PassagePorts

The Lakes to Locks PassagePorts are your guide to exploring the landscape as a rich, immersive experience. Our audio journeys include everything you need to know–history, travel tools, music, drama, pictures–to become an engaged explorer.

Exploring the Turning Point Trail:

Follow in the footsteps of charismatic General John Burgoyne, whose fateful decisions led to the turning point of the American Revolution. It’s a story of battles, ambushes, smoldering ambitions, disastrous miscommunication, fierce allegiance, true love, venomous snakes, and narrow escapes—all with courteous gentlemanly conduct. Explore this PassagePort

 

 

 

 

 

Road to the Battle of Bennington: 

In August of 1777, Lieutenant Colonel Friedrich Baum found himself a long way from his home in Braunschweig – Wolfenbüttel, what is now a part of Lower Saxony in Germany. The Duke, Carl I, provided nearly 6,000 of his fellow servicemen to his son’s brother-in-law, King George III of Great Britain, in order to put down the Rebellion in America. A majority of them were led by British General John Burgoyne, but when Burgoyne found his military campaign in serious need of provisions, draft animals, and a military diversion, Baum was sent to lead a raid on a supply depot in Bennington, Vermont. Speaking only his native German–and having no field experience in commanding a multinational force of nearly 800 German, British, Canadian, American, and Native troops– Baum and his force departed from the British encampment on the Hudson River. They marched along a rugged route their enemy, the American Rebels, had cut just the year before, to what they believed was a scantily guarded depot. This story is the anatomy of a disastrous event. Explore this PassagePort

The Story of Iron in Crown Point & Moriah:  

The heyday of the booming iron industry may be long gone, but its legacy remains. At first glance, the landscape of the Champlain Valley may seem peaceful, bucolic—and in some spots, even forsaken. Yet just some 150 years ago, this area was home to a booming iron industry that employed thousands of people at its peak, mining nearly ten thousand tons of iron ore per month—most of which traveled south to Albany and Troy to be transformed into iron—and later steel—for horseshoes, nails, wagon axles, and America’s railroads. Explore this PassagePort

 

Lake Champlain Blueway Trail: Valcour and Crab Islands:

The Valcour & Crab Islands PassagePort is designed to be used by canoeists and kayakers, and other interested boaters, as a recreational water path. Accessible only by boat, Valcour and Crab Islands are located offshore from the Towns of Peru and Plattsburgh. The PassagePort identifies points of interest such as launch and landing points, marinas, where to park your car, potential hazards or challenges, natural areas and wildlife viewing, camping locations, museums, and communities with nearby food, lodging and shopping. In addition, the Valcour & Crab Islands PassagePort presents the rich cultural, historic, and recreational opportunities on the islands and around Lake Champlain. Explore this PassagePort