Founded as a Catholic mission in the 1700s by a French priest, the fort on the south bank of the St. Lawrence River prevented the British from attacking Montreal from the west. It also was site of a large village of French-allied Indians who launched raids on the English settlements in New York and Pennsylvania.

The weekend events at the site includes battle re-enactments, gunsmiths and other craft makers, a fife and drum corps, and a replica 18th-century Great Lakes ship.

CROWN POINT: Re-enactment, Aug. 13 and 14, Crown Point State Historic Site, Essex County; www.nysparks.com (click on "Historic Sites" and then choose "Crown Point" from the pull-down menu) or 518-597-4666.

The French built Fort St. Frederic in 1734 on a crown-shaped piece of land jutting into a narrow section of Lake Champlain. The English launched several campaigns to dislodge the French, but all failed until 1759, when the defenders blew up the fort's four-story citadel as a large British force advanced on Canada.

More than 300 re-enactors from New York, New England and Quebec will gather to recreate the August 1755 arrival here of the French regular troops who would be defeated a month later at the Battle of Lake George.

FORT ONTARIO: Re-enactments, Aug. 27 and 28, Fort Ontario State Historic Site, Oswego, Oswego County; www.fortontario.com or 315-343-4711.

A French force led by the Marquis de Montcalm captured the fort in 1756. Montcalm's Indian allies slaughtered scores of prisoners, a precursor to a more infamous massacre at Lake George's Fort William Henry in 1757. Montcalm, also in command during that attack, died at the Battle of Quebec in 1759.

A weekend of battle re-enactments commemorates the 1755 founding of Fort Ontario, located where Oswego River meets Lake Ontario.

LAKE GEORGE BATTLEFIELD PARK: Battle re-enactment, Sept.16-18, Lake George, Warren County; www.historiclakes.org or 518-623-1200.

On Sept. 8, 1755, inexperienced provincial troops and their Indian allies, commanded by Col. William Johnson, defeated a force of professional French soldiers, Canadian militiamen and Indian warriors, stopping their advance toward Albany. Afterward, Johnson ordered the construction of Fort William Henry, which the French captured and destroyed two years later. The subsequent massacre of some of the fort's defenders was immortalized in James Fenimore Cooper's "The Last of the Mohicans."