Mount Defiance (New York)

Mount Defiance is an 853 ft (260 m) high hill on the New York side of Lake Champlain, in the northeastern United States. It is notable in that the hill militarily dominates both Fort Ticonderoga and Mount Independence, but it was deemed inaccessible so never fortified. Mount Defiance was previously known as Sugar Loaf.[1]

View from Mount Defiance showing Fort Ticonderoga, center, on Lake Champlain

Mount Defiance from Fort Ticonderoga. The LaChute River, leading to Lake George, is at right; the southernmost reaches of Lake Champlain at left

In the 1777 Siege of Fort Ticonderoga, the British army succeeded in positioning artillery on Mount Defiance, causing the Americans to withdraw from both forts without a fight.

Mount Defiance is located at 43°49′53″N 73°24′24″W, in the town of Ticonderoga in southeastern Essex County.