Experience Fort Ticonderoga! 2013 Season Begins Friday, May 17

ALBANY, N.Y. - April 25, 2013 - PRLog -- (Ticonderoga, NY)  Fort Ticonderoga opens for the 2013 season on Friday, May 17, and will offer new programs, living history weekends, events, exhibits, gardens, a new Carillon Battlefield hiking trail, and canoe rentals. Guests will immerse themselves in nearly 2000 acres of exquisite landscape at Fort Ticonderoga and experience the story of how the blood spilled to create an empire in the French and Indian War resulted in the struggle for liberty and America’s independence a generation later.  
Recognized as the top destination in the Adirondacks by USA News Travel, Fort Ticonderoga connects all guests to a place and time that defined a continent, a nation, and its continued legacy.
“Fort Ticonderoga is a family destination and a center of learning. A visit is an interactive, multi-disciplined experience,” said Beth Hill, President and CEO. “It’s exploring the beautiful gardens, finding adventure in our events, marching with the Fife and Drum Corps, and learning about a historic trade. It’s a walk through the restored Fort, a stroll overlooking Lake Champlain and the Green Mountains of Vermont, and an afternoon in our exhibit galleries exploring our premier collections.”  
2013 Highlights:
Fort Ticonderoga becomes Fort Carillon this year! Guests to Fort Ticonderoga will be immersed in the year 1755 when French soldiers began the construction of the Fort.  Situated in what was considered New France, explore the first year in the Fort’s life and discover how the Revolutionary War and an unprecedented restoration project turned this remote French outpost into America’s Fort.

Step into the historic trades shop to explore domestic and economic life in New France. With needle and thread or awl and bristle explore French, Canadian, and Native American influences on culture, clothing and footwear.  

Daily tours, Soldier’s Life programs, family hands-on activities, and Fife & Drum Corps performances launch guests on an adventure in time where they will discover the life at Fort Carillon in 1755.

Explore the realities of war in Fort Ticonderoga’s newest exhibit “It would make a heart of stone melt” Sickness, Injury, and Medicine at Fort Ticonderoga.
Additional exhibits showing in 2013 include museum’s stunning art collections in The Art of War: Ticonderoga as Experienced through the Eyes of America’s Great Artists in the lower level of the Deborah Clarke Mars Education Center and Bullets & Blades: The Weapons of America’s Colonial Wars and Revolution on the second floor of the soldiers’ barracks.  

New recreation activities will highlight Fort Ticonderoga’s rich historic landscape in 2013! A new interpretive trail winding around Carillon Battlefield offers guests an unparalleled opportunity to explore epic history and natural beauty and a new canoe rental program provides a unique perspective of the Fort’s history from the stunning waters of Lake Champlain.

The beautiful King’s Garden, one of North America’s oldest gardens and the largest public garden in the Adirondack-Lake Champlain region, will open on May 25 and offer many new garden-related programs for children and adults as well as daily tours.  Guest will roll up their sleeves and dig into Fort Ticonderoga’s centuries of horticulture in the formal garden along with the Discovery Gardens - the Garrison Garden, Children's Garden, and Three Sisters Garden.  Program opportunities including Growing up with Gardening:  Sow, Grow & Know!, Nature Walks for Kids, Hands-on Horticulture, and Master Gardner presentations offer active discovery and enjoyment for all ages.
A new interactive 18th-century French Garrison Garden will bring this vibrant, living garden space to life and highlight the vital vocation of gardening that was an important part of soldiers’ duties at Fort Ticonderoga.

The Heroic Maze: A Corn Maze Adventure, the popular Fort family activity, will continue in its third year.  Guests will find clues connected to Fort Ticonderoga’s history while they explore a six-acre corn maze designed in the shape of Fort Ticonderoga!  The corn maze opens August 15 and is included with general admission. The new Maze by Moonlight program (August 20, September 21, and October 19) tests navigator’s skills as they complete the Archaeology Quest game by the light of the full moon.  

Hours and Admission:
Fort Ticonderoga is open daily from May 17 through October 20, 2013 from 9:30 am until 5 pm. General admission to Fort Ticonderoga, a private non-profit organization, is $17.50 for adults, $14.00 for those 62 and over; and $8 for children 5 through 12. Children 4 and under are admitted free of charge. Friends of Fort Ticonderoga and Ticonderoga Resident Ambassador Pass holders are also admitted free.

Fort Ticonderoga offers more than one hundred exciting and unique events and programs this season! Visit www.FortTiconderoga.org for a full list of ongoing programs or call 518-585-2821. Funding for the 2013 season is provided in part by Amtrak.  Visit http://www.fortticonderoga.org/visit/directions for a special 2 for 1 Amtrak offer!
 
FORT TICONDEROGA
America’s Fort ™
Located on Lake Champlain in the beautiful 6 million acre Adirondack Park, Fort Ticonderoga is a not-for-profit historic site and museum that ensures that present and future generations learn from the struggles, sacrifices, and victories that shaped the nations of North America and changed world history. Serving the public since 1909, Fort Ticonderoga engages more than 70,000 guests annually and is dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of Fort Ticonderoga’s history.  Accredited by the American Association of Museums, Fort Ticonderoga offers programs, historic interpretation, tours, demonstrations, and exhibits throughout the year and is open for daily visitation May 17 through October 20, 2013. The 2013 season features the Fort’s newest exhibit “It would make a heart of stone melt” Sickness, Injury, and Medicine at Fort Ticonderoga which explores early medical theory, practice, and experience as each relates to the armies that served at Fort Ticonderoga in the 18th century.  Visit www.FortTiconderoga.org for a full list of ongoing programs or call 518-585-2821. Fort Ticonderoga is located at 100 Fort Ti Road, Ticonderoga, New York.

America’s Fort is a registered trademark of the Fort Ticonderoga Association.