July 4, 2026, will be the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, affording local historical societies and historic sites new opportunities to commemorate the vital role that the Lake George-Lake Champlain corridor played in the creation of the new nation.
Fort Ticonderoga, the Lake George Battlefield Alliance and the Warren County Historical Society, for instance, teamed up in December to highlight Colonel Henry Knox’s “Noble Train” that transported artillery from Ticonderoga, Crown Point and Fort George to George Washington’s army in Boston in the winter of 1775-76.
That cooperative effort “bodes well for future 250th anniversary events in the Lake George area,” said Bruce Venter, a historian of the American Revolution, a director of the Lake George Battlefield Alliance and a Lake George resident.
The Warren County Historical Society has also announced that it is working with the parents of homeschooled children to develop curricula emphasizing Warren County’s role during the Revolution and the county’s namesake, Joseph Warren.
And according to Sara Frankenfeld of Warren County’s Department of Planning and Community Development, this year’s Letterboxing challenge will utilize the Warren County Bikeway and feature the histories of the French and Indian War and the American Revolution
“We have decided to take advantage of this county asset as well as prepare for the upcoming 250th anniversary commemoration of the Revolutionary War,” Frankenfeld told a committee of Supervisors in January.
Introduced to Warren County 2021, Letterboxing incorporates orienteering, art and puzzle solving in service of a treasure hunt.
According to the Warren County Planning Department, the purpose of a Letterboxing challenge is to locate a series of specific sites using clues that come encrypted in riddle. If the riddle is successfully decoded, the player will be directed to a weather-proof box, secreted in a secure place, in which he will find a rubber stamp and which he may use to stamp the passport that launched his journey in the first place. With each stamp, a player’s progress is documented. Once the pages of the passport are filled, the challenge has been completed and the player is entitled to a special badge from Warren County.
Warren County’s 2021 Letterboxing Challenge led players through the First Wilderness Corridor along the upper Hudson. In 2022, Warren County introduced “the Historians’ Challenge, which incorporated sites of historic interest in 13 towns and Glens Falls, including sites associated with the career of poet Jeanne Robert Foster.
The passport for the 2023 challenge, which will increase players’ familiarity with historic landmarks between Lake George and Glens Falls, will also include a detailed, updated bike map, Frankenfeld told the Supervisors.
Letterboxing Passports may be found at area Visitors’ Centers and Chamber of Commerce offices or at warrencountyny.gov.
