05Apr

Sacandaga Blockhouse

THE NINE MILE TREE MARKER:

Sir William Johnson laid out a carriage road from Fort Johnson, in the Mohawk Valley, to his summer cottage on the old Sacandaga Vlaie. On every mile of this road, he blazed a marker on a tree, designating the distance from his home in Fort Johnson. For years a large pine tree stood at this intersection, on the opposite corner of this marker (northeast corner) and then in later years all that remained was a large stump. This old pine tree with its mark, designated the ninth mile. All that remains today is the name of the road across from the marker “The Nine Mile Tree Road” and this historic marker. The original marker was installed in the early 1930’s and was believed to have been suggested by Robert W. Chambers It was destroyed by a snow plow and the present marker was replaced during the Country’s Revolutionary War Bicentennial 1976.

Location: This marker is on Route 30 north, just before Red Bunch on the south east corner of the Lathrop Road, across from the intersection of the Nine Mile Tree Road. ( It was placed on the opposite corner of the original tree for safety reasons; to afford a place to turn off the road to read the sign.) (Note: the original sign read ” Site of Nine-Mile-Tree Celebrated Land Mark on Sir William Johnson’s Fish House Road During Revolutionary War”).