Step back in time…
Relaxing on the porch at Valcour, you are looking at a landscape where natural history, human settlement, armed conflict and commerce came together.
We encourage our guests to explore the beauty, rich history, and attractions of the region. Or just put your feet up and enjoy the views.
Early history of Lake Champlain
The land and waters surrounding Valcour Inn and Boathouse have a long history, going back a million years to the formation of the great glaciers that crept across North America in the Pleistocene period. Lake Champlain was carved out about 12,000 years ago as the last of the glaciers retreated. The salt-water Champlain Sea was formed through its link to the Atlantic Ocean, and marine life, including whales, swam and thrived here. The contours of the modern-day shoreline were formed through climactic changes over thousands of years. It was gradually cut off from the ocean and formed a freshwater lake.
There is evidence of Paleoindian habitation on the eastern shores of Lake Champlain from 9300 BC and of hunter-gatherers during the Woodland period. By the early 16th century, the Iroquois peoples had come to dominate the western shores and as far north as the St. Lawrence River — hunting, fishing and occupying seasonal settlements. In 1609, French explorer Samuel de Champlain traveled down the lake from the St. Lawrence with a party of Algonquins, Hurons and Montagnais warriors. Near Ticonderoga, Champlain, armed with gunpowder weapons, engaged in a confrontation with the Iroquois and began the long period of military battles for control of the lake.
Battle of Valcour Island
Valcour Island (island of pines) was claimed as part of New France until 1763. It was the site of one of the most important battles of the American Revolutionary War. The Continental Navy spent the summer of 1776 building ships on the southern end of the lake at present-day Whitehall, New York in preparation for a confrontation with the British navy. On September 30, under the command of General Benedict Arnold, fifteen vessels of various sizes, sheltered in Valcour Harbor in a position that Arnold found most advantageous for a surprise attack on the British fleet. On October 10, as the unknowing British sailed south past Valcour, the Continental Navy began a two-day battle and epic retreat down the lake that, while clearly a military defeat for the Americans, delayed the British from advancing past the fort at Crown Point. As winter began to set in, the British retreated back to Quebec, buying time for the Continental forces and setting the stage for the British defeat at Saratoga in 1777. There are many excellent books and online resources about this period of American history.
Port Jackson and the Sibley family
The defeat of the British at the Battle of Plattsburgh in the War of 1812 ushered in a period of peace and commercial development on Lake Champlain. In 1820, Robert Platt founded Port Jackson, which included the cove and property where the Inn and Boathouse are today. Port Jackson was a busy commercial wharf during the heyday of shipping on the lake. Sail boats, canal boats and steamboats tied up here and long lines of horse-drawn wagons loaded and unloaded goods. In the late 1870s, Valcour (renamed for the island) got its own railroad station and you could take the steamer Ticonderoga or the train to Plattsburgh for $0.18.
In 1897, the property was sold to U.S. Congressman Joseph Sibley who built a large house and the boathouse that stands today. The original house was destroyed in a fire and rebuilt by Celia Sibley Wilson in 1926. That house (which is now the Inn) was in the family’s hands until 1951. In 1963 it was purchased by Plattsburgh State Teachers College Benevolent and Educational Association (now College Auxiliary Services - CAS) for use as a conference and retreat center. It is still owned by CAS today and hosts conferences, retreats and campus events for SUNY Plattsburgh, as well as the public.
The original house at Valcour with the Sibley family yacht and Boathouse.