Rtdcop
Pan Wrangler
Posts: 102
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Post by Rtdcop on Apr 13, 2005 2:04:15 GMT 12.75
Unfortunately for me, I was never much of a History Buff until a few years ago. I never realized just how much History was in this area, or in the area of Ohio where I grew up. The area of Lake George NY has two forts on it, Fort Ticonderoga on one end, and Fort George on the other.
Back someplace around 1950 my Uncle bought a piece of property about 1 mile the way the crow flies directly behind Fort George. My Grandfather, Father and Uncle started clearing the lot so my Uncle could build his home there. While they were clearing the lot, I was told there was a super large Maple tree that had to be removed in order to put the foundation in. Once the tree was down, they started cutting it in blocks for splitting so the wood could be used in the foreplace. At some point while sawing up the blocks, the blade hit something metalic. They cut around whatever it was, then split the large block. Low and behold they found a Cannon Ball that was completely embedded in this tree. The ball was about eight inches or so in diameter and had what I think was a fuse hole in it. It was in pretty bad shape, some rust but it is now in the display at Fort George. They also found sever arrow heads, a few of which I still have and some completely rusted out pieces of metal from who knows what.
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Post by OLKoot on Apr 13, 2005 5:08:33 GMT 12.75
Theres definitely quite a bit of history running from lower NY up and thru the Lake George region of upper NY state....The trails are probably covered over by now, but there was alot of action running north and south from Canada down to NYC, and also east and west to the Ohio region or Illinois, in the French and Indian wars and even in the Revolutionary war.....Two books come to mind reflecting that era...Drums Along The Mohawk, and Last Of The Mohicans by James Fennimore Cooper...
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Rtdcop
Pan Wrangler
Posts: 102
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Post by Rtdcop on Apr 15, 2005 2:19:33 GMT 12.75
Your right Steve there was a lot of activity in this area, we had the French, the Indians, the British and the settlers. I did read the Drums along the Mohawk, was pretty informative and well written. Never read the last of the Mohicans, but did see the movie. Someplace in my lineage, on my Grandmothers side of the clan I am told that I have Huron indian in my blood, but when we tried to trace it back, the line was lost with my Great Great grandparents. Would be neat to know how it got there, as most of the females were hostages of the indians back then, and basically brainwashed or just plain held until they conformed.
Steve not to change the subject, but did you ever read about " French Louie " and the adirondacks ? Makes pretty interesting reading if your an outdoorsman or looking for information about the Adirondacks. A friend of mine traced his route through the Mountains and believes that he found one of French Louies Cabins. Judging from the picture he took, it was definately from that era and the way it was described. I asked him to take me to it, he refused telling me that he didnt want anyone taking any of the few artifacts that were still left there, or everyone under the sun knowing about it.
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Post by shiloh on Apr 15, 2005 5:31:38 GMT 12.75
rtdcop, that ball sounds like it came from a 24 pound howitzer or a similarly sized tube. It was probably from the Civil War era, although they fired those guns all the 1890s-1910s at forts and camps for practice and even for kicks. A fuze plug hole will be about 1" in diameter. If there was nothing in the hole it either was fired without a fuze (can't figure a reason why that'd be) or it had had a wodden fuze plug that had rotted out. Only the Confederates used wooden fuze plugs and none fired their guns up there.
If the hole was much smaller as though a drill had bored through it, the ball had been deactivated and fired with no intent of it blowing up. This would indicate a practice shot. In the very early 1800s back through colonial days, balls that large sometimes were meant to explode and had fuze holes with actual wicks sticking out. These holes would appear like a .25"-.5" hole often surrounded by a reinforced metal ring. However, that maple would have to have been big enough back then to stop the ball without losing its life to the ball which means the tree in the 1950s would have probably been 250+ yrs old which is doubtful. I suppose it is possible the maple grew around the ball that was on the ground, but I'd think the tree would just push around the ball.
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Post by Two Tales on Apr 15, 2005 14:04:20 GMT 12.75
Shiloh,
Strange things have been found in trees...we found a 6 inch round river stone in a tree once...similar to the way they found that ball...no inside or outside scaring though...tree just grew up around it it was about 6-7 feet above the ground level...don't think we check to see how old the tree was (didn't count rings) but it was in excess of 3' in diameter at it's base... my cousin also found a metal "trade hawk" completly inside of a tree he was cutting once...had 4" of wood on either side of it...
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Post by shiloh on Apr 16, 2005 9:06:31 GMT 12.75
Wow. I guess that is a way to get something inside a tree. I've seen wire fences and even tombstones partially embedded in trees. Just hadn't thought about a rock or cannonball.
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Post by Two Tales on Apr 16, 2005 17:39:49 GMT 12.75
Neatest thing about the rock is that it was 2 maybe 3 miles from the closest water....none in any recent memory anyways...
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Rtdcop
Pan Wrangler
Posts: 102
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Post by Rtdcop on Apr 18, 2005 4:11:50 GMT 12.75
The hole, or what i'm thinking was a fuse hole was about 5/8 to 3/4 of an inch in diameter, was pretty well rusted up, so it may have been larger. Now that you mention it, someone else told me that they used practice rounds when Fort George was occupied just to see the actual range. As for the Maple Tree I do recall my Dad and Grandfather telling me just how large it was, but I never saw it, so I have no idea of just how big it was, and how far up the ball was found.
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