297 Years Ago: Fort Dummer February 3, 1724

On this day - 297 years ago, February 3, 1724 - the active British colonization of #Wantastegok in Abenaki homelands was begun. The building of Fort Dummer started in the dead of winter.

Why February? Listed below are some thoughts on place-based reasons for doing this at that time, other than the political exigencies of active hostilities then underway in the form of Dummer's War, also known as Father Rale's War, Lovewell's War, Greylock's War, the Three Years War, the 4th Anglo-Abenaki War, or the Wabanaki-New England War of 1722–1725 (notice the common thread among these references):

• Easier travel on ice with supplies and workers

• Better visibility for lookouts (leaves down, smoke visible)

• Most Native men would be in the uplands hunting moose and deer

• Native villages focused on insular activities, food supplies conserved

Screenshot quote below from "Annals of Brattleboro", Mary Rogers Cabot, 1921.