KINDERHOOK–Dressed as an 18th-century soldier, Dave Fagerberg began early last month to walk from Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York to Cambridge, MA, along the historic Knox Trail, a route that passes through Columbia County. With his friend Judi DeAngelis following in her car, the two stopped in Kinderhook Sunday, August 25, to visit the square, where a plaque commemorates the efforts of American troops during the historically significant trek in the early days of the Revolution.
Mr. Fagerberg plans to retrace the entire 300-mile route Colonel Henry Knox used in winter 1775-76 to deliver captured artillery to General George Washington, whose army was camped on the outskirts of Boston. In December General Washington ordered Colonel Knox to travel from Boston to Fort Ticonderoga to obtain 59 cannon captured there and at another nearby fort when the British surrendered the forts. The success of Knox in bringing the artillery to Washington’s army convinced the British to evacuate the city. Boston remained in American hands for the remainder of the Revolution.
“The main purpose of walking historic trails is to create more public awareness,” said Mr. Fagerberg, a retired resident of Prairie Village, KS, near Kansas City and a French & Indian War re-enactor for two decades. “Many people don’t know what is right in their own backyard. My ultimate goal is to have the Knox Trail become a national historic trail,” Mr. Fagerberg said.
“I enjoy promoting the trails by walking them rather than driving. I am able to view some of the same buildings and some of the same countryside the soldiers did in the 18th century. By walking the trail I can bring a unique awareness of its existence to the many people I encounter along the way.”
He was greeted in Kinderhook at the Knox Trail memorial by village Mayor Carol Weaver and Bill Laraway.
Henry Knox eventually rose to the rank of Major General and became the new nation’s first Secretary of War.
Mr. Fagerberg is not the first person to retrace the journey by Knox and his men. In January 1976, during the Bicentennial of the Revolution, a group headed by Al Robbins, who worked for the state, re-enacted the march with horses and a pair of oxen, sleeping on the floor of the Lutheran Church in Harlemville and stopping in Hillsdale on their way to Massachusetts. They had to cope with bitterly cold weather much as the original troops had.
In an email prepared in advance of his trip, Mr. Fagerberg said he planned to walk the entire trail in segments spending up to 25 days on the road.
