Funds to create a Preservation and Planning Assessment of the Carillon Battlefield
Fort Ticonderoga, a major cultural destination, museum, and National Historic Landmark located in New York’s 6-million-acre Adirondack Park has been awarded a $69,876 grant from the American Battlefield Protection Program, National Park Service. The grant will be utilized to create a Preservation and Planning Assessment of the Carillon Battlefield, considered one of North America’s most important battle sites. The primary objective of this grant is to complete a comprehensive historical analysis of the Carillon Battlefield and create a condition and management assessment of the Carillon Battlefield for its long-term preservation.
“Although the museum has collected historic plans and maps depicting the French Lines and the Carillon Battlefield, the site itself has never been subject to comprehensive historical or archaeological analysis” said Beth L. Hill Fort Ticonderoga president and CEO. “This plan is essential to develop successful strategies for responsible access to the battlefield, preserve the site, as well as act as a foundation for any future archaeological projects.”
The project will take place under the primary direction of Site Archaeologist Margaret Staudter, who will serve as Project Director. Staudter holds an M.A. in Archaeology from Durham University in the UK.
At the heart of the Ticonderoga peninsula is the Carillon Battlefield and the French Lines, which constitute one of the most important 18th-century military sites on the continent. Here a French Army commanded by the Marquis de Montcalm defeated a British Army four times its size on July 8, 1758. The Battle of Carillon was the bloodiest battle fought in North America until the Civil War. The battle lines were re-fortified by Continental soldiers in the Revolutionary War forming a critical part of the defenses of Ticonderoga in 1776 and 1777. The works remain to this day a physical reminder of the legacy of two wars in which the fate of North America was decided.
About Fort Ticonderoga:
Welcoming visitors since 1909, Fort Ticonderoga preserves North America’s largest 18th-century artillery collection, 2,000 acres of historic landscape on Lake Champlain, and Carillon Battlefield, and the largest series of untouched Revolutionary War era earthworks surviving in America. As a multi-day destination and the premier place to learn more about our nation’s earliest years and America’s military heritage, Fort Ticonderoga engages more than 75,000 visitors each year with an economic impact of more than $12 million annually and offers programs, historic interpretation, boat cruises, tours, demonstrations, and exhibits throughout the year, and is open for daily visitation May through October. Fort Ticonderoga is supported in part through generous donations and with some general operating support made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.