here too.

More cannons, Wahoo.

We took a tour and while it was not everything we hoped for it was a nice way to spend a day. They do  a really nice job there, especially seeing photos of the ruins that it once was to what it is now.

On a yippy midwesterners note, we were thrilled to park next to a vehicle that had South Dakota plates on it. Yes, we are such goobers that we even left them a note on the windshield telling them just that. We hope it made their day just as much as it made ours. We don't get many opportunities to see plates from home around here.

I'm off to wave happily in the direction of South Dakota.