Crown Point, NY Road Trips

The French began building a fort at this location as early as 1731. The narrowness of the lake passage at Crown Point, now spanned by the bridge, was of crucial strategic importance. The name of the town is attributed to a translation of the French fort name; Point au Chevalure (the crown of the head). France retreated from the area before the Seven Years' War (the French and Indian War in North America), destroying limestone Fort St. Frédéric (1734-1759) when they left. The British gained control of the area and built Fort Crown Point in 1759 as a large earthen fort. Crown Point, controlled by Vermont's Green Mountain Boys militia in 1775, was employed by the British during the 1777 Saratoga campaign, a failed attempt to establish British control of the Hudson Valley. The next line of defence below Crown Point was Ticonderoga. Crown Point's log and earth fortress were destroyed by an accidental fire in 1773, but ruins of some of the other buildings on the site survive as Crown Point State Historic Site, a state park at the northern tip of Crown Point peninsula. Vermonters began creating a permanent settlement in what would become present day Crown Point in 1800, when Stephen Spaulding and his brothers came to the area on a scouting expedition. The flat coastal plain made early settlement relatively easy as did the short distance to their Vermont homes. They traveled between their established Vermont farms and this new land as they cleared the ground, built log cabins and prepared to move their families. Residents of Crown Point still commute to work in Vermont.

1 Champlain Memorial Lighthouse. 2 Crown Point State Historic Site. (updated Sep 2016) Penfield Homestead Museum, 703 Creek Rd. Museum of local history. Birthplace of the Electric Age. 1826 homestead, carriage barn, church, threshing barn, cow barn. (updated Sep 2016)

Sugar Hill Manor B&B 225 Sugar Hill Road 518-597-9545

I-87 North to exit 28. Take Route 74 East to Essex County Route 2. or take Route 9N & 22 north from Ticonderoga, south from Port Henry. From Vermont take Route 17 West to the Crown Point Bridge. Amtrak's "Adirondack" line passes through the Town of Crown Point, but stations are at Ticonderoga to the south and Port Henry to the north.

By car, RV, motorcycle, bicycle or boat on Lake Champlain.