Here gaurded by the ramparts stand
   The walls which in their pride
The summer's heat, the winds that beat-
   A century have defied;
Now silence falls upon these walls 
   Where Amherst's forces centered
From which they went on capture bent
   When Canada they entered.    
                                     -Mrs.Palmer.

Gov. and Mrs. Hughes with the Governor's military secretary, were taken on the yacht Valcour belonging to Hon. Joseph Sibley, from Bluff Point to Port Henry.  Here, the party with the speakers of the day and member of the commission were entertained at luncheon by Hon. W. C. Witherbee.  Later, the party crossed to the Point where crowd awaited the opening of the exercises.

The noontide heat around us beat
As on the sands we moored our fleet,
The scorching sands rose up to meet
And drown our weary feet
*************
As we advance out darts the lance
From wary thorn-plum tree
Which stout woodbine did over-twine
And hide beneath her leaves;
                                                                                                                    -Mrs. Palmer.

Hon. Seth Low of New York was the principal speaker, following the incisive opening address of the Governor.  Judge A. C. Barnes of Chicago, a native of Chimney Point opposite, well fitted by his knowledge of local history and legal training, made an able defense of Crown Point as the probable site of Champlain's first battle with the Iroquois.  The Indian Pageant was here first enacted in the Valley.  Meanwhile, at Plattsburgh Fraternal Day was celebrated by a parade in which Labor organizations and Granges were a feature, the latter, representing by a display of farming implements in historical sequence and floats the agricultural interests of the Valley from the days of the pioneer to the present.

"The enduring lesson of such a gathering as this is that the plough gives a securer title to the land than the rifle."
                                -Hon. Seth Low, Brooklyn N. Y. 1850, in address at Crown Point,

In the evening President Taft and party arrived at Bluff Point station where they were met by Col. Cowles and other officers of the Fifth U. S. Infantry and visiting regiments.  Troop H of the Fifteenth U. S. Cavalry acted as escort to the President and the British and French Ambassadors.  At the hotel the guests gave the President a most cordial reception, after which he was entertained at dinner on the houseboat of Hon. W. C. Witherbee, where the President's son and daughter with their cousins, were the guests of Mrs. Witherbee and the younger members of that family. 

Tuesday, July 6, 1909
At Ticonderoga where fell, one hundred and fifty -one years ago this day, brave Lord Howe of cherished memory, the principal celebration took place. The presidential party were received at the "Pavilion", the old Pell mansion on the lake shore, and at the Fort were shown the West Barracks, lately restored through the munificence of Col. Robert M. Thompson, father of Mrs. Stephen H.P. Pell.  Address were made on the great plain below the fort by Governors Hughes and Prouty, followed by President Taft.  The historical address was by Hamilton W. Mabie.

Wednesday, July 7, 1909
Wednesday, Tercentenary week, interest centered at Plattsburgh.  Here, President Taft with representatives of France, Great Britain and Canada, the states of Vermont and New York and other distinguished guests, after a reception at Cliff Haven and luncheon at the home of Hon. Smith M. Weed, proceeded to Plattsburgh Barracks.  There, the presidential salute of twenty-one guys announced the arrival of the Nation's Ruler.  With the blue of lake, mountains and sky for a background, from a reviewing stand, holding thousands, the President viewed the marching columns of the "boys in blue" of the regular army, the Governor General's Foot Guards of Canada in scarlet, the picturesque Highlanders, companies of our State National Guard in khaki, veterans of '61, organizations, civic and fraternal, with floats and pageants, the whole commanded by Col. C.D. Cowles.

After the parade, Hon. H.W. Knapp introduced the speakers, of whom Gov. Hughes was the first, followed by President Taft, Ambassadors Jusserand and Bryce, Postmaster General Lemieux and Senator Root.  The latter gave an able address on "The Iroquois and Struggle for America".  Hon. Daniel W. Cady of New York read an original poem.

Following the speaking, the President reviewed the assembled troops in a brigade parade and the Presidential party returned to Hotel Champlain, where, in the evening, a banquet was served to five hundred guests of the Governor and New York State Commission.  In the meantime, at the mouth of the Saranac, the performance of the Indian pageant and fireworks closed the eventful day.

Thursday, July 8, 1909
Burlington celebrated the coming of Champlain. President Taft was escorted by the First Regiment of Vermont National Guards to the stand in front of City Hall, where Bishop Hall of the Episcopal diocese of Vermont offered the invocation. Addresses of welcome from Governor Prouty and Mayor Burke were responded to by Governor Hughes, Ambassadors Jusserand and Bryce. President Taft, the last speaker, emphasized the fact that "the gathering here in amity, in peace and in a union that cannot be torn apart of three great powers, England, France, and the United States, and with England, her first daughter, the Dominion of Canada" was a feature unequalled in the annals of the world.

The military parade was reviewed from another grand stand across the square, after which the President witnessed the exhibition of the Indian pageants. A direct descendent of little Eunice Williams, the Deerfield captive, called by her father's parishioners. "the Lost Child of Zion," was with the Iroquois Indians of Caughnawaga, participating in the pageant.

A drive about the city was taken by the President and party, previous to the dinner, commemorative of the occasion, given at the University gymnasium, which closed the President's visit to the "Queen City." He returned to Washington on the evening train. 

Friday, July 9, 1909
At Isle La Motte the celebration was brought to a fitting close by religious and patriotic services. Regular troops visited the island for the first time and at the Shrine of St. Anne, near the spot where first, in 1665, religious services were held, solemn high mass was celebrated by Bishop Burke of Albany with sixty members of the clergy in attendance, the priests of the diocese singing a plain chant mass and the Rev. P. J. Barrett of St. Mary's Cathedral, Burlington, preaching the sermon.

The literary exercises were opened with prayer offered by the Rev. John M. Thomas, D.D., President of Middlebury College. Senator Henry W. Hill of Buffalo, a native of Isle La Motte, the first speaker, was followed by Gov. Prouty, Lieut. d'Azy (representing the republic of France), Gov. Hughes and "Vermont's peerless orator," Judge Wenda;; P. Stafford, now of Washington, D.C., who, as orator of the day, held 3,000 people enthralled while he eloquently told the story of the three centuries in the valley since Champlain, "brave, able, ambitious, devoted, grasping for king and church, at the best the new world had to offer," first saw this lovely island.

At the close of the ceremonies at the shrine the entire assemblage, headed by the band and escorted by Company M, First Vermont Infantry and two troops of the Fifteenth U.S. cavalry, marched to the crest of the hill where the boulder, in memory of Seth Warner and Remember Baker, the gift of the Patriotic Societies of Vermont Women, was to be dedicated. Mrs. Edward Curtis Smith of St. Albans presided and the St. Albans Choral Union rendered "To Thee, O Country" and "Star Spangled Banner" in which all joined. The address of welcome was was delivered by Mrs. F. Stewart Stranahan, State Regent of the Vermont Colonial Dames and the presentation to the State made by Mrs. Clayton N. North of Shoreham, State Regent of the Daughters of the American Revolution. The tablet on the face of the boulder was unveiled by Miss Dorothea Smith, daughter of ex-Gov. and Mrs. Edward Curtis Smith, and Harry Hill, son of Senator and Mrs. Hill of Buffalo. In behalf of the state, Gov. Prouty accepted the monument and Dr. Thomas made the dedicatory address.

        In memory of the first white men who founded Christian homes upon this fair island, and in this ancient pathway of war sought to establish homes of peace, and in honor of Seth Warner and Remember Baker, intrepid heroes of the Green Mountains, lovers of liberty for their children, for whose freedom they gave their lives, who encamped while on perilous service for their country, and in commemoration of General Montgomery and his intrepid army, we place this boulder as a token of our gratitude for their mighty deeds and our veneration for their self-annulling devotion.-Dr. Thomas.

    Mrs. Elvira Sarah (Warner) Parker of St. Johns, P.Q., great granddaughter of Seth Warner laid a laurel wreath upon the monument.

Saturday, July 10, 1909
Saturday, at Rouses Point, the week's festivities ended with sports on the lake. Champlain's ship "Don de Dieu" which had accompanied the Indian Pageants from Ticonderoga to each place of celebration, was anchored in the harbor. Motor boat races and canoe races, including a war canoe race with four competing teams, were run over a course polices by the torpedo boat Manley and two navy launches. The evening was illuminated by fireworks.

Thursday, August 5, 1909
Dr. D.S. Kellogg's valuable collection, containing several thousand specimens of Indians relics and local curios, sold to Amherst College for $6,200.  Nearly all the Indian relics were found in the Champlain Valley and most of them within fifteen miles of Plattsburgh.  The sites of twenty-one Indian villages have been located by the doctor, the largest one being in the sand dunes near Dead Creek.  Others were at the mouth of the Big Chazy, at South Plattsburgh, and in the town of Peru, and at all these pottery and flint implements in abundance were found.  The score of copper implements, knives, spearheads and hatchet heads, found in this vicinity were doubtless obtained by the Indians either in trade or taken from slain captive enemies, since there is no native copper nearer than Lake Superior. 

Sunday, August 8, 1909
Suddenly, early Sunday morning, at "Red Oakes," his summer home on Cumberland Head, the Rev. Joseph Gamble, D.D. was summoned from a life of service to his heavenly reward."

Tuesday, August 24, 1909
At Cliff Haven, under the auspices of the Champlain Summer School in cooperation with Col. Cowles, commanding the Fifth Infantry, U.S.A., and in the presence of patriotic societies and invited guests, was dedicated the monument in Macdonough Park, Crab Island. This monument, a substantial granite shaft, overlooking the historic waters of Valcour Strait, has been erected by the Government in memory of those who fought in the naval battles of Valcour and Schuyler Islands, and at the battles of Plattsburgh and Lake Champlain. Hon. J.B. Riley presided at the exercises and made the opening address, Dr. Walsh read from a poem on the "Battle of Lake Champlain," Miss Malley recited "The story of Old Glory" and Dr. Coyle gave an address in the "Character of Macdonough." Music was furnished by a chorus and the fifth Infantry Band. After the firing of a musketry salute, a party crossed to the island and placed floral tributes at the base of the monument.