Fort Crown Point
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Fort Crown Point
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Ruins of the fort
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| Location | Crown Point, New York, NY |
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| Nearest city | Burlington, VT |
| Coordinates | 44°01′45″N 73°25′52″W / 44.02917°N 73.43111°WCoordinates: 44°01′45″N 73°25′52″W / 44.02917°N 73.43111°W |
| Area | 11,800 acres (4,800 ha) |
| Built | 1759 |
| NRHP Reference # | 68000033 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | November 24, 1968 |
| Designated NHL | November 24, 1968 |
Fort Crown Point was a British fort built by the combined efforts of both British and provincial troops (from New York and the New England Colonies) in North America in 1759 at a narrows on Lake Champlain on what later became the border between New York and Vermont. Erected to secure the region against the French, the fort is in upstate New York near the town of Crown Point and was the largest earthen fortress built in the United States. The fort's ruins, a National Historic Landmark, are now administered as part of Crown Point State Historic Site.
The French built a fortress at Crown Point in the 1730s with 12-foot (3.7 m) thick limestone walls named Fort St. Frederic. British forces targeted it twice during the French and Indian War before the French destroyed it in the summer of 1759.
The Crown Point fort was constructed by the British army under the command of Sir Jeffery Amherst following the capture of Carillon, a French fort to the south (which he renamed Ticonderoga), and the destruction of Fort St. Frédéric. Amherst used the construction of the fort as a means of keeping his men working through the winter of 1759 after pushing the French into modern Canada.
The fort was never directly assaulted. Mostly built after the threat of French invasion had ended, it was used largely for staging rather than as a position in its own right. On April 21, 1773, a chimney fire broke out in the soldier's barracks. It quickly spread, burning for days. In May 1774, British military engineer John Montresor described the fort (post fire) with the following words: "the conflagration of the late fort has rendered it an amazing useless mass of earth only". Montresor proposed expanding and improving one of the outworks rather than attempting to repair the main fort.
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