Right in the middle of the city of Rome, NY is a reconstructed version of Ft. Stanwix. We came upon it while taking a different route home from the mountains. I love getting off the Thruway and finding things like this that I haven’t seen before. Ft. Stanwix dates back to pre-Revolutionary War times and is a National Monument. Most of the forts I’ve seen have been around water, and I was surprised that this was landlocked. Then I found out that the area was a portage trail between the Mohawk River and Wood Creek called the Oneida Carrying Place. This was all part of a longer trade route between the Atlantic Ocean and the Great Lakes (before the Erie Canal was built) and hotly contested between the Iroquois Indians, the Colonists, and the British. It’s called the “fort that never surrendered” because the Colonists held off a long siege there by the British in Aug. 1777.

Next time you’re traveling, take a step off the superhighway and step into history.

Day 208: 4,734 Steps YTD: 1,875,427 Steps Goal: 1,958,000 Steps