The Lake George Battlefield Park Alliance hosted a Rededication Ceremony on Friday to celebrate the completion of restoration work on the three bronze Battlefield Park monuments. The Battle of Lake George monument, the statue of Father Isaac Jogues, and the Mohawk Warrior sculpture have been repaired, washed and waxed in a project initiated last summer by the late artist and Lake George native Dan George.
“We’re here to pay tribute to a major landmark milestone,” said Alliance President John DiNuzzo in his introductory remarks. He noted that there are many attractions and diversions in the Lake George area, so it is understandable that many people may be unaware of the park and its significance to American history. However, interest in Battlefield Park has been rapidly growing along with membership in the Alliance.
“History happened here,” said DiNuzzo, “I’m fond of saying that at our events, but the ground on which we’re standing and sitting right now, significant American history happened. Here is where the Battle of Lake George took place in 1755, and here is where the military hospital was located in 1776. Speaking of which, next May we will be dedicating a new site across the road for individuals who died at Lake George at this hospital.”
Multiple organizations and individuals contributed to the $48,000 cost of refurbishing the Battlefield Park monuments. Major donors included the Society of Colonial Wars, which contributed to the restoration of the Battle of Lake George monument, the oldest of the three. The Society erected the sculpture of King Hendrick and William Johnson in 1903.
The Lake George Park Commission, through a grant, contributed to the restoration of the 1939 Father Isaac Jogues statue, and Ambassador and National Traveler Lorna Hainesworth fully underwrote the cost of repairs to the 1921 Mohawk Warrior sculpture.
“In 1903, 1921, and 1939, residents got together to erect these monuments to ensure that the stories of Colonial battles, Native American heritage and missionary sacrifice would endure,” said Town of Lake George Supervisor Vinnie Crocitto, Jr. “We stand here today because of the people who want to continue that legacy, who honor those who have walked on this path before us.” Crocitto thanked the Battlefield Park Alliance, Dan George, the Lake George Park Commission, the Society of Colonial Wars, the volunteers and the donors. “Together, we keep history alive,” Crocitto said.
The project’s genesis was a summer 2024 trip to Lake George by renowned sculptor Dan George. George grew up in Lake George and knew the Battlefield Park monuments well. When he saw they were in poor condition, he embarked on the restoration project, contacting another Lake George native, Andrew Pharmer of Workshop Art Fabrication in Kingston, New York.
Pharmer and his team did the restoration work, which included forging replacement tomahawks for the Battle of Lake George monument gate, replacing missing arrows from the Mohawk Warrior sculpture, and repairing Isaac Jogues’ damaged cross. The team pressure-washed the bronze and granite and brought back the statues’ original shine with wax. The New York Department of Environmental Conservation provided supplementary work to clean up the grounds around the monuments.
Dan George did not live to see the project to its end. He passed away in January of this year. His wife, Erica Marks, spoke at the Rededication Ceremony, saying the day’s event is a completion of a circle that began in her husband’s Lake George childhood and his familiarity with the works of art that rise among the park’s trees.
His return to his boyhood hometown last summer spurred the project that brought him to Andrew Pharmer. “It’s probably no coincidence that Dan knew Andrew’s father here in Lake George. Andrew’s father grew up up the street from Dan, and Andrew’s foundry is in Kingston, New York, where we live, so it was all just kind of going around and around in this magnificent circle… and so today, I would like to say, the circle is closing with the completed renovation of these sculptures.”
Also speaking at the ceremony were Ken Parker, Chair of the Lake George Park Commission, Charles Neuhauser, Governor General of the Society of Colonial Wars, J. Barclay Collins, New York Governor of the Society of Colonial Wars and Lorna Hainesworth, self-titled Ambassador and National Traveler. Village of Lake George Mayor Ray Perry and New York State Senator Dan Stec also attended the ceremony.
Collins spoke about the significance of the Battle of Lake George Monument for not only marking a very important battle but for what it depicts — “a spirit of mutual respect and collaboration between the Colonists and their allies, the Mohawks.
”The Battle of Lake George monument was first dedicated in 1903, a time when monuments were considered important markers of history, Collins explained. The governors of New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont attended the first dedication ceremony, and 700 U.S. troops arrived by special train to march in the parade. There was a grand ball the night before. More than 10,000 people attended.
“Today is just as special as it celebrates the restoration to bring back to life all three of these magnificent statues…We’re delighted to be asked to participate in funding this project. This is our society’s largest statue, and I believe it is the largest statue ever erected by any of the state Societies.”
According to Collins, “The statue depicts a strategic discussion between General Johnson and King Hendrick before the battle. Johnson had suggested dividing forces. We should recall that while Johnson knew the Mohawks well, he had very little military experience and had only recently been made a General. Hendrick, with plenty of battle experience, clutching three arrows, and demonstrating that if the arrows are divided one by one, they can be easily broken, but together they are very hard to break.”
The Battle of Lake George statue is particularly important to the New York Society of Colonial Wars as it is the inspiration for their Broken Arrow ceremony honoring members who have died. Collins, with a prayer offered by Society Chaplain Neil Montgomery, performed the Broken Arrow ceremony to honor those who perished on the Lake George Battlefield grounds — the Mohawks, American Colonists and the French.
As we stand this day on hallowed ground, ground held up by the blood of noble warriors of days long past on the shores of the Lac du Saint Sacrement, newly christened for an earthly king. As his troops struggled to establish outward and visible signs of empire in this new world, as they and their perennial rivals across La Manche extended their continental wars to this new continent.
We give thanks for the English and French, the Mohawk and those whose origins were known to God alone, who perished fighting for kings and causes they had sworn to serve. In those days, nearly three centuries passed. And so, we pray for fallen warriors, particularly those whose stature we rededicate this day. Let us pray.
Into thy hands, oh Lord, we command thy servants, King Hendrick, General Sir William Johnson, our dear brother warriors. Remember them, oh Lord, according to the favor which thou bearest them to thy people, and grant that increasing in knowledge and love of thee, they may go from strength to strength in the life of perfect service in thy heavenly Kingdom through Christ our Lord. — Prayer offered by Society of Colonial Wars Chaplain Neil Montgomery
Lorna Hainsworth, who sponsored the refurbishment of the Mohawk Warrior sculpture, spoke of her interest in the monument that depicts a Mohawk warrior dipping his hand into a pool of water. “For hundreds of thousands of years, this was the homeland of the Haudenosaunee.” The Haudenosaunee, she said, consisted of 25 nations, six of which were the Iroquois, one of which was the Mohawks. The Haudenosaunee lived “as far east as Newfoundland and as far west as present-day Michigan. They lived as far north as the St. Lawrence River and as far south as the Delmarva Peninsula. “The Mohawks,” Hainesworth says, “were known to the Confederacy as Keepers of the Eastern Door.”
On September 8, 1755, the British force, which included 200 Mohawks, pushed back the French in the battle of the empires for control of Lake George. “No doubt Mohawk lived here. I want to honor that fact. For that reason, when I learned that the Mohawk Warrior sculpture was being renewed at Lake George Battlefield Park, I jumped at the chance to sponsor this work of art.”
Following the ceremony, attendees were invited to visit each monument, where speakers explained the history behind the sculptures.
Vinney DiDonato of Workshop Art Fabrication says that when he first came to the park to assess the restoration work, he questioned if they needed to forge new fingers for Father Isaac Jogues. That is when he learned that Jogues, a Jesuit missionary, lost his fingers while held captive by the Iroquois he sought to convert. The mutilation of his hands was a particularly devastating torture for the priest, as hands are important for the consecration. Unable to hold the host properly, he was given special permission by Rome to modify the consecration so he could still offer Mass.
Isaac Jogues, a Jesuit missionary from France, traveled to what was then known as New France in 1636 to bring salvation to the Hurons and Iroquois. In 1642, he was captured by a band of Iroquois, tortured and kept as a slave. He escaped in 1643 with the help of the Dutch and returned to Europe.
He traveled back to the New World the following year to continue his missionary work. Jogues is credited with being the first European to lay eyes on Lake George, arriving at the lake where it joined Lake Champlain on the eve of Corpus Christi, a day to honor the Blessed Sacrament. He named the lake Luc Du Saint Sacrement, a name that remained until 1755.
Jogues was killed in 1647 by Mohawks who blamed an outbreak of disease on the Jesuits.
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