Fort Ticonderoga

Fort Ticonderoga Fort Ticonderoga is a historic site, museum, center of learning and major cultural destination. Rain or shine, there’s something for everyone!
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Find inspiration and create family memories as we celebrate America’s 250th! World class exhibits, thrilling weapons demos, epic battle reenactments and hands-on activities connect you to America’s story. Enjoy stunning views from aboard the Carillon boat and our historic gardens.

We are hiring!During the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, the museum team is cataloging three extraordinary...
08/27/2026

We are hiring!

During the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution, the museum team is cataloging three extraordinary Revolutionary-era collections and making all of it available to students, educators, lifelong learners, and history enthusiasts across the globe.

Applications are currently being accepted for the following positions:

* Archaeologist (deadline 9/13)
* Cataloger (2 positions, deadline 9/13)
* Assistant Curator (deadline 9/27)

Visit our website to learn more and apply: https://fortticonderoga.org/careers/

Same sword? Not quite.During his imaging workflow, Edward W. Pell Nittolo Collections Fellow Noah Garcia thought he was ...
08/27/2026

Same sword? Not quite.

During his imaging workflow, Edward W. Pell Nittolo Collections Fellow Noah Garcia thought he was having a moment of Déjà vu - but it was indeed a separate, yet near-identical sword.

After doing a bit of comparative analysis and research of the swords, he discovered that these Scottish Infantry Backswords were made by separate sword-makers: Dru Drury Jr. or Sr., a prominent London cutler and sword maker father and son, and Nathaniel Jefferies, another notable London cutler and sword maker.

Though not made by the same hands, these swords do have something in common - the manufacturing pattern. Their construction reflects a practical approach to military sword-making - standardized components and established patterns could be produced efficiently, helping keep costs down while still providing soldiers of the Highland regiments with a functional and durable weapon.

These swords were produced with the same pattern but that doesn’t mean they are the exact same. One maker decided to put extra few details during the construction of the weapon. Can you spot the similarities and differences between these backswords?

For more information about these swords, check out the digital collections record at the links here! https://fortticonderoga.catalogaccess.com/objects/22780 & https://fortticonderoga.catalogaccess.com/objects/22786

Our Cut Flower Garden looks beautiful in the rosy light of dawn this morning. Watch for these daisies, gladiolus, sunflo...
08/27/2026

Our Cut Flower Garden looks beautiful in the rosy light of dawn this morning. Watch for these daisies, gladiolus, sunflowers, celosia, and verbena in flower arrangements at our Cafe and Log House Welcome Center!

Tens of thousands of enlisted men served at Fort Ticonderoga during its period of service, but relatively few of their l...
08/27/2026

Tens of thousands of enlisted men served at Fort Ticonderoga during its period of service, but relatively few of their letters and journals have survived. Often, only one or a few letters survive from a much larger correspondence. Archelaus Tay of Woburn, MA, a soldier in the Massachusetts militia who marched to reinforce Ticonderoga in the summer of 1776, left his mark on the historical record through four surviving letters to his family.

At the time of his first letter, written from Wi******er, just south of Woburn, on July 28, Tay was likely preparing to march. Looking ahead to the campaign, he wrote, “we are all in good health and good heart, we desire the prayers of all the good people of amarica”.

By August 19, Tay and his regiment had made camp at Mount Independence. He reported that “my Captin is sumthing poorly… Benjmian Thompson was [carried] off with the small pox to lake [George] yesterday”. He was not worried about smallpox himself, stating that “ther is no Danger as of the small pox Spreden in the camps”. The British were more concerning, as he had heard (incorrect) reports that “the [regulars] are within twenty miles of Crown pint, it tis expected that they will bee along soon.”

On August 27, 1776—250 years ago today—Tay wrote a third letter from Ticonderoga. “We are to be stationed this place for the present and I don’t think that we shall go any further but fortify this place as strong as possible”, he wrote. The campaign was beginning to wear on him. “I do not like soldiering,” he declared, “I do determine to come home as soon as my time is out.”

Tay never got that opportunity. On October 14 he wrote a final, panicked letter to his parents, saying that he was in “a poor and languishing state of health” and begging them to “come…and fetch me home. Fail not of coming, let the cost be what it will. If you don’t come quick I never shall come home.” He never did, dying on October 22, a week before his 25th birthday.

Learn more about Tay’s letters (object IDs MS.2082 and MS.7079.3) on the Ticonderoga Online Collections database: https://fortticonderoga.catalogaccess.com/archives/30088 https://fortticonderoga.catalogaccess.com/archives/30599

Join Fort Ticonderoga this weekend, August 29-30, for a signature REAL TIME REVOLUTION® event, "Fleet & Fortification," ...
08/26/2026

Join Fort Ticonderoga this weekend, August 29-30, for a signature REAL TIME REVOLUTION® event, "Fleet & Fortification," to experience a dramatic recreation of the work that consumed the army that summer of 1776, as visitors help raise sails and haul cannon to outfit the fleet on Lake Champlain, build fascines and stake them against the earth in a recreated redoubt at Liberty Hill.

In the late summer of 1776, the Northern Continental Army raced to stop a British invasion coming down from Canada. Sailors rowed vessels built at Skenesborough (modern-day village of Whitehall) to Ticonderoga to be rigged and armed while soldiers entrenched strategic ground across the camp. All but six vessels of the American fleet were destroyed as the British pressed south from Valcour Island to Ticonderoga. The British reached Ticonderoga two weeks later, where they found the extensive fortifications manned by 13,000 American soldiers and made the decision to retreat to Canada. The Revolution “held the line” and made it to a second year.

See the full visitor schedule here: https://fortticonderoga.org/ft_events/real-time-revolution-signature-reenactment-event-fleet-fortification-the-science-of-defense/

This dramatic weekend-long event is included in Fort Ticonderoga general admission tickets - valid for two consecutive days!

In the summer and fall of 1776, Fort Ticonderoga became America’s last line of defense, with the fate of the Revolution ...
08/26/2026

In the summer and fall of 1776, Fort Ticonderoga became America’s last line of defense, with the fate of the Revolution on the line.

Between July and October 1776, two armies raced toward a collision on Lake Champlain. Major General Horatio Gates oversaw the Continental Army's preparations at Ticonderoga and Mount Independence: miles of fortifications to dig, cannon to be mounted, ships to be built, and storehouses, magazines, and lodging built from nothing. Soldiers were pulled out as artificers, gunners, and desperately needed sailors, working grueling hours with limited time and tools.

This video looks between the battles to the challenges and stakes of the 1776 campaign. At the hospital at Fort George, understaffed physicians, surgeons, and nurses fought smallpox with thin medicine chests, pleading for supplies. Officers wrestled with discipline, and courts-martial reached from Brigadier General Benedict Arnold down to subalterns tried for disobedience, cowardice, and intoxication. Regional rivalry between Pennsylvania troops and New Englanders ran hot enough that the two were kept on opposite sides of Lake Champlain. Scouts ranged across the Canadian border, including Lieutenant Benjamin Whitcomb's shooting of British Brigadier General Patrick Gordon on the road to Saint-Jean, and the hardened the lines of the campaign.

On the water, both sides built navies from scratch. American shipwrights were lured north to Skenesborough with higher wages to construct a fighting fleet, while the British, blocked by the rapids of the Richelieu River, deconstructed two schooners, hauled them overland, and rebuilt them on Lake Champlain, alongside gunboats framed in England and the 80 foot, 22 gun warship Inflexible. By early October, Benedict Arnold's America vessels faced a British fleet assembled in just three months, with British Governor Guy Carleton's massive forces behind it.

The fate of the newly declared nation was on the line, would the preparations at Ticonderoga be enough?

Watch our newest video to learn more! https://youtu.be/0nAVDJRiZQc

08/25/2026

Today on Trades Tuesday, we are building and arming bateaux within our maritime trades. As hulls arrived from the shipyard at Skenesboro, every stitch of a sail, splice of a line, or truck of a cannon carriage had to be added at Ticonderoga. Right now, 250 years ago, sailmakers, carpenters, wheelwrights, and boatswains worked feverishly to outfit and arm the American fleet on Lake Champlain. Learn more about the race to meet the British on the Lake, and the work to get there in our upcoming REAL TIME REVOLUTION® Signature Reenactment Event: Fleet & Fortification: The Science of Defense, August 29 & 30, 2026!

A beautiful late summer morning in the King's Garden, with hostas, sunflowers, one last Asiatic lily, and hummingbird sa...
08/25/2026

A beautiful late summer morning in the King's Garden, with hostas, sunflowers, one last Asiatic lily, and hummingbird sage, our Flower of the Week.

Address

102 Fort Ti Road
Ticonderoga, NY
12883

Opening Hours

Tuesday 9:30am - 5pm
Wednesday 9:30am - 5pm
Thursday 9:30am - 5pm
Friday 9:30am - 5pm
Saturday 9:30am - 5pm
Sunday 9:30am - 5pm

Telephone

+15185852821

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