Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1871-03-03
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To The Editor of the Boston Journal:
1t was that bold Vermont partisan patri-
ot Ethan Allen, who first coined the ex-
preston that the outlet of the beautiful
Lake Champlain is 1.-THE key of Canada"
Truly spoken. Government Notifications
erected on these shores rs early as 1914,
others in 1917, and later still in 1874, attest
the faith of the American Congress in the
view of Colonel Allen. At present the
massive walls of Fort Montgomery, now
twentysix years in process of construction
and the third in magnitude of the thirteen
military Notifications in the Empire State,
stands sentinel on the line, and frownngly
guards this important key" and an enc
my from the north would be compelled in
passing it to come under the fire of l6i
guns, some of them sixteen feet in length
and weighing twent-five tons apiece. But
"annexation" is only question OF time,
and doubtless the time will be long ere the
cannon of this formidable fort shall be
pointed toward hostile fleet from Canada.
Hence the immense fortress is IA useless
thing, and is far as being necessary for
war purposes is concerned, Heaven grant
1t may remain so.
Apropos of the site and subject, there is
no section of the United States more rich
in revolutionary fact and memories or
more pregnant with old time legends and
"reminiscences as this famous "key' and the
lands Immediately adjacent. 1t has been
the thoroughfare CT contending nations for
more than two centuries. A history of this
terminus of the lake and all its opposite
shores, together with the grand old town of
Champlain, now lies in manuscript and
may one day see the light. The record
stretches back In its field of research to the
memorable morning of the 4th of July,
1909 when Captain Samuel de Champlain,
then Viceroy of New France las Canada
was termed), shooting up and out of the
River Richelieu in the midst of his Indian
allies in birch-bark canoe, was the first
white man who eyer LOOKED on these splen-
did waters and their then forest-bound
shores. What changes have come in these
two hundred and sixty-one years The
red man and his frail bark has given place
to the magnificent steamer and the feet of
cultivated and marvelously advancing peo-
pie. OD, IL Is WOnueTlul 10 Inlnk what
once was and what now is ON this broad
green American continent
Seven miles south of the fort and the kew
which it guards is Isle la Note, owned by
Vermont, and celebrated for the excellency
OF its gray-blue marble. This fertile island
is seven miles in length and one and half
miles in width, and lies midway between
North Hero and Alburgh on the Vermont
side, and the town of Chazy in New York
on the west the main channel running
west of it. Here on the west shore of the
island and not far from the Government
lighthouse, arc still to be seen the remains
of an old fort built by the French in the
seventeenth century. These ruins are dis
tnct from the earthworks thrown up by
our military authorities in lSl2-l4-traces of
which are yet visible, but nearer the mid
die of the island, and are not to be by an
tiquarians confounded with them. From
1909 to 1868 the Canadian French claimed
possession of Lake Champlain and all the
lands on either side, The conquest of Can
ada by the English put an end to the claim.
On the west shore of Isle la Motte, then
French soil, was built Fort st. Anne in
! 1865. The task of its construction was