This lakeside meadow served as a campground in 1777 for troops from Rindge, New Hampshire, traveling on the way to Mount Independence and Fort Ticonderoga to fight Burgoyne's invading British army. The 1776 Crown Point Road, which linked Fort No. 4 on the Connecticut River to the forts on Lake Champlain, closely followed the present highway. An earlier Crown Point Road from 1759-60, ordered built by British General Amherst during the French and Indian War, passed farther south, followed Indian trails, and later brought homesteaders to Vermont. The Black River ponds lay at a portage point between the Black River and Otter Creek, and other campsites may be found nearby. The Boy Scouts of America owned this property and operated a summer camp here from 1927-1984, when the land was sold to the State of Vermont.