Fort Ticonderoga was awarded a $10,000 Forrest E. Mars Jr. Chocolate History grant that will help develop and enhance immersive experiences for visitors by fully engaging the senses of taste and smell through new culinary programs. These programs will introduce the flavors of Ticonderoga’s layered history spanning centuries, highlighting chocolate. The grant was awarded at the Annual Heritage Chocolate Society meeting held in Philadelphia January 27-28, 2020.
The grant will support research on chocolate recipes and culinary traditions throughout Fort Ticonderoga’s 18th, 19th and 20th-century history. Recent research has shed light on the use of chocolate at the Pavilion, an 1826 National Historic Landmark located at Fort Ticonderoga. This new research combined with extensive previous research conducted on chocolate history during the 18th century at Ticonderoga will be utilized to develop special foodways programs featuring Mars Heritage Chocolate.
“Fort Ticonderoga is extremely grateful to Mars Wrigley Confectionary US, LLC (MWC) and especially the Heritage Chocolate Society established by Forrest E. Mars Jr. for this generous grant,” said Beth Hill, Fort Ticonderoga president and CEO. “With the support of this generous grant, Fort Ticonderoga will purchase portable cooking equipment to allow programs to be staged in the Pavilion and around the site, providing staff the tools to create recipes and offer classes to students of all ages and visitors from across the world.”
Future interactive cooking demonstrations and programs will engage audiences and highlight how chocolate was supplied to troops and later tourists to Ticonderoga, global trade, and economics. Participants will enjoy the tastes of chocolate through the centuries through hands-on chocolate programming.
About Fort Ticonderoga:
Welcoming visitors since 1909, Fort Ticonderoga preserves North America’s largest 18th-century artillery collection, 2,000 acres of historic landscape on Lake Champlain, and Carillon Battlefield, and the largest series of untouched Revolutionary War era earthworks surviving in America. As a multi-day destination and the premier place to learn more about our nation’s earliest years and America’s military heritage, Fort Ticonderoga engages more than 75,000 visitors each year with an economic impact of more than $12 million annually and offers programs, historic interpretation, boat cruises, tours, demonstrations, and exhibits throughout the year, and is open for daily visitation May through October. Fort Ticonderoga is supported in part through generous donations and with some general operating support made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.