The history that surrounds Lake George is a glorious and rich one. While the earliest recorded writings that describe the wonders of the Lake were written by Europeans, historians believe that Native Americans inhabited the area surrounding the Lake from 3500 B.C.

Lake George is apparently the third name attached to the lake. St. Isaac Jogues, a Jesuit missionary from France, found that the Iroquois name for the lake was "Andiatarocte". This translates to "there where the Lake is shut in."

St. Isaac Jogues' life itself could fill many books. In brief, his missionary zeal to spread the Gospel among the Native Americans led him originally to Canada where he was tortured by the Iroquois tribes who he evangelized to. After returning to New France (present day Canada) he begged his superiors to let him return. He returned to pursue his vocation by volunteering again as an ambassador to the Mohawks.

Returning to Lake Andiatarocte on the eve of the feast of Corpus Christi on May 30, 1646, at what today is the Town of Ticonderoga at the northern end of the lake, he named the body of water, "Lac du Saint Sacrament". This translates to "Lake of the Blessed Sacrament."

A little over 4 months later, after insects destroyed their crops, the superstitious Mohawk Indians blamed Jogues and killed him and his party. Father Isaac Jogues was officially canonized a saint by the Catholic Church in 1930. A statute of him, facing the lake he once named, can be found at the Lake George Battlefield Park in Lake George Village.

By the late seventeenth century the route through Lake George was used frequently by Native Americans allied with the French for raids on English villages. This rivalry between the French and English for control of North America finally culminated in the French and Indian War (1755-1763).

In 1755 British General William Johnson changed the name of the lake to Lake George in honor of King George II of Great Britain. The lake's history figured prominently at the beginning of the American experience. As a natural waterway it was immersed in the larger political and military struggle for the continent. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Paul Revere, Charles Carroll, and Robert Rogers are but a few of the names of early American history who have beheld her shores.

From the earliest days of travel on Lake George, military history has been interwoven with the tourist trade. Because of the mountains that ring its shores, travel historically up and down the lake was most convenient by boat. It was a long and arduous path to traverse the same distance over land.

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