A Toast to Lake Champlain's History Tracing the Development of Commerce, Recreation

Author: Cragin Brown

Lake Champlain, the ribbon of freshwater extending along Vermont's western boundary with New York, has a rich archaeological heritage that can be attributed to its strategic location between the Hudson and St. Lawrence rivers, and the cold, dark, preserving conditions beneath the surface of the water.

The maritime history of Lake Champlain can be divided into the era of military struggles, the era of commerce and merchant fleets and the era of recreational boating.

The military period essentially began with the shot fired by Samuel de Champlain at a band of Iroquois warriors on July 29, 1609.

Over the next 150 years, the skirmishing with Native Americans was transformed into a contest for the North American continent between European powerhouses France and England.

This contest culminated in General Jeffrey Amherst's invasion of French-controlled Lake Champlain in 1759, and the conquest of Canada in 1760. Peace on Champlain's waters was shortlived.

The outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in 1775 brought eight years of renewed conflict and the Battle of Valcour Island in 1776, where Benedict Arnold managed to successfully delay a British invasion of the rebelling colonies.

Although relatively brief, the War of 1812 caused conflict on the lake's waters. The conclusion of the war in late 1814 marked the end of the 200-year era of warfare on Lake Champlain.

The 19th century was to be Lake Champlain's "Golden Era" of waterborne commerce.

During this period the lake churned with the wakes of hundreds of merchant vessels of all descriptions, including steamboats, canal boats, scow ferries, merchant sloops and schooners, horse ferries, tugboats, and untold numbers of lesser craft.

Throughout most of the 19th century, the lake was also on the cutting edge of new maritime technology, the most spectacular and best remembered being the steamboats that carried tourists, immigrants, businessmen and families up and down the length of the Champlain Valley.

Of greater economic importance were the canals, an advance in technology that joined Champlain's waters with the Hudson River in 1823 and the St. Lawrence River in 1843.

The Champlain and Chambly canals provided a cheap, dependable connection between Vermont and the rest of North America,and floated an incredible range of materials in and out of the region, including coal, timber, iron ore, grain, hay, stone and manufactured goods.

The third era in the lake's written history began with the introduction of the railroad to the Champlain Valley in the late 1840s.

This new form of transportation initially served as a complement to the existing passenger trade on the lake, but with the introduction of new rail lines and more miles of track the use of Lake Champlain as the region's primary artery of transportation gradually tapered off.

Steamers and canal boats would continue to navigate the lake and canals well into the 20th century, but by the end of the 19th the railroad's primacy in the passenger and freight hauling business was complete.

The 20th century has seen Lake Champlain emerge, after a period of disinterest and neglect, as a center for recreation, for fishing, for swimming and especially for sail and motor boating.

Over the past 20 years, organizations such as the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum have invested themselves into spreading awareness of the lake through nautical exploration and hands-on activities.