1	QUEENSBURY’S HISTORIC BLIND ROCK BY JOHN STROUGH
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3	They have probably visited Blind Rock. Have you?
4	A THREE-RING BINDER FULL OF BLIND ROCK REFERENCES
5	WHERE IS BLIND ROCK?
6	NO, IT IS NOT NEAR BLIND ROCK ROAD!
7	IS IT NEAR THE WARREN COUNTY BIKEWAY MARKER? NO! BUT YOU’RE GETTING CLOSER
8	"“LEGENDARY PLACE OF NATIVE..." “LEGENDARY PLACE OF NATIVE AMERICAN RENDEVOUS AND AMBUSHES. ENGLISH-FRENCH FRONTIER BOUNDARY COLONIAL LANDMARK AND CROSSROADS.”
9	“25 Rods East of the Old Plank Road”
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13	HERE IS THE MOST RECENT PICTURE I HAVE OF BLIND ROCK. THIS PICTURE WAS TAKEN ON DECEMBER 3, 2006.
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15	In 1988 Mark Frost ran an article in The Chronicle about my efforts to save Blind Rock.
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17	An erratic gneiss rock, a remnant deposit of the last ice age, Blind Rock is about 11 foot in length, 7 foot in width and 4 foot in height and cleaved in half. The gap between its two halves is about a foot in width.
18	THE QUEENSBURY PATENT 1763
19	MAP OF QUEENSBURY
20	THE ORIGINAL STAGECOACH Blind Rock’s infamous nature remained well celebrated and was promoted as a “must see” tourist spot
21	LOCAL SCHOOLS FREQUENTLY TOOK FIELDTRIPS TO BLIND ROCK
22	LET US PLACE OUR ROCK IN THE CONTEXT OF THE RICH HISTORY THAT SURROUNDS IT
23	THE GREAT WARPATH (also called The Mahican Channel, The Indian trail, The Great Highway)
24	FUR TRADERS
25	MISSIONARIES
26	CHEPONTUC “The Great Carry” As tensions increased, Chepontuc became recognized as a place of extreme strategic importance. Note the list of forts located along Chepontuc: Fort Nicholson/Fort Lydius/Fort Lyman/Fort Edward Fort William Henry Fort George Fort Gage Fort Williams Fort Amherst Fort Misery Halfway Brook Post/Seven Mile Post
27	FORT EDWARD (Old Fort Lyman) AND ROGER’S ISLAND
28	FORT WILLIAM HENRY
29	FORT GEORGE
30	"Fort Gage" Fort Gage (1759 - 1760), Lake George An earthwork fort located one-half mile south of Fort George. Fort Williams (1759 - 1760), near Lake George Located three miles south of Fort George. May have been built as early as 1755. Fort Amherst (1759 - 1760, 1777 - 1780), Queensbury Located at the halfway point between Fort Edward and Fort George, on the south bank of Halfway Brook. It was first called Fort Miller. Used again during the American Revolution by Hessian troops, burned in 1780. Nearby was British Halfway Brook Post (1755 - 1780), aka Seven Mile Post, a stockaded blockhouse on the south bank. Fort Misery (1755 - 1764, 1777), Fort Edward A palisaded blockhouse just south of Fort Edward on Moses Kill. It was abandoned, but briefly used by Patriots in 1777 to guard the approach to Fort Edward. Halfway Brook Post (1755 - 1780), aka Seven Mile Post A stockaded blockhouse on the Halfway Brook. Royal Blockhouse Located on the west side of the river. The fort was partially demolished in 1766. The present-day house on the site was built in 1772 from the remaining timbers. Patriot forces used the site as a camp from 1776 to 1777. After the Battle of Saratoga, Patriot forces under Gen. Stark took over the house and erected a stockade around it, naming it Fort Stark Fort Stark
31	TYPICAL STOCKADE FORT
32	OTHER AREA FORTIFICATIONS Fort Carillon/Ticonderoga Fort Anne Fort Saratoga Fort Miller Fort Ste. Frederic/Crown Point Fort Skenesborough/Fort Wilkens Fort Miller Fort Hardy Fort Clinton Fort Saratoga Fort Winslow Stillwater Blockhouse
33	1754-1763: French and Indian War
34	1754-1763: French and Indian War Local Events 1754-1763: French and Indian War 1755: Battle of Lake George 1757: Battle of Fort William Henry 1758: Abercrombie’s failed attempt to take Fort Ticonderoga/First Battle of Ticonderoga 1758: Israel Putnam Ambush 1758, July 20: Three Captains Attack/Lawrence, Dakins, and Jones 1758, July 28: Convoy Ambush 1759: General Jeffrey Amherst’s successful drive north/Second Battle Of Fort Ticonderoga 1759: Jeffrey Cowper mans the blockhouse at Halfway Brook 1762: Abraham Wing and Zaccheus Towner survey Queensbury 1763: Quakers settled in Queensbury.
35	French and Indian War 1754-1763 Battle Of Lake George 1755
36	FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR Battle of Lake George 1755
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38	BATTLE OF LAKE GEORGE September 8, 1755 First engagement – The Bloody Morning Scout (near the monument/rock). Second engagement – near the Lake George Battlefield Park. Third engagement – near Bloody Pond
39	BATTLE OF LAKE GEORGE 1755 FIRST ENGAGEMENT The Bloody Morning Scout (near the monument/rock)
40	COL. EPHRAIM WILLIAMS
41	KING HENDRICK
42	BATTLE OF LAKE GEORGE 1755 SECOND ENGAGEMENT Near the Lake George Battlefield Park.
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44	BATTLE OF LAKE GEORGE 1755 THIRD ENGAGEMENT
45	French and Indian War 1754-1763 Battle Of Fort William Henry 1757
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47	THE BATTLE OF FORT WILLIAM HENRY 1757
48	LAST OF THE MOHICANS
49	THE BATTLE OF FORT WILLIAM HENRY August 10, 1757 Fort William Henry Massacre
50	French and Indian War 1754-1763 First Battle of Fort Ticonderoga (Battle of Fort Carillon) July 7-8, 1758
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52	ALSO IN 1758 EVENTS IN QUEENSBURY BLIND ROCK REFERENCED
53	1758, July 20 Three Captains Attacked Lawrence, Dakins, and Jones “The affair took place near what is called Indian or Blind Rock, near the present road. A party of workmen on the road were first attacked and a detachment sent from the brook defeated on advancing to the spot. The men being panic stricken deserted their officers.” Orderly Book and journal of Major John Hawks. 1911. Page 22
54	“The 1758 Convoy Ambush” July 28 - Between Fort Amherst and Blind Rock
55	The Convoy Ambush July 28, 1758 “Along the low lands between the block house and the Blind Rock.” Putnam’s company of rangers, encamped at the flats near the southern spur of the French mountain [Million-Dollar Mile arrived only in time to find the slaughtered carcasses of some two hundred and fifty oxen, the mangled remains of the soldiers, women and teamsters, and the broken fragments of the two wheeled carts.
56	1758 -July 29 The day after the Convoy Ambush, Israel Putnam was ambushed north of Fort Edward and tied to a tree, Indians prepared to burn him (Blind Rock?). Just as he became resigned to his fate, the commander of the enemy, the great Marin, rushed to the Indian group, and scattering the burning brush, rescued him. Thus this brave officer was saved from burning at the stake to serve his country in the Revolution.
57	French and Indian War 1754-1763 General Jeffrey Amherst’s successful drive north Second Battle of Fort Ticonderoga July 26, 1759
58	“By this halfway Post there is a rock [Blind Rock] that the French call the bounds between the English Country and Canada…”
59	1759 AMHERST TAKES TICONDEROGA Part of William Pitt’s three-pronged attack on the French. Amherst was to take a force up the Hudson River, sail and row 11, 000 men and equipment down Lake George, capture Fort Ticonderoga (Sometimes called the Second Battle of Fort Ticonderoga), and then move on to take Montreal. He reached Lake George July 21, 1759 and camped within the Fort William Henry ruins. Five days later he arrived at Fort Ticonderoga, which had be abandoned and destroyed by the retreating French. The following year he took Montreal, as planned.
60	Rogers' Rangers Toward Ticonderoga, 1759 by John Buxton
61	RANGER PATROLS were a fundamental part of the French and Indian War
62	HALFWAY BROOK A STRATEGIC AREA NEEDING FORTIFICATION
63	HALFWAY BROOK ABOUT 7 MILES FROM FORT EDWARD ABOUT 7 MILES FROM FORT WILLIAM HENRY…. ABOUT HALF WAY!
64	HALFWAY BROOK JEFFREY COWPER’S BLOCK HOUSE/HALFWAY HOUSE
65	GOVERNOR JAMES DELANCY (1703-1760) was acting colonial governor of New York from 1753 to 1755. Issued a proclamation to encourage settlers to the area between Albany and Montreal if they would immediately settle and establish a Township.
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67	FIRST SETTLEMENT HALFWAY BROOK ABRAHAM WING AND QUAKERS 1763
68	Revolutionary War 1775-1783 Local Events
69	Green Mountain Boys Take Fort Ticonderoga May 10, 1775 A sleeping British garrison was taken by surprise by a small force of Vermonters (The Green Mountain Boys) under Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold, who walked into the fort through an unlocked gate. A single shot was fired — probably by accident.
70	FORT TICONDEROGA
71	THE REVOLUTION THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 1775-1783 Knox Trail 1775-1776
72	KNOX TRAIL 1775-1776
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74	THE REVOLUTION THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 1775-1783 The Jane McCrea Massacre 1777
75	JANE McCREA Whose death helped inspire a victory! THE YEAR is 1777, in the Town of Fort Edward, New York. Beautiful young Jane McCrea is planning to meet with her fiancée, a soldier in "Gentleman Johnny" Burgoyne's army. Her day is full of anticipation; the glory of the summer sun shines on her radiant black hair, and Jane is wearing the dress she plans to be married in later on that day. Its a glorious morning on July 27th, 1777. A great day to be young, a great day to be married, a great day to die. http://www.4peaks.com/fkmcrea.htm
76	THE REVOLUTION THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE 1775-1783 Battle of Saratoga 1777
77	BRITAIN’S THREE PRONGED ATTACK
78	BATTLE OF SARATOGA
79	BATTLE OF SARATOGA
80	BATTLE OF SARATOGA
81	EVENTS IN QUEENSBURY FOLLOWING THE BATTLE OF SARATOGA
82	MAJOR CARLTON’S RAID/BURNING OF THE VALLEYS 1780 Carlton raided the area in 1780 and we paid dearly, heavy loses in property and soul.
83	Major Carlton burned the Abraham Wing settlement 1780
84	COL. WARNER’S ESCAPE “Took place at Blind Rock” Col. Warner’s escape took place at Blind Rock. “Blind rock is about 6 rods east of the road, 6 miles this side of Fort George, between the Four Mile Run and Half Way brook. Here is a slight uplift of rock, that appears from the road like level ground, and behind this rock an enemy can lie concealed, without any suspicions of his presence unless one knows the actual formation of the ground. It was behind this ledge that the Indians were lying concealed when Col. Warner and his 2 under officers approached from fort George. The Indians fired, and the two officers were killed, Warner escaping. The officers names were Bronson and Coon, the former a Captain, the later an Ensign I think.” (Asa Fitch Papers, Vol. I)
85	BACK TO BLIND ROCK
86	Where did Blind Rock get its name? The area around Blind Rock provided a blind for ambush? Was it the kind of torture, legend has it, that was of the preferred type, where the victims were blinded by stakes, set aflame using a fire located in the rock’s crevice?
87	BLIND ROCK PLACE OF AMBUSH?
88	CROSSROAD SECONDARY GROWTH A PLACE TO HIDE… A BLIND?
89	SCOUTING 101?
90	NATURAL CAMPING AREA?
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92	“The Two Englishmen Who Lived to Tell Their Tale”
93	The Blind Rock Silver Rush or the “The Great Hunt for Cob-money” or the “The Robert Cranney Treasure Hunt”
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95	An eyewitness says that he has seen the woods in the neighborhood thronged with horses tied here and there to the trees while their owners were busily engaged in throwing up the earth and sinking deep pits, in search of money around this interesting locality” History of Queensbury. A. W. Holden. 1874.
96	The mini rush for cob money was over. But the question lingered. How did those coins get there, in that field next to Blind Rock?
97	"“Almost every step between..." “Almost every step between the present village of Sandy-hill and the lake become tracked with blood; and ‘Half-way brook’, and ‘Blind rock’, and the ‘Five-mile run,’ became noted as places of ambuscade, and were always approached by the trembling teamsters with fear and circumspection.” Historical Survey of Washington County by Dr. Fitch. 1848. Page 930.
98	DAIRY OF ABEL SPICER Thursday 29, 1758 . – We marched from Fort Edward at 6 o’clock in the morning …10 o’clock we came to the Half Way brook, which is supposed to be half way from Fort Edward to the lake, where is a small picket fort which contains an acre and a half or two acres of ground, and here we made a halt and refreshed ourselves. And 11 o’clock we marched again and came to the rock called the Indian bounds, where they used to have their dances. 12 o’clock we came to the place where the English began to retreat when the enemy first fired on them in the year 1755, and made a small halt and rested ourselves and marched again, and we came to Fort George at 4 o’clock in the afternoon and we marched round the end of the lake on the east side and encamped and there was sentries set all around the regiment.” History of the Descendants of Peter Spicer. Susan Spicer Meech and Susan Billings Meech. 1911. Pages 392-393. Primary source: Dairy of Abel Spicer from June 5th to September 29th, 1758.
99	BLIND ROCK The Blind Rock has been identified in the Town of Queensbury’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) as a local historic site that need to be preserved, possibly in a pocket park setting. The Blind Rock site has been identified as a possible destination location by New York State’s Lake to Locks Byway Program.
100	BLIND ROCK