Portage Paths: The Keys of the Continent

by Archer Butler Hulbert

The forts which guarded this historic route have been mentioned, and it is possible here only to hint of the remarkable story of the ebb and flow of the war tides which have made the “Grand Pass” perhaps the most alluring field of study in America. Under the specific title “Saratoga and the Northern War-path” an entertaining writer has sketched the place in history occupied by this water thoroughfare and its vital land connections.[54] The story beginning far back in the seventeenth century includes De Tracy’s expedition to the Mohawk country in 1666; between 1686 and 1695 “numerous war parties passed through Kay-ad-ros-se-ra and Saratoga on their way to and from the hostile settlements on the St. Lawrence and the Mohawk and lower Hudson.” A list of the important expeditions only would include those of 1689; 1690, under Le Moyne upon Schenectady; 1690, under General Winthrop; 1691, under Major Schuyler; and 1693-95. From this time peace reigned until Queen Anne’s War in 1709. This year witnessed Winthrop’s and Nicholson’s campaigns; in 1711 Nicholson again swept up the Hudson on his way toward Quebec, but was compelled to abandon his plan. From 1713 until 1744 there were thirty-one years of peace—during which time the French built Forts Crown Point and Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain. In 1744 the war was again resumed; “during this short war no less than twenty-seven marauding parties swept down from Fort Frederick at Crown Point upon the settlers of what are now Saratoga and Rensselaer counties.” On June 17, 1747, in the night, the new English Fort Clinton at Saratoga was attacked by La Corne. In the following year it was destroyed by the English because of its exposed situation, and Albany once more became the most northern outpost. The peace signed in 1748 lasted until the outbreak of the final struggle in 1755. Then followed Johnson’s, Winslow’s, and Abercrombie’s campaigns up the Hudson against Ticonderoga, and Montcalm’s swoop upon Fort William Henry.

In 1777 the “Northern War Path” became again the route of armies—and here the decisive battle of Saratoga was fought and won. Of this campaign mention will be made again.

The western war-route to the Lakes was up the Mohawk and down the Onondaga (Oswego) Rivers. Albany and Oswego were its termini; and the Oneida carrying-place of one mile (in favorable seasons) between the Mohawk River and Wood Creek, at Rome, New York, was its key. This famous route is interestingly described by Mr. Sylvester as follows:[55]

“The first carrying place on the great western route was from the Hudson at Albany through the pine woods to the Mohawk at Schenectady. This carrying place avoided the Ga-ha-oose Falls. At the terminus of the old Indian carrying place on the Hudson, now called Albany, the Dutch, under Hendrick Christiensen, in 1614, built Fort Nassau on Castle Island.... In 1617 they built another fort at the mouth of the Normanskill, at the old Indian Ta-wa-sent-ha—‘the place of the many dead.’ In 1623 Fort Orange was built by Adriaen Joris, and eighteen families built their bark huts and spent there the coming winter....

“In the year 1662 Arendt van Curler, and other inhabitants of Fort Orange, ‘went west’ across the old carry through the pines to the rich Mohawk flats and founded a settlement. To this settlement they applied the old Indian name of Albany, calling it Schenectady. From Albany it was the new settlement on the Mohawk beyond the pines....

“From Schenectady the western trail ran up the Mohawk to what is now the city of Rome, where there was another carry of a mile in length, to the Wood Creek which flows into Oneida Lake. This carrying place, afterward the site of Fort Stanwix, was called by the Indian Da-ya-hoo-wa-quat (Carrying-place). From it the old trail ran through the Oneida Lake, and down the Oswego River to Lake Ontario. At the mouth of the Oswego River, on Lake Ontario, was the old Indian village called Swa-geh, the lake-port of the Iroquois.... Between Schenectady and Swa-geh was a line of forts built for the protection of the traveling fur-traders, and as barriers to French and Indian invasion from the valley of the St. Lawrence. The first of these was at the mouth of the Schohariekill, and was called Fort Hunter. It was built on the site of old Indian Te-hon-de-lo-ga, the lower castle of the Mohawks. Above Fort Hunter, near the Indian Ga-no-jo-hi-e—‘washing the basin’—the middle Mohawk castle, was Fort Plain. The Indian name of Fonda was Ga-na-wa-da—meaning ‘over the rapids.’ Of Little Falls, it was Ta-la-que-ga—‘small bushes,’ and of Herkimer the Indian name was Te-uge-ga, the same as the river. At Herkimer was Hendrick’s castle and Fort Herkimer, near Ga-ne-ga-ha-ga, the upper Mohawk castle.... The Indian name for Utica was Nun-da-da-sis—meaning ‘around the hill.’ At Utica, the Indian trail from the west crossed the river.... A little above Utica was a small Indian station called Ole-hisk—‘the place of nettles.’ This is now Oriskony, one of the famous battle-grounds of the Revolution.... At the mouth of Wood Creek, on the Oneida Lake, a Royal Blockhouse was built, and at the west end of Oneida Lake, in 1758, Fort Brewerton was built. The Indian name for Wood Creek was Ka-ne-go-dick; for Oneida Lake was Ga-no-a-lo-hole—‘head on a pole.’ For Syracuse the Indian name was Na-ta-dunk, meaning ‘pine-tree broken with top hanging down,’ and the Indian name of Fort Brewerton was Ga-do-quat.”

The Oneida portage—as the carrying place between the Mohawk and Wood Creek is known in history—was guarded at its Mohawk terminus as early as 1732 by the erection of Fort Williams, and at the Wood Creek terminus as early as 1737 by Fort Bull. Throughout the century of conflict between French and English the Oneida portage route was of utmost importance. In the crucial years between 1755 and 1759 it was especially important. The route is thus described in a contemporaneous account:

“Oswego, along the accustomed route, is computed to be about 300 miles west from Albany. The first sixteen, to the village of Schenectady, is land carriage, in a good waggon road. From thence to the Little Falls in the Mohawk River, at sixty five miles distance, the battoes are set against a rapid stream; which too, in dry seasons, is so shallow, that the men are frequently obliged to turn out, and draw their craft over the rifts with inconceivable labour. At the Little Falls, the portage exceeds not a mile: the ground being marshy will admit of no wheel-carriage, and therefore the Germans who reside here, transport the battoes in sleds, which they keep for that purpose. The same conveyance is used at the Great Carrying-Place, sixty miles beyond the Little Falls; all the way to which the current is still adverse, and extremely swift. The portage here is longer or shorter, according to the dryness or wetness of the seasons. In the last summer months, when rains are not infrequent, it is usually six or eight miles across. Taking water again, we enter a narrow rivulet, called the Wood-creek, which leads into the Oneida Lake, distant forty miles. This stream, tho’ favorable, being shallow, and its banks covered with thick woods, was at this time much obstructed with old logs and fallen trees. The Oneida Lake stretches from east to west about thirty miles, and in calm weather is passed with great facility. At its western extremity opens the Onondaga River, leading down to Oswego, situated at its entrance on the south side of the Lake Ontario. Extremely difficult and hazardous is the passage thro’ this river, as it abounds with rifts and rocks; and the current flowing with surprising rapidity. The principal obstruction is twelve miles short of Oswego, and is a fall of about eleven feet perpendicular. The portage here is by land, not exceeding forty yards, before they launch for the last time.”[56]