Lake Champlain furnishes the only commerical fishing grounds in Vermont, with the exceptions of small catches of white fish in Lake Bomoseen, Lake St Catherine in Rutland county and Lake Memphremagog.
The first important industry of the state was "rafting" lumber from Vermont through Lake Champlain and the Richelieu and St Lawrence rivers to Quebec. Burlington became a great lumber market for a trade moving in the direction of Boston after the Richelieu river was blocked to navigation and railway transportation began, and in 1882 Burlington was the third lumber centre in the United States.
The commerce on Lake Champlain is carried on chiefly through Burlington, the port of entry for the Vermont customs district.
Samuel de Champlain, as governor of Quebec, entered what is now Vermont in July 1609 in an expedition against the Iroquois, and thus laid the basis for the French claim.
When war with England broke out, in 1812, he was ordered to cruise in the lakes between Canada and the United States, with his headquarters on lake Champlain.