On September 8, 1755, more than 200 French colonial and Native American bodies were rolled into this small pool after the Battle of Lake George, staining the water red and giving it a name that has lasted 270 years.
1832 US Route 9, Lake George, NY 12845
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
No admission fee. Accessible from the Route 9 roadside.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Roadside site with a historical marker. The pond itself is accessible from the shoulder of Route 9.
Equipment
Photos OK
Site of final engagement of the Battle of Lake George, September 8, 1755 · More than 200 French colonial and Native American bodies deposited in the pond · New York State historical marker erected 1906 · Among the oldest named battle sites in upstate New York
The Battle of Lake George unfolded in three engagements on September 8, 1755. The main action took place at the British encampment at the southern end of Lake George, where General William Johnson's force repelled a French assault under Baron Dieskau. The third and final engagement — the one directly responsible for the pond's name — involved a column of British reinforcements marching north from Fort Edward under Colonel Ephraim Williams's replacement command.
This column came upon the retreating French force and their baggage train in the afternoon, some miles south of the main British camp. The engagement was sharp and brief. The French party, already weakened, was routed. Contemporary accounts describe the colonial forces falling upon the French encampment near the small pond at the base of French Mountain.
The casualties from this final engagement — estimated at over 200 French colonial troops and Native American allies — were thrown into the pond rather than buried. The water was said to have turned red, which gave the site its name. The figure of 200–300 appears consistently in historical accounts, though exact numbers are difficult to verify at this remove.
A New York State Historical Association marker was erected at the site in 1906 on the Lake George–Glens Falls Road (present-day US Route 9), near the intersection with Farm to Market Road. The site sat at the edge of the expanding Lake George resort area through the 20th century; commercial development gradually grew up around it. The pond is now tucked behind motel and restaurant parcels on Route 9's commercial strip, visible from the road but partially obscured. The marker remains.
Sources
Bloody Pond is a documented mass-death site from 1755, but the paranormal literature is thin. Atlas Obscura documents the site without recording ghost sightings. Lake George regional tourism materials note the dark history but do not attribute specific apparitions or recurring phenomena to the pond itself.
The Long Island Paranormal Investigators and related regional groups have covered the site, with one visitor account describing the apparition of a Native American figure briefly appearing near the pond before fading — a single account, uncorroborated. The site appears in haunted Lake George roundups largely because the historical record is so stark: hundreds of bodies were placed in this small body of water in a single afternoon, and the name the pond has carried for 270 years makes that history immediately legible to anyone who hears it.
The site today is accessible but anticlimactic — a small pond behind Route 9 commercial development, with a roadside marker as its primary interpretive element. The weight of the place is entirely in what the historical record documents rather than in any accumulated tradition of supernatural experience.
A New York State historical marker erected in 1906 commemorates the site of the September 8, 1755 engagement during the Battle of Lake George, when more than 200 French colonial and Native American casualties were deposited in the pond. The pond itself sits behind roadside commercial development, partially obscured from Route 9, with the marker visible from the road.
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