Christenberry Legacy of Lake George

THE LEGACY OF LAKE GEORGE The Quickening of a Nation So shall the world go on, To good malignant, to bad men benign. Under her own weight, groaning John Milton Paradise Lost Robert H. Christenberry MD Milton Society Nashville, Tennessee May 8,2014 - - -------------- ------------------------------- ----- .' Dedicated to the memory of: Rev. William Winston Parkinson, a passionate and wise student of history Lake George, New York, is an American treasure, not only because of its unparalleled beauty, but also because of its paramount position in early American history. Native Americans called it Andia-ta-roc-te or "where the mountains close in". James Fennimore Cooper referred to the lake as Horicon in his classic 1826 novel, "The Last of the Mohicans". Now often called the "Queen of American lakes", Lake George has evolved through several names, even as it has been a key instrument in the evolution of the human experiment on the North American continent. It provided a prodigious backdrop for centuries of drama for Native American alliances and warfare, and became the epicenter of the French and Indian War. Only a few years after those cannon were quiet, the birth pangs of the United States of America generated in this region spread across the Atlantic between Europe and the young American colonies to the south. The likes of Mohawk chiefs, Samuel de Champlain, Ethan Allen, Henry Knox, and, yes, Benedict Arnold were present in the birthing room. Lexington and Concord would forever hold their town greens sacred, but without the fire- lit stories from this naked wilderness, the American tapestry is incomplete. PART I: Early History The lake is in current day upstate New York in the easternmost part of what would become the Adirondack Park. 32 miles long with a maximum width of approximately two miles, it is just under 200 feet at its deepest point, and boasts over 150 islands. It was '" formed from multiple geological faults resultant from continental rifting as the Adirondack Mountains were taking shape about 650 million years ago. Two rivers once flowed where the lake now exists, one flowing north to today's Lake Champlain, and the other south to the river now known as the Hudson. Majestic mountain ranges define the contours of the basin, then and now. Those mountain peaks are still slowly increasing in height every year. During the most recent ice age, glaciers covered the entire region, and upon receding some 10 to 12,000 years ago, the lake's features were sculpted to the appearance that we essentially know today. The glacier's gouge was massive enough to transform the former rivers into a deeper and broader lake basin. Natural dams were formed at the north and south ends as the glaciers departed, and today the lake is primarily fed by mountain streams in its watershed, and underground springs. It flows northward to its terminus at the La Chute River, where it cascades 230 feet downward { r- _ .._----------------- I for just three and a half miles through the present day town of Ticonderoga, before emptying into the southern part of Lake Champlain. Earliest human history of the region probably begins about 10,000 years ago when "Woodlands" Indians developed well-worn footpaths in their nomadic hunting along the natural waterway corridors. This was the vast scape along the now Hudson River in the south to the St. Lawrence River and estuaries to the north. Just north of the Hudson, the long tandem paddles of Lake George and Lake Champlain were natural expanses in this water route, with relatively short portages between the major rivers and lakes. Indeed, there were less than 20 miles of canoe foot work to do, even in those ancient times, between the respective mouths of the Hudson and the 8t. Lawrence. The dense wilderness was otherwise largely impenetrable without this long highway. Eventually, the two groups of Native Americans who shaped the destiny of this region were the Iroquois Nation and the amalgam of Algonquin tribes. The Iroquois were largely settled in present day New York and Ontario, and to some extent further south in parts of what would become New England. The Algonquin peoples were embedded to the north of the Iroquois in Canada, mostly in what is now the province of Quebec. The Hurons can be grouped with the Algonquins in the historical significance of this time and region. The Iroquois Nation (Confederacy) was a league of 5 tribes, the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk. A more minor tribe of about 1200 warriors, the Tuscarora, joined the confederacy later in 1722 when they were driven out of North Carolina by colonists. The Mohawks were the most formidable tribe, both in terms of numbers and bellicosity. They controlled the largest and easternmost part of the territory, encompassing the Lake George and Lake Champlain region, as well as most of the upper Hudson River valley. .: Incidentally, Mohawks are often confused with the Mohicans. These two tribes were bitter enemies, the latter being Algonquins. Mohicans had originally populated the upper Hudson River banks, only to be displaced to the south and east toward Delaware by the Mohawks. History suggests the Iroquois warred enough amongst themselves, but they hated the Algonquins more. The Iroquois moved toward long term settlements and agriculture before the Algonquins, living communally in long houses, whereas the Algonquins sheltered in wigwams, which were more portable for their hunter-gatherer culture. The word "Adirondack" is derived phonetically from the Iroquois word meaning "bark eater". The Iroquois disdainfully described the Algonquins as inept in providing food for their women and children in the hard winters: suggesting they were forced to subsist only on --I tree bark! In the era before European exploration, the Iroquois were successful in driving the Algonquin people out of their own territories into Canada. The hatred and polarity between these two nations would help to galvanize the foundation for future conflict between Europeans as they arrived in the New World to begin their own theater of war. PART II: EUROPEANS ARRIVE We do not know whether Samuel de Champlain ever saw Lake George, but we are sure he knew about it, as his Indian guides in the New World described it to him. The alliances he forged with the Algonquin and Huron peoples, and his actions indelibly set the future of Lake George into fiery motion. Champlain first sailed to the Americas in 1599, and as the new century dawned, he turned his attention to what was soon to be called Canada. In 1608, he established Quebec where Quebec City now stands, one year after the first settlement at Jamestown, Virginia, and eleven years before the Pilgrims set foot on Plymouth Rock. His first settlement fared no better than Jamestown, with 20 of the 28 inaugural settlers dying that first winter, most of dysentery, the others from scurvy. This man sailed across the Atlantic no less than 29 times, each voyage of three months or so tantamount to an astronaut venture today! He was married, but somehow that relationship did not go so well. We remember him best as a colossal explorer, but his most important contribution was as a social engineer and nation builder . ..: He had a great vision for a true New France in Quebec, and tirelessly tried to bring his dream to fruition. His plan was to incorporate the native people into societal harmony and cooperation with the imported souls from France. The totem or clan government of the Algonquins challenged Champlain's sensibilities, and initially impeded his work. Each band or tribe of Indians was led by a chief required to meet approval by all of the clan leaders, necessitating Champlain's multiple personal journeys to different tribes for diplomacy and persuasion. The Algonquins were less interested in Champlain's grand scheme than they were in recruiting the newcomers in the fight against their foe of the centuries, the Iroquois. Champlain's letters testify to his beliefs and efforts to forge a working reconciliation between these two warring factions, but in the end, he failed rather miserably in that aspect of his dream. 3 In 1609 he ventured south from Quebec with a band of around 60 Algonquins and Hurons to keep his promise to them in dealing with an immediate Iroquois threat. On that journey, he first saw, and then christened with his own name the largest lake in North America other than the Great Lakes. Scholars disagree where the climax of this trip occurred, but not upon what transpired. Somewhere probably near today's Ticonderoga, very near the northern end of Lake George, this compact group encountered a larger, angry war party of 200 Mohawk, who retreated overnight to prepare for battle the next day. As that battle materialized, Champlain stood in armor before the Mohawks who were in rigid formal lines. His guides pointed out the chiefs, as the French leader quietly shouldered his arquebuse a rouet, the first self-igniting musket precursor. This weapon utilized a wheel lock flint mechanism, and could be loaded with multiple shot. Champlain took his aim and with one shot mortally dispatched two of the chiefs and one warrior at their side. His lieutenants killed another chief immediately afterwards on the other flank. The skirmish ended immediately thereafter with the bewildered and frightened retreat of the Mohawk band. In that moment, there is no doubt that Champlain re-wrote the Indian conflict on a new canvas of raw hostility, that would persist for almost two centuries. The Iroquois learned well from that humiliating day, thereafter developing and perfecting a new "more skulking" type of warfare from the shadows.

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