Ticonderoga today is a village in the township of Ticonderoga, Essex County, NY, on the outlet of Lake George, approximately 100 miles northeast of Albany, New York. Settlement of the region began soon after the close of the French and Indian War and Ticonderoga grew along with Crown Point until 1804 when they were made separate townships.

Ticonderoga is a corruption of an Indian word said to mean "place between two lakes" (Lake George and Lake Champlain). The water from Lake George falls about 222 feet there and today provides water and hydro-electric power for the paper pulp, high-grade paper, and graphite mills.

Commanding a portage on the line of water communication between Canada and the English colonies (St. Lawerence River to Lake Champlain to Lake George, 10 miles overland to the Hudson River and on to New York City), Ticonderoga was a place of considerable strategic importance during the French and Indian War. On highground overlooking the site and Lake Champlain the French began building a fort of earth and timber in 1755 and called it Fort Carillon. In 1758, when the marquis de Montcalm had gone to Quebec to oppose James Wolfe and a force of only 400 men was left at Ticonderoga, Lord Amherst with 11,000 men captured it. Then on July 26 Amherst blew up and abandoned the fort. It was later renamed Ticonderoga.

During the American Revolution, on May 10, 1775, a small expedition under Ethan Allen captured the fort by ruse instead of costly assault, securing large military stores. When the American expedition against Canada was driven back from Quebec they garrisoned Ticonderoga so strongly that the British commander, Carleton, shrank from attacking it. In 1777, however, General John Burgoyne's counter invasion from Canada arrived and occupied the precipitous Sugar Loaf hill above the fort. The garrison, already reduced in numbers and supplies, felt compelled to evacuate and on July 6 the British occupied it. Burgoyne, pressing onward to the Hudson, was forced to surrender at Saratoga in October; Ticonderoga was abandoned by the British immediately after this disaster, but was reoccupied by them in 1780.

After the war it was allowed to fall into ruins but has been restored as a national historical site.