Category Archives: Islands

Fort Ste. Anne

Fort Ste. Anne, Isle La Motte, Vermont

In 1665, the French sought to protect their colony in New France (now Canada) along the Saint Lawrence River from attacks by the Iroquois. Their defensive plan was to built a string of five forts stretching along the Richelieu River and Lake Champlain. Alexandre de Prouville de Tracy had the forts built by four companies of the Carignan-Salières Regiment. The first three forts were built in 1665, and the other two in 1666. Fort Richelieu, Fort Chambly, Fort Sainte Thérèse and Fort Saint-Jean protected the Richelieu itself.

 

Fort Ste. Anne, the southernmost fort was built on a sandy point on Isle La Motte in Lake Champlain – about six miles from where the Lake empties into the Richelieu River. The fort was dedicated to Saint Anne. Fort Ste. Anne was the most vulnerable to attacks by the Iroquois, because it was the last of five forts stretching along the Richelieu River route going south. It was completed in July 1666 by French troops under the command of Captain Pierre de La Motte, and was quite small; only measuring about 144′ x 96′. It was a double log palisade about 15′ high – with four bastions.

Though occupied for only six years, Fort Ste. Anne was the scene of many important events. Because of numerous deadly Mohawk attacks on French settlements to the north, the decision was made to take the offensive and attack the Iroquois villages, far south on the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers. The sandy point (and the area across the lake at the mouth of the Chazy River) became the staging grounds for several major attacks on Iroquois villages. French attacks on British settlements and Iroquois villages would continue from Fort St. Frédéric (Crown Point) and Carillon (Ticonderoga) long after Fort Ste. Anne was abandoned.

Fort Ste. Anne was undoubtedly a desolate  and fearsome place to be stationed. Deep in an impenetrable wilderness, accessible only by water, subject to fierce winds and deep snows, the few hardy souls who resided here suffered terribly from both the elements and disease. Scurvy was rampant. Isolation and loneliness took a terrible toll.

All traces of the wooden fort were gone by the mid-1800-s, but you can still determine where the fort stood. The sandy point where the structure was located now is now the site of the ‘Way of Calvary’ at Saint Anne’s Shrine; a tree-shaded place where Catholics can visit the Stations of the Cross.

 

 

 

That sandy point of Isle La Motte has been significant in the  history of the lake.

  • Before the first French missionaries visited the region the point was a gathering place for Native Americans.
  • Samuel de Champlain stopped here when he first visited the lake in 1604.
  • Father (now Saint) Isaac Jogues most likely stopped off at the point during his numerous and ill-fated journeys up and down the lakes.
  • French troops and their allies staged here for attacks against the Iroquois and British.

 

In a 1937 travel guide to Vermont the description of the site of Fort Ste. Anne in Isle la Motte offers an interesting, but romanticized, description of a lovely, sacred, and historic location.

“Here in the calm of shaded lakeside beauty, French soldiers under Capt. de La Motte built a fort in 1666 for protection against the Mohawks, and here in the essence of Champlain island loveliness was the scene of Vermont’s first, though impermanent, white settlement. The beauty of Ste. Anne is deepened by history— the pictures brought to mind of swashbuckling French gallants casting off uniform-coats to swing axes and ply spades; the solemn-faced Jesuits in their dark garb; and a garrison of 300 men celebrating mass on this wilderness isle in the chapel of Fort Ste. Anne, the first mass to be held in the State.”

 

Saint Anne’s Shrine

In the late 1800’s, Bishop Louis de Goesbriand, of the Diocese of Burlington, Vermont acquired the property where the fort was located. A shrine, dedicated to Saint Anne de Beaupre, as was the French fort, was opened by the Bishop on July 26, 1893. In 1904, the Shrine was entrusted to the care of the Edmundite Fathers, founders of Saint Michael’s College in Colchester, Vermont.

Fort Ste Anne site , Isle La Motte, Vermont

Samuel de Champlain statue

 

Over the years the Shrine has grown in both size and popularity. In addition to a large, open-air chapel, there are now several other buildings on site, including one that houses a small museum with a number of artifacts excavated from the site of the French fortress. In addition to the Chapel and the  ‘Way of Calvary’ a 15′ gilded statue of the Virgin Mary serves the devotional needs of visitors. This impressive statue used to adorn the bell tower of Burlington’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. The Cathedral was destroyed by fire in March, 1972. The Diocese of Burlington donated the statue in 1991 to the Shrine.3

 

In 1968, the State of Vermont donated a statue of the French explorer, Samuel de Champlain. This impressive monument was sculpted by F.L. Weber in Montreal during Expo ’67.

Upper Fish Bladder Island – Lake Champlain Islands

Upper Fish Bladder Island – Lake Champlain Islands

 Upper Fishbladder Island

 

Upper Fish Bladder Island is a very small island just east of South Hero, Vermont; it is sometimes connected to Fish Bladder Island  when there are low-water conditions. The wooded, undeveloped island is owned and maintained by the Green Mountain Audubon Society as a bird sanctuary.

 

Upper Fishbladder Island

Upper Fish Bladder serves as an important bird nesting site and staging area for the Herring Gull, Great Blue Heron, and potentially the Common Tern.

 

History:

 

Upper Fish Bladder Island was donated to the Lake Champlain Land Trust by the late Mary Haas-Burak in 2000. The Lake Champlain Land Trust accepted Upper Fish Bladder thanks to the generosity of the landowner.

The Lake Champlain Land Trust later donated three islands, including Upper Fish Bladder Island, to the Green Mountain Audubon Society. This island is now managed by the Green Mountain Audubon Society, with the conservation easement still held by the Land Trust.

Other Articles About Lake Champlain Islands:   List of Lake Champlain's Islands

Fish Bladder Island – Lake Champlain Islands

Fish Bladder Island – Lake Champlain Islands

Fish Bladder Island - Lake Champlain Islands

 

Fish Bladder Island is a privately owned 11.6-Acre Island in Lake Champlain located just minutes off the causeway to the Champlain Islands – just east of South Hero, Vermont and just north of Cedar Island. 

Fish Bladder Island features gently rolling terrain, a beach, and protected coves for docking. The island features a newly constructed residence with boat storage area on the lower level and another two bedroom guest house.

In times of low water Fish Bladder is connected by a sand bridge to Upper Fishbladder Island to the north. Upper Fishbladder is owned and managed by the Green Mountain Audubon Society as a bird sanctuary.

Fish Bladder and Upper Fishbladder Island - Lake Champlain Islands

 

Fishbladder Island - Lake Champlain Islands

History:

In October 2007 a wind-whipped fire destroyed an Adirondack style camp on the island. Firefighters had to be ferried to the island from South Hero, VT to fight the blaze.

 

Video Tour of Fishbladder Island

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Other Articles About Lake Champlain Islands:   List of Lake Champlain's Islands

Cloak Island – Lake Champlain Islands

Cloak Island – Lake Champlain Islands

Cloak Island

Cloak Island

Cloak Island is a small island in Grand Isle County, Vermont. Cloak Island is located off the south-east coast of Isle LaMotte, Vermont at latitude: 44°50’7.15″, longitude: -73°19’45.48″. It is near Reynolds Point and The Head on Isle LaMotte. It is about 7 1/2 acres in area.

History:

Cloak Island - Lake Champlain IslandsThere is an interesting legend about how the island got its name. As the story goes, in the 1770’s when Eleanor Fisk, of nearby Isle LaMotte got tired of her husband’s abuse, she hitched up her team of horses and set out across frozen Lake Champlain towards Alburgh, but was never seen again. Later, her red cloak was found along the bushes and rocks of the island, which would forever be known as Cloak Island. 

 

Another variation of the story tells that after Eleanor Fisk went missing, concerned neighbors suspected she had drowned, but wanted proof. They gathered at the lake and dropped her red cloak into the water. According to an old Yankee superstition: to find the missing body of a drowning victim, you must drop a cloak belonging to the missing victim into the water, and it would come to rest over the body. The cloak eventually found its way over to the small island and got tangled on the beach, thus giving Isle LaMotte’s tiny neighbor it’s new name – Cloak Island.

 

Eleanor’s body was never found, and some say her ghost still walks the shores of Cloak Island. A fitting, spooky end to this sad story from America’s colonial era, but hardly the only such ghost story from the area.

 

Other Articles About Lake Champlain Islands:   List of Lake Champlain's Islands

Four Brothers Islands – Lake Champlain Islands

Four Brothers Islands – Lake Champlain Islands

Southeast view over the Four Brothers Islands on Lake Champlain

Southeast view over the Four Brothers Islands on Lake Champlain with Shelburne Point, VT in background

The Four Brothers Islands is a cluster of islands in Lake Champlain just west of the Vermont border in a line between Willsboro Point, New York, and Shelburne Point, Vermont. The four islands are within several hundred feet of each other and total about 17 acres; they are individually identified as A, B, C and D.

 

Four Brothers Islands - Lake Champlain Islands

 

Usage

Birds at Four Brothers Islands - Lake Champlain IslandsFour Brothers High Peaks Audubon operates the Four Brothers Islands Preserve which is owned by the Nature Conservancy and managed by the High Peaks Chapter.

The primary features of the islands are their use as rookeries for double-crested cormorants, great blue herons, great and cattle egrets, black-crowned night-herons, glossy ibises, and ring-billed, herring, and great black-backed gulls, as well as a variety of geese and ducks.

 

East view of Four Brothers - Lake Champlain Islands

East view of Four Brothers

 

History:

Originally named the Isles of the Four Winds by Samuel de Champlain. The Four Brothers Islands have always been a haven for shore birds and waterfowl, most recently cormorants. Now they’re an Audubon Society wildlife preserve. You must have a permit and be accompanied by a warden to land on the islands.

 

 

Four Brothers - Lake Champlain Islands

 

Other Articles About Lake Champlain Islands:   List of Lake Champlain's Islands