To Fully Understand History You must visit it, stand on the ground where it happened, and touch it.

The photo shows Ranger Nichols standing in the South tunnel, which leads to the main barracks at Fort Ticonderoga. It was here that Major Robert Rogers made many reconnaissance scouts. In 1758, while conducting a winter "recon", Rogers and his Rangers were ambushed at what is now known as "The Battle on Snowshoes."

Also on the very spot depicted in the photo, is where in 1775, Ethan Allen and his "Green Mountain Boys" conducted a sneak attack and captured the mighty fort without firing a single shot. Sneaking across Lake Champlain with Benedict Arnold, the Green Mountain Boys from Vermont crept in boats under darkness and landed just North of the fort. Under the leadership of both Allen and Arnold, they proceeded to the base of the fort, communicating until well inside, with only hand signals. Slipping by the main sentry post at a wooden door, they went directly past sleeping members of the garrison, and proceeded through the tunnel in the photo. This mission could very well be considered the beginning, or birth, of today's Delta Force. Ranger Nichols has toured the entire region, from Fort Edward north to Crown Pointe, and retraced many of the original trails traveled by Rogers, his Rangers, and their Iroquois Scouts.