Valcour Island, about two miles (3.2 km) long and one mile (1.6 km) wide, lies by the western shore of Lake Champlain, forming one side of a narrow strait against the New York mainland.

Its shores are alternately rocky, craggy outcroppings and sandy beaches.

It guided boats through the narrow strait from 1871 until 1930 when it was replaced by a steel tower.

[3] On October 11, 1776, a naval engagement known as the Battle of Valcour Island between British and United States naval forces under Benedict Arnold was fought in the strait adjacent to the island.

Valcour was the site of several farms and summer homes (and one short-lived utopian community, the Dawn Valcour Society[4]) from the nineteenth century until the 1970s, when New York State completed its purchase of the island.