Dave's Travel Adventures: Crown Point, NY

CROWN POINT: Monday, 13 June 2011

Since there was still time left in the day, we went on a little road trip. Dad had a suggested destination in mind which didn’t have a closing time. Sounded like a good adventure to me. We headed east back to where we’d normally pick up Interstate 87 to bring us south back to the Glens Falls region, but passed over the highway. It was just a short drive towards Lake Champlain to the Crown Point State Historic Site. I first recall visiting Crown Point in the mid-1980s on my very first Boy Scout Camporee (where there were many troops from the surrounding area present). There weren’t many ruins to check out then, just a couple monuments. Still, I thought it would be nice to see how much of the area I remembered.

Dad’s purpose for visiting here was to check on the progress of the bridge over Champlain into Vermont. If I’m remembering what I was told correctly, there were structural defects discovered the previous year and the bridge was closed due to safety reasons. As this was a major link across the lake, the loss of the bridge created a major inconvenience. (Commuters would either have to go a bit north to the toll ferry at Essex, or further south of here to the ferry at Ticonderoga. Either route would add at least a half-hour to travel time.) I don’t recall if the bridge actually collapsed or if it was torn down before it could, but now months later the replacement bridge was quickly being constructed.

As this bridge had previously been free, the ferry which was constantly running to handle the traffic flow was also free. Somehow the ferry was making money off of this, so I don’t know if they were being paid by either New York State or Vermont (or both), or by some other means. Still, it was interesting to see a dozen cars get loaded up, have a ten minute ride over, and then the ferry would come back to this side with another load.

We parked at the entrance to the historical site, which I recognized as being a few feet from where Argyle’s Boy Scout troop had our tents on my first camporee. There wasn’t a parking lot then, so our tents had been about twenty or thirty feet from the road. It was a different time in the 80s, as no one thought much of that then, because we were smart enough not to play in the road (as opposed to the newer generations).

One thing which was new (to me, at least) where large informational signs showing the history of the area in the 1600s (after it’s discovery by French explorer Samuel de Champlain in 1609), the wars of the 1700s (French and Indian War, and the American Revolution being two of the most notable), the use of the lake as a means of commerce in the 1800s, and how preservation of the site began in the 1900s for recreation and tourism. For the casual visitor stopping by to read the signs, it’s very interesting to see how things changed over four-hundred years of history.

One of the things we decided to check out while we were here was the Champlain Memorial and Lighthouse. The light house, made from grey limestone, was built in 1858 on this section, as this portion of the lake narrowed greatly. With a height of over 80 feet, it was a useful navigational tool.

I’m sure it was also used to look for “Champ,” the monster that allegedly lives in the lake. Very similar to the beastie reputed to live in Loch Ness in Scotland, reports of Champ predate the arrival of the European explorers. I’ve very sure the Native Americans saw something in these deep and murky waters, but (just like Loch Ness) it’s extremely unlikely that’s any type of plesiosaur critter. Lake Champlain is about 125 miles long, and about 400 feet deep. While a critter could conceivably take the Richelieu River north to Quebec, and pick up the St. Lawrence River to each the Atlantic, it’s unlikely that an aquatic creature would be adapted to both fresh and salt water. One would think someone would’ve spotted Champ heading past Quebec on a trip to ocean. As much as I want to believe in Champ’s existence as a cryptozoological creature, he’s probably a sturgeon or a large eel.

The monument was rededicated to Samuel de Champlain in 1959, where a likeness of the explorer was constructed on the side of the lighthouse facing the lake which bears his name. Past the lighthouse, stairs go down to a covered dock which give a nice view of the lake.

When I was here with the Scouts, the water level was about a foot below the cement floor of the T-shaped dock. Today, it was only a couple inches below. Dad liked how standing on the dock gave him a better view of the nearby bridge construction project. Mum noted that during the recent flooding, the floor of the dock was submerged. She pointed out the light-colored portion of the pillars which showed how high the water level had been. The discoloration had a height of about eighteen inches.

There wasn’t much else in historical site to see, as it’s mostly a campground. But for me, standing on the dock, looking out over the water with the green trees on the shores was a treasured sight. From my position, there was very few man-made structures in my view, so this gives an idea of what Lake Champlain looked like over four-hundred years when it was first seen by Europeans.