Sally Pollak

Free Press Staff Writer

In June 1775, Ethan Allen and Seth Warner traveled by horseback and boat from Fort Ticonderoga, on the west of side of Lake Champlain, to Philadelphia.

Much of their journey was through enemy territory. They had recently captured key military installations in New York — at Fort Ticonderoga and Crown Point.

“At the time, they were wanted men in New York,” historian Willard Sterne Randall said. “They came out of it as officers of one of the first regiments in the U.S. Army.”

On June 23, 1775, at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, the Continental Congress recognized Allen for leading the Green Mountain Boys to victory at Fort Ticonderoga on May 10, 1775. They commissioned him a Lieutenant Colonel in the Continental Army. The Green Mountain Boys were inducted as one of the first regiments in that army.

“I think it was the second biggest day in Ethan Allen’s life,” Randall said. He is a Burlington resident who is author of the Allen biography, “Ethan Allen: His Life and Times.” The biggest day in Allen's life, Randall said, was his capture of Fort Ticonderoga.

Now, 241 years after those events, Allen will be honored by the state he helped establish.

Gov. Peter Shumlin has proclaimed June 23 Ethan Allen Day in Vermont, in formal recognition of Allen's role as a founding father of Vermont and the United States.

Ethan Allen Homestead will host a series of activities June 23-26 to mark Ethan Allen Day. Events include a picnic, a lecture, and military reenactments. (A ceremony Thursday evening will be reserved for Homestead members.)

The homestead is by the Winooski River in the north end of Burlington, where Allen lived the last years of his life.

Randall is a board member of Ethan Allen Homestead who asked: “Why don’t we have an Ethan Allen Day?”

A clear choice for such an occasion was June 23, he said.

Information about Ethan Allen Day: go to ethanallenhomestead.org and click on events calendar.