Henry Knox Trail

Knox was commissioned by Continental Army commander George Washington in 1775 to transport 59 cannons from captured forts on Lake Champlain, 30 from Fort Ticonderoga and 29 from Crown Point, to the army camp outside Boston to aid the war effort there against British forces.

[2] Knox, using sledges pulled by teams of oxen to haul these cannons, many weighing over a ton, crossed an icy Lake George in mid-winter.

[2] He proceeded to travel through rural New York and the snow-covered Berkshire Mountains of Massachusetts, finally arriving to the aid of the beleaguered Continental Army in January 1776.

In 1975, the marker locations between Kinderhook, New York, and Alford, Massachusetts, were updated after new research, confirming theories originally advanced by North Egremont, Massachusetts, postmaster Joseph Elliott, found Knox did not pass through Claverack, New York.

[4] A new marker was added to the trail at Roxbury Heritage State Park in Boston in 2009, adjacent to a house owned by General John Thomas, who guided the weapons received from Knox to their final placement on Dorchester Heights overlooking Boston.

Image of a marker on the Henry Knox Trail
Marker in Roxbury , Boston , Massachusetts , the first marker added to the Henry Knox Trail since its establishment in 1926–27. The marker pictured was dedicated March 17, 2009, the 233rd anniversary of the end of the Siege of Boston , known as Evacuation Day in Massachusetts.