canals built in North America. Wood Creek and the Oneida Carry were of sufficient strategic importance that the British built three fortifications there in 1755 during the war with France (the French and Indian War (1754–1763)). Fort Bull on Wood Creek was the furthest west, and was the scene of the 1756 Battle of Fort Bull; after its destruction, it was briefly replaced by Fort Wood Creek. After the loss of Fort Oswego to the French forces in 1756, the British destroyed the Oneida Carry and Wood Creek fortifications. In 1758, the massive Fort Stanwix was constructed to defend the Oneida Carry, although it never saw action and was later abandoned. The fort was refurbished by American revolutionary forces in 1777. Stanwix was the site of an important 1777 battle in the American Revolutionary War, when British, Loyalist, and French forces came down from Canada and up Wood Creek to besiege the fort. They were unsuccessful, which contributed to the defeat of British forces at the Battles of Saratoga shortly thereafter. The disastrous outcome of the 1777 British campaign is considered a turning point in the American Revolution. Improvements by the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company In 1791, following the American Revolutionary War and the independence of the United States, the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company was chartered in New York State to make improvements in the Albany-Oswego waterway. Philip Lord has written, "This tortuous route was the only highway west of any consequence 200 years ago and it was the improvement of this water route from Schenectady to Oneida Lake that was the mission of Philip Schuyler's Western Inland Lock Navigation Company in 1792." When completed in 1803, the program of improvements would greatly increase the shipping along the waterway and substantially reduce its cost. The increasing population of settlers in western New York was also served by this waterway. The route to the western regions passed through Oneida Lake and the Oneida River. It then followed the Seneca River upstream, instead of going downstream to Oswego. This route stretched as far as Rochester and Canandaigua Lake. Philip Lord and Chris Salisbury write, "The most troublesome of the inland waterways was Wood Creek, a narrow and twisted channel which connected the west end of the 1797 Rome Canal to the east end of Oneida Lake (now Sylvan Beach). This stream was so narrow that travelers often recorded they could