Lake Champlain

Named after French explorer Samuel de Champlain, who first "discovered" it in 1609, Lake Champlain has been the site of key military battles during the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, and the War of 1812, with Fort Ticonderoga just south of this location as one example of the lake's historic sites. The lake also played a major role in the local economy, with agriculture, timber, fish, ice, maple syrup, iron ore, and marble all important products of the region. Following the Civil War, the region became a popular vacation area, and as demand for transportation over land, water, and ice increased, boat building and railroads became very important during the 1800s and early 1900s. Shared with Vermont to the east and Quebec to the north, Lake Champlain is one of New York's largest lakes, with a surface water area of just under 100,000 acres, and it supports warmwater and coldwater fish including largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, northern pike, lake trout, and Atlantic salmon. Lake trout and Atlantic salmon are native to the lake, but their abundance declined dramatically during the 19th century, in part because of predation by sea lamprey, a primitive parasitic eel-like fish that attaches to other fish and often kills them. Beginning in 1990, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, working with the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, began a sea lamprey control program using chemical treatments, barrier dams, and trapping to reduce lamprey numbers, improve trout and salmon fishing, and help keep nuisance alewife numbers in check.

Ticonderoga, New York · United States