This fort was built by the French in the 1750s along the southern end of Lake Champlain to prevent the British in what was then the British colony of New York from passing through to Lake Champlain and into the heart of French territory further north. At the end of the 1750s the fort fell to the British and shortly thereafter it fell to the Americans during the Revolutionary War. In the early 1800s the fort became a tourist destination and in the 1820s it was purchased by the Pell family. In the early 1900s the Pell family began restoring the fort and founded the Fort Ticonderoga Foundation to take over operations of the site. It is now a popular tourist attraction in the Adirondack region of upstate New York.