Spilling to Champlain
Two centuries ago the pristine water of Lake George, at its northern end, tipped over a rock ledge into a thrilling Adirondacks sight. French trappers called it Riviere LaChute: a cascade dropping 220 feet in a three-mile dash to Lake Champlain.
Within 100 years much of the river had been plugged with half a dozen dams, channeled through flumes and penstocks, festooned with spinning wheels, and hidden in a corridor of factories. They made the village of Ticonderoga the Adirondacks’ quintessential mill town.
Today, another century gone by, the factories have vanished. The LaChute has reappeared alongside a path that
