Armstrong Mountain (Keene Valley, New York) Armstrong Mountain (Keene Valley, New York) Armstrong Mountain is a mountain located in Essex County, New York, named after Thomas Armstrong, a local pioneer. The mountain is part of the Great Range of the Adirondack Mountains. Armstrong Mtn. is flanked to the southwest by Gothics, and to the northeast by Upper Wolfjaw Mountain. Armstrong Mountain stands within the watershed of the East Branch of the Ausable River, which drains into Lake Champlain, thence into Canada's Richelieu River, the Saint Lawrence River, and into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. The east side of Armstrong Mtn. drains into the East Branch of
Lake Champlain 'door of the country' or 'lake to the country'. The lake is an important eastern gateway to Iroquois Confederacy lands. The lake was named after the French explorer Samuel de Champlain, who encountered it in July 1609. While the ports of Burlington, Vermont, Port Henry, New York, and Plattsburgh, New York today are primarily used by small craft, ferries, and lake cruise ships, they were of substantial commercial and military importance in the 18th and 19th centuries. New France allocated concessions all along lake Champlain to French settlers and built forts to defend the waterways. In colonial times, Lake Champlain