Samuel de Champlain - Isle La Motte, Vermont
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Vermontish
N 44° 54.046 W 073° 20.914
18T E 630382 N 4973253
One of Vermont's "discoverers"
Waymark Code: WM7RCN
Location: Vermont, United States
Date Posted: 11/26/2009
Views: 16
Champlain first set foot in what is now Vermont at or near this site in 1609, and encamped here.
Besides the lake in the background and the surrounding valley, there are streets in at least eleven communities in northwestern Vermont named for him, as well as innumerable businesses (Champlain this, Lake Champlain that).
It is interesting to note that, while Champlain claimed this as part of New France and in fact was referred to as the "Father of New France," it was his behavior toward the Iroquois in the southern end of the lake (near Crown Point/Ticonderoga) during this same trip which set the tone for French-Iroquois relations for the next hundred years, and ultimately doomed France's Colonial efforts in this region.
Sculpture was created in the Vermont Pavilion during the Universal and International Exhibition of 1967 (a/k/a "Expo '67," ostensibly the 1967 World's Fair) in Montreal, Canada. Fitting, as both the subject and the sculpture came to this spot from Canada.
TITLE: Samuel de Champlain
ARTIST(S): E. L. Weber
DATE: 1967
MEDIUM: Granite
CONTROL NUMBER: IAS VT000182
Direct Link to the Individual Listing in the Smithsonian Art Inventory: [Web Link]
PHYSICAL LOCATION:
At lakeshore, adjacent to St. Anne's Shrine on West Shore Road
DIFFERENCES NOTED BETWEEN THE INVENTORY LISTING AND YOUR OBSERVATIONS AND RESEARCH:
In the SIRIS description, the word "plume" is misspelled "blume."
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Visit Instructions:
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