Ticonderoga



Ticonderoga, home to counselor and 1999 Becket Aides director Tim Murphy among many other distinguished campers and staff, is one of eight lucky cabins facing Frontier green. The word Ticonderoga, or Ticon as it is known around Becket, is derived from the Iroquois word tekontaró:ken, or "at the junction of two waterways." Its location between Lake George and Lake Champlain was important to the Iroquois and Algonquin Native Americans, and later to the French and British colonists that came to the region in the 1600s.

In 1755, the French built a fort at tekontaró:ken and named it Fort Carillon because the sound of Ticonderoga Creek meeting Lake Champlain resembled the chiming of a carillon bell. In 1759, during the French and Indian War, the British took the fort, renaming it Fort Ticonderoga and occupying it until the American Revolution began in 1775. In May of that year, the fort became the site of an early Patriot victory when Ticonderoga was taken by a garrison of 48 Americans. They were called the Green Mountain Boys, and they were led by the charismatic Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, an ambitious young officer who later became infamous for trading secrets to the British and was executed for his treason.

The British took the fort back in 1777 during the Battle of Ticonderoga, led by General John Burgoyne who continued to campaign in New York State. Gentleman Johnny was eventually defeated by American General Horatio Gates at Saratoga in October 1777, and the British presence in that region essentially died when Burgoyne surrendered his sword. By 1781 the British had abandoned Fort Ticonderoga, and in 1785 it became property of the state of New York.