Half Way Brook was so called because it lay midway between Forts Edward and William Henry. From 1755 to 1780, it was the scene of many bloody skirmishes, surprises, and ambushes. Here the French and Indians inflicted two horrible massacres upon the English and Colonials, one in the summer of 1756 and the other in July 1758. Fort Amherst, a noted military post, stood midway between Half Way Brook and the brickyard, on a site known locally as The Garrison Grounds. The location was used as a fortified camp in 1757-58, the fort was erected in 1759, and it was occupied by the forces of Baron Riedesel in the Burgoyne campaign of 1777. It was burned in 1780 in the Carleton Raid at the time of the Northern Invasion. The Seven Mile Post was a blockhouse with stockaded inclosure on the rise of ground north of the brook and west of the road near the residence of W. H. Parker from 1755 to Revolutionary times, and during that period it was one of the most important military halting places in North America.