Parks & Trails New York has awarded the Lake George Battlefield Park Alliance a $2,040 matching grant to promote the Visitor Interpretive Center (VIC) and update the Alliance’s self-guided tour that highlights the park’s history. The grant is one of 30 awards funded through the Environmental Protection Fund’s Park and Trail Partnership.
“The Battlefield Park has been an underappreciated historic jewel in the midst of one of America’s premier vacation areas—until now”, says Alliance President John DiNuzzo in a press statement. “The State’s creation of the Visitor Center establishes the Park as a primary destination, and the Park and Trail Partnership Grant will provide the means to ‘get the word out’ about its contents.”
The new VIC, which is nearing completion, will house artifacts and exhibits to illustrate the park’s history. Displays will include panels related to the lives of the Native Americans that fished and hunted in the region as well as significant events of the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. These include the 1755 Battle of Lake George, the 1757 surrender of Fort William Henry and the 1776 establishment of the Continental Army’s smallpox hospital. “The Visitor Interpretive Center will be the marquee attraction in the Battlefield Park, serving as a wonderful introduction for visitors to the amazing history that has occurred here,” says DiNuzzo.
The VlC will be housed in the new Lake George Park Commission headquarters on Fort George Road. The Center originally was scheduled to open this past spring, but pandemic-related supply and labor shortages have delayed opening. At the Battlefield Park Alliance annual meeting in August, outgoing president Dr. Lyn Karig Hohmann said that the building still needs some finishing, and the Alliance will need about a month to set up displays, making it unlikely the VIC will be open this fall. The Center, when completed, will be open when the state Lake George Battlefield Day Use Area is open.
The Park and Trail Partnership Grants are administered by Parks & Trail New York, a statewide non-profit organization, in partnership with the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation. “With more and more people discovering the outdoors, and visitation to our parks, trails, and public lands soaring,” says Parks & Trails New York Executive Director Robin Dropkin, “the need for strong public/public partnerships has never been greater. The Park and Trail Partnership Grants help bolster the role of Friends groups in these vital partnerships.”