LAKE GEORGE, in the eastern part of the State of New York, is one of the most beautiful, noted and picturesque lakes in the world. It is fed mostly by ice cold springs, there being less than half a dozen living streams flowing into it. Its outlet is Lake Champlain in the Saint Lawrence River Basin. It is the head waters of one of the most noted of the Saint Lawrence valleys. It •narrows at its outlet and the waters enter Lake Champlain by a short creek, which has a descent of about 230 feet in a mile with a series of cascades and an abrupt fall of 30 feet at Ticonderoga. Its length is about 36 miles, and it is 346 feet above the sea, and at its headwaters it is 247 feet above Lake Champlain.
In 1609 Champlain sailed up the lake which bears his name, and Indians told him of the beautiful water called Andiatarocti (Place Where the Lake Contracts) but there is no rec ord that he ever saw Lake George. Father Jogues, a Jesuit missionary, first saw the lake While a captive in Mohawk hands on 9 Aug. 1642; but it was not till he saw it a second time on 29 May 1646, that he called it Lac du Saint Sacrament, or Lake of the Blessed Sacrament, owing to his having seen it on the eve of Corpus Christi, a name which it retained until it was changed by Gen. William Johnson, 28 Aug. 1755, and given that of Lake George, after George II. The name °Horicon° given it by Cooper, is an historical fraud, the creation of the novelist's brain.
This lake is on the direct route of travel which was used in the early days of exploration and colonization in journeying to and from Canada and New York. It was on the Great War Trail of the Nations, and was in turn un der the control of the French, the English and the Colonists, while our country was in its formative stage. During the French and Indian War, forts were built at Carillon (Ticonder oga) by the French, and at the head of Lake George (Fort William Henry, Fort George and Fort Gage) by the English. It has been the scene of numerous bloody contests, between the whites and the Indians, the French of Canada and the English of the colonies. The encounter known as the °Battle of Lake George° occurred 8 Sept. 1755, between the French and Algon
quins under Baron Dieskau, and the English and Iroquois under Sir William Johnson, with an Indian chief, King Hendrick, in charge of the Indians. A monument commemorative of this battle was unveiled at Lake George 8 Sept. 1903. It consists of heroic figures of Sir Wil liam •Johnson and Chief Hendrick, designed by Albert Weinert. The State of New York has purchased here a large tract of land, containing the battlegrounds and Fort George, the reser vation being known as °Battle Park.° A few miles to the south King Hendrick fell, while a monument marks the spot where Col. Ephraim Williams, founder of Williams College, met his death.
Among the more important events associated with Lake George were the siege by Montcalm, capture and massacre at Fort William Henry 9 Aug. 1757; the gathering of Lord Aber crombie's great army, its defeat and death of Lord Howe at Ticonderoga, 5-8 July 1758; the building of Fort George, advance down the lake and capture of Fort Ticonderoga by Lord Amherst,July 1759; capture of Fort Ticonder oga by Ethan Allen, May 1775; removal of guns and stores over the lake, winter of 1775 76 to Boston by Col. Henry Knox; and oc cupancy by American forces, spring 1776, fol lowed by devastating smallpox epidemic; seizure by General Burgoyne, summer 1777; un successful attack on Diamond Island by Ameri cans under Colonel Brown on English forces, 22 Sept. 1777; capture of Fort George by Maj. Christopher Carlton (English) October 1780; visit of General Washington and staff, July 1783.
The State has bountifully stocked its waters with fish. Deer, black bear, rabbits, partridges, foxes, minks and rattlesnakes are to be found among its mountains, and ducks, eagles, gulls and all kinds of wild birds fly above its waters. The lake is surrounded by mountains, the most striking of which are Prospect (1,800 feet), Buck (2,000 feet), Tongue, with its succession of mounts, Erebus, Shelving Rock, Black (2,315 feet), Anthony's Nose, named after Anthony Wayne, and Rogers' Slide, after the fabled ex ploit of Rogers the Ranger, in 1757-58.