Lakes to Locks Passage links the historic waters of Lake Champlain and Lake George with the Champlain Canal and Hudson River to the south and the Chambly Canal to the Richelieu and St. Lawrence Rivers of Quebec to the north. Its history is presented through four themes: natural forces and Native peoples shaping an inland waterway rich with resources, conflict and settlement through exploration, warfare, and peacekeeping, a corridor of commerce in furs, timber, stone, minerals, farm products, and technology, and the growth of tourism and environmental stewardship. Dramatic geological forces formed the region as Adirondack rocks were buried and later raised again, rifting reopened the sea, sandstone and limestone were laid down, collisions reshaped the continent, and glaciers a mile thick carved the Lake George and Lake Champlain valleys. Meltwater created glacial lakes five hundred feet above present water levels before draining north, and the sea briefly returned until the rebounding earth left a connected inland passage. After the glaciers melted, Paleolithic hunters moved north twelve thousand years ago following large game such as mastodons and giant beaver, and migrating ducks provided abundant food in spring and fall. About a thousand years ago, Woodland people began growing crops and establishing villages along streams and lakes. By the beginning of the 17th century, the peoples to the east and west had developed distinct Algonquin and Iroquois language groups, and both used the passage as a trade route.

Photo: William Fischer, Jr.

Photo: William Fischer, Jr.

Photo: William Fischer, Jr.

Photo: William Fischer, Jr.

Whitehall, New York · USA