Fort Stanwix, New Fort, Fort Williams, Fort Newport, Fort Bull, and Fort Wood Creek were all erected within twenty-five years, and within three or four miles of each other. Nothing could suggest more plainly the strategic nature of this roadway on the backbone of New York. Of them all, the remains of Fort Wood Creek alone are visible, save the embankment of Fort Stanwix. Here, three miles out from Rome, where the old portage path used to run, beside the little creek now only a shadow of the oldtime stream, is the interesting star-shaped ruin of Fort Wood Creek, surrounded by a moat still five feet deep. The southern side, as the map shows, (K), was not fortified strongly like the others, as the water of the creek protected it. The dam and floodgate were just beyond the southwestern bastion and the old embankment of the dam can still be traced. The broad pond formed by the dammed water is clearly visible in outline; the present stream runs near the center of it. It was probably seldom in the olden days that the creek was not navigable here; the dam doubtless made it so, for a large part of the year, from Fort Newport downwards. Yet the narrative just quoted affirms that the portage was sometimes "six or eight miles across" in unusually dry seasons. This was certainly prior to the erection of the dams and floodgates, which "saved so much land carriage" according to the map. In dry seasons, the map assures us, the floodgates saved a portage of seven miles to Canada Creek. This is evidently the "six or eight miles" portage mentioned by the narrative. The British campaign of 1777 was a spectacular event which covered the three great valleys which converge from the north, south, and west upon Albany. A bird's-eye view of this campaign emphasizes as it is almost impossible to do otherwise the strategic value of portage paths. From the north, Burgoyne comes up Lake Champlain and Lake George and across the portage to the Hudson, and starts down the valley; to meet him, General Clinton leaves New York and ascends the Hudson toward Albany. From Oswego St. Leger starts up the Onondaga (Oswego) River toward the Oneida carrying place and Albany--where the three armies are to form a union for the final overthrow of the revolution. St. Leger never got fairly over the Oneida portage; he could not carry Fort Schuyler which guarded it, and at Herkimer he was completely routed. Burgoyne crossed safely the portage to the Hudson, but had hardly done more when Gates was upon him and Saratoga was the early turning point of the war. To all intents and purposes the great campaign was utterly thwarted because the Americans successfully held the strategic keys of the continent--the Lake George-Hudson and the Oneida carrying places. CHAPTER IV PORTAGES TO THE MISSISSIPPI BASIN