Champlain Transportation Company Records

The Champlain Transportation Company was founded in October of l826 in Burlington, Vermont. Luther Loomis of Burlington was elected first president, and the Company entered into active competition with the various other Lake Champlain ferry and steamboat organizations the following summer with the launching of the Franklin. The CTC proved more successful than its competitors at attracting business and dealing with the financial problems created by the large number of transportation vessels operating on the lake, and by l835 had absorbed or bought up the equipment of the other Lake Champlain steamboat companies. The Company grew steadily thereafter, and despite occasional competition from rival groups or individuals, dominated transportation on the lake throughout the nineteenth century. In l868 the CTC bought control of the Lake George Steamboat Company, and two years later the Delaware and Hudson Railroad gained control of the CTC, when they acquired a permanent lease from the Rensselaer and Saratoga Rail Road, which had acquired a controlling interest in the CTC. The Delaware and Hudson retained control of the CTC until 1937, when, after a number of years of declining revenues, the railroad sold the Company to Horace W. Corbin.. Service on Lake George ceased in 1939, and steamboat runs on Lake Champlain also became less and less extensive throughout the 1940's. Finally, in l948 the CTC ended its steamboat service on Lake Champlain as well (although a Burlington group did acquire and run the Ticonderoga until she was moved to Shelburne museum in 1954), to be replaced by steel ferries under the control of the new Lake Champlain Transportation Company. The LCTC and its regular ferry service are still in operation.