The British, under the command of General Jeffrey Amherst, began construction of the Crown Point Road in 1759 during the French and Indian War to create a more direct route for moving fresh troops and supplies between Crown Point, New York, and Fort # 4 on the Connecticut River in New Hampshire. The road shortened the older supply route from the Atlantic ports by way of Albany and Lake George, and Captain John Stark and Lieutenant John Small are credited with carrying out the work. In 1760 they improved sections built the year before, especially in the east where the road had been only a trail and needed to be widened to 20 feet for wagons. Despite many desertions among the 360 troops building it in the summer heat of 1760, and the punishment of one soldier with 100 lashes for encouraging mutiny, by summer's end five droves of cattle of about 80 head each had made the trip along with men, arms, and provisions. During the American Revolution, colonial militias used the road to their own advantage against the British, contributing to the ultimate British defeat. Beyond its military role, the road opened the wilderness to settlers. Nearly seven of its approximately 85 miles lay in Weathersfield, where the first settler arrived in 1768. By 1800, the town had 1,944 residents and the road served as its main artery, with other roads branching from it. The Weathersfield route contains the only two remaining original milestones on the Crown Point Road, as well as late-1700s sites including two cemeteries, three cellar holes, the remains of a pre-Revolutionary sawmill, and a home built in 1780 along the route. Weathersfield accepted the road as a town road in 1782 and again the following year with an alteration, and in 2010 the Weathersfield Select Board retained it as a Class 4 town road along its historic route.

Photo: William Fischer, Jr.

Perkinsville, Vermont · USA