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Just Down the Road A Piece: Arnold's Bay

photo provided Even with the snows having the lake at high levels, it is not hard to imagine this idyllic inlet as the center of pivotal points in history. Just one more of the special sites that are just down the road a piece!

Tuesday May 6, 2014

Just down the road a piece is a wonderful little spot where you and the family can go and spend a few moments or even an afternoon. It might cause you to sigh with delight and even break out the cellphone for ‘selfie’ shots in front of the scenic overlook. But little did you know that on that very spot sometime in the not too distant past an event occurred that changed life not only for those at the time but for the future as well. The Valley Voice is proud to announce the creation of a new article series Just Down the Road A Piece that will feature monthly one of those spots we go to but may not be aware of the significant event(s) that occurred there  connecting  past and present and making those off the beaten path road trips all the more worthwhile.
    Traveling onto Panton Road from Route 22A it is literally a straight shot with one little crooked turn to reach the destination of Arnold's Bay. Continue down Panton Road until it turns either right or left and ahead of you sits the former Panton Four Corner Store and a straight road heading toward the lake. Take this road and stay on it past Arnold Bay Farm, past the Water Treatment Plant and you will literally run into one of the more scenic and yet famous bays  of Lake Champlain.
    It was late in the day on October 13, 1775 when the inlet Arnold's Bay became a site linked to not only Revolutionary War history but to commerce and transportation for over a hundred years. A ragged American fleet under the command of Captain Benedict Arnold was fleeing south on Lake Champlain with the British fleet giving chase. It was the day following the Battle of Valcour Island and realizing they could not out run the British, Arnold decided to take what was left of his flagship Congress and four gun boats into the shallow inlet known today as Arnold's Bay, burn the ships and flee on foot.
    While history has opposing views regarding Benedict Arnold later in his career and labels such as traitor and hero are used in discussions about him, on that day in 1775 Arnold’s decision allowed his men to reach the safety of Fort Ticonderoga. A plaque on the property remarks, “AFTER A BATTLE IN WHICH HE HAD DISPLAYED GREAT BOLDNESS, GALLANTRY AND SAGACITY, RAN ASHORE AND BURNED THE REMNANTS OF THE AMERICAN SQUADRON UNDER HIS COMMAND AS THE ONLY ALTERNATIVE TO ITS SURRENDER TO A BRITISH FLEET MUCH STRONGER THAN HIS OWN "NEVER HAD ANY FORCE, BIG OR SMALL, LIVED TO BETTER PURPOSE OR DIED MORE GLORIOUSLY." While historians continue to argue about Arnold most give him credit for delaying the British fleet and causing them to suspend their movements for the winter.
The events in Arnold's Bay do not end there either. The Panton Town records document the establishment of a ferry at that spot by Captain Joseph Kingman on January 27, 1796 and allows Kingman the right to, “keep and maintain boats suitable for carrying on ferrying across said Lake men, horses and cattle.” It was operated October 30, 1800 by Peter Ferris who was in fact eighty years old at the time a sloop sailed from Ferris Bay known today as “Arnold's Bay” to Barker's Point, New York and upon his death in 1804, all rights passed to his son Darius with the Vermont Legislature granting exclusive rights on October 29, 1804. It was voted that the ferry operate as long as it was safe and the fee would be, “for every loaded carriage and two horses or oxen be 84 cents, each ox or cow 16 cents, and search sheep or swine 4 cents.” The ferry was owned by the Ferris family who lived on Lake Road near the ferry throughout the coming decades. Sailing between Arnold's Bay and Westport, New York Adams not only transported animals and coal but maintained a wharf, storehouse, large farm, several ferry boats and even a hotel.
    What other stories lay buried in the pages of history and are connected with this scenic inlet? Many curious observers might want to look into the gunboat Philadelphia and to stop by the Vermont Room at the Bixby Library to learn more. But the next time you are down that road a piece stop by Arnold's Bay and stare not only at the beauty of Lake Champlain and Addison County but into the past where the remnants of a fleet were scuttled and until the late 1880's people, animals, cargo and more crossed the lake to the New York Shore.

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