Mount Independence
Fort · Orwell, Vermont
A rocky peninsula on the Vermont shore of Lake Champlain at Orwell, opposite Fort Ticonderoga, on which the Continental Army built one of the largest fortifications of the Revolutionary War. From July 1776 to July 1777 the fate of the newly independent United States rested substantially on this ground; then Burgoyne came down the lake, the position was abandoned, and nothing was ever built on it again. That is why it matters now - it is a National Historic Landmark and it is called the least disturbed major Revolutionary War site in the country, six miles of trail across an eighteenth-century army camp that nobody has ploughed.
497 Mount Independence Road, Orwell, Vermont, 05760, United States
⚠ SEASONAL - open roughly late May to mid October and closed the rest of the year, in a remote corner of Addison County. Check before travelling. A modest per-person Vermont state historic sites admission covers the visitor centre and the six miles of trail; parking is free. GUIDED WALKS AND RANGER PROGRAMMES run in season, and REVOLUTIONARY WAR ENCAMPMENTS and living-history weekends run through the summer. ⚠ THE SITE IS AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL LANDSCAPE RATHER THAN A RECONSTRUCTED FORT - there are no walls and no building to tour, and the visitor centre interpretation is what makes the ground readable. ⚠ FORT TICONDEROGA, DIRECTLY ACROSS THE LAKE, IS A NEW YORK SITE WITH ITS OWN SEPARATE ADMISSION; the two were one fortification joined by a floating bridge.
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