The Mount Independence Coalition[3] supports the efforts of the Vermont State Division for Historic Preservation in protecting and interpreting the site.

[4] Mount Independence was important to Native Americans as a source of high quality blue/black chert used for making tools and projectile points.

[5] The decision to fortify Mount Independence was made at Fort Crown Point on July 7, 1776, by a Council of War presided over by Northern Department Commander and Major General Philip Schuyler.

[6] In a letter, Schuyler told commander in chief George Washington, the peninsula opposite Ticonderoga was "so remarkably strong as to require little labour [sic] to make it tenable against a vast superiority of force, and fully to answer the purpose of preventing the enemy from penetrating into the country south of it.

"[7] Twenty-one field officers objected to the move from Crown Point to Mount Independence, but on July 11 work began on the new site under the direction of military engineer Jeduthan Baldwin of Brookfield, Massachusetts.

Within the week, much of the army relocated to Ticonderoga while men labored on Mount Independence to clear the forest and build huts and barracks.

[8] The peninsula gained its new name on Sunday, July 28, 1776, after Colonel Arthur St. Clair of Pennsylvania read the Declaration of Independence to assembled troops.

[9] In the late spring of 1777, batteries designed by Polish military engineer Thaddeus Kościuszko were constructed on the southeast side of Mount Independence.

[10] By the end of October 1776, there were more than 13,000 men defending the fortifications at Mount Independence and Ticonderoga, making the location one of the largest population centers in the new country.

On October 11, 1776, in a day-long battle off Valcour Island in the northern lake, the outgunned American fleet was crippled but managed to escape.

[11] Expecting an attack momentarily, the troops at the American forts prepared for battle while messengers carried orders calling for militia and supplies.

"The whole summit of cleared land, on both sides of the lake, was crowned with redoubts and batteries, all manned with a splendid show of artillery and flags.

[13][14] Colonel (and beginning in February 1777, Brigadier General) Anthony Wayne of Pennsylvania commanded at Mount Independence and Ticonderoga during the winter of 1776–1777.

Dysentery was widespread in the early winter and was followed by what Dr. Ebenezer Elmer, who was stationed on Mount Independence, termed "inflammatory disorders of a very complex nature.

As spring approached, Wayne continued to request men and supplies, writing to Major General Schuyler, "I must beg, sir, that you would once more endeavor to rouse the public officers in those States from their shameful lethargy before it be too late.

[19] Mount Independence and Ticonderoga had a series of commanders during the spring, but finally on June 12 Major General Arthur St. Clair of Pennsylvania took charge.

In mid June 1777, an American army of only 2000 healthy enlisted men defended fortifications that stretched 3.5 miles (5.6 km) from the batteries on the southeast of Mount Independence, across Lake Champlain to numerous redoubts on the flats north of old Fort Ticonderoga, the extensive French Lines, and a fort built on the high ground called Mount Hope.

St. Clair was to write later, "Had every man I had, been disposed in single file on the different works and along the lines of defence [sic], they would have been scarcely within the reach of each other's voices.

"[20] When he returned to overall command in the Northern Department in early June, General Schuyler considered abandoning the Ticonderoga side of the lake where the lines were overextended.

However, Brigadier General Matthias Alexis Roche de Fermoy, a French soldier of fortune, burned his house on Mount Independence, alerting the British to the retreat.

[27] British vessels broke through the boom and bridge, and followed the American boats to Skenesborough where that afternoon they destroyed the remainder of the fleet and captured the cannon and supplies.

More than six hundred German troops of the Prince Frederick Regiment defended the fortifications on the southeast side of the Mount where the fort might be attacked from land.

[29] The attack on Mount Independence was commanded by Colonel Samuel Johnson and then by militia brigadier general Jonathan Warner, both of Massachusetts.

"It is an undenyable [sic] truth that the Mount was never attacked by the Rebels otherwise than by paper," wrote Lieutenant John Starke, captain of the schooner-of-war Maria.

On November 8, following Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga, British and German forces took what they could load aboard their vessels; threw other supplies in the lake; burned barracks, houses, and bridges; disabled about 40 cannon; and retreated to Canada.

In the late 1960s, the Vermont Electric Power Company (VELCO) proposed building a nuclear plant, to be known as Hugh Crossing, in Orwell.