Hinckley Lake is a lake at the southwestern border of the Adirondack Park. It supplies the drinking water for the Mohawk Valley. It also supplies water for the New York State Canal system. (By the way, today is opening day for the Canal). There’s been an ongoing battle between numerous groups which all want a piece of the Hinckley pie. I won’t get into such droll politics right now (see a great post about it here). The kids and I took a little car trip to the area and I snapped a few photos of the lake. I was astonished to see the difference in the water line.
Here’s a photo I took earlier this week:
Here’s the photo I took last year about this time:
Noticeable difference!
I’ll be posting about our trip to the area, and of a cute video we took while “getting lost” in the area. I’m still compiling everything, and I am up to my eyeballs in various other projects. I hope to have our post up by Friday.
Late summer, we took a trip out to Syracuse to visit the Rosamond Gifford Zoo (more on that later) and to the Salt Museum. The Salt Museum in along the Onondaga Lake (the Onondaga Lake Thruway). We drove through the city to the Salt Museum and ate our picnic lunch at the comfortable park there.
A friendly seagull landed near my van window while I munched my sandwich. I tossed him a piece of my potato chip and he let me snap his photo.
While we ate, I briefed the kids on a little history of Onondaga Lake. This lake was once extremely polluted. As a kid, it was a miserable trip to pass the lake on a humid summer day– the stench of sewage rose up and sat at the bottom of one’s throat for the rest of the drive through the city. In the 80s, a movement was made to clean up the lake. >>> Read more of ‘The Salt Museum in Syracuse’
I used to live in Cherry Valley. Come to think of it, I think I’ve lived in every little bitty Upstate town. Oh, I am exaggerating. A little. Last year about this time, the family took a drive out to Cherry Valley to see the Judds Falls.
Cherry Valley is a tiny little place and one of those uber-rural Upstate New York towns very much “out of the way” from the main thoroughfare. It wasn’t always such an isolated settlement. In the days before motorcars and railroads, Cherry Valley was the natural passageway between the western and eastern sections of New York State. A Landmark Village says of it:
Cherry Valley was a gateway to the American Frontier. The reason was this: there is a ridge of mountains and hills that run east to west, separating the Mohawk from the Susquehanna watersheds. But there are smooth fertile glacial valleys both north and south of this ridge at Cherry Valley. The ancient Iroquois discovered that these glacial valleys formed a natural stairway, giving them their easiest way through the ridge. Cherry Valley was also quite near to the Mohawk River itself, which veers sharply south into Canajoharie.
The result was that Cherry Valley was an important link between the Mohawk and the other Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. Cherry Valley’s favored position along the ridge made it part of the natural route east to west as well.
Cherry Valley was the location of the Cherry Valley Massacre during the American Revolution. Have you ever seen the Mel Gibson movie, “The Patriot”? A great deal of the movie’s plot comes from various little events that actually occurred during the American Revolution. In the movie, Mel Gibson’s character speaks of a massacre of innocent women and children at a fort (called Fort Wilderness in the movie). Gibson and his men take revenge on the Indians and French perpetrators. During the American Revolution, there were several massacres, but the most famous one was probably the Cherry Valley Massacre.
We actually saw SUNSHINE yesterday (the Mohawk Valley of Upstate New York sees sunshine about 1/3 of the year). Almost all our surface snow had melted, although the big dirty clumps of snow remain. It was actually rather pleasant, despite the mud! Today, the temperatures are back down below freezing and misty snow is falling. A few inches are expected today.
Can I whine? Waaaaaaaaah!
The Mohawk Valley is a unique area of Upstate. It is the lowest geographic area of the state. Therefore, it is the cloudiest area of the state. We aren’t hit as hard with lake effect snow (snowstorms that travel from Lake Ontario to our west), but we do experience flooding.
The Mohawk Valley used to be called the Gateway to the West because it was the only navigable route to the western frontier of the United States, until the railroads were built in the late 1800s. If you look at a map of the Eastern seaboard, we’ve got the Appalachian Mountains from the Carolinas up to the Pennsylvania/New York State border, and we’ve got the Adirondacks and “Northern Appalachians” northward up to Canada.
The only area where people could transport their goods and their families west was up the Hudson River and westward through the Mohawk Valley. It is the reason why New York State is such the “melting pot” state that it is. The centuries of transmigration through our state has formed its character. We are an impatient, transient, restless people. There’s a terrific online book by the late Paul Keesler, called Valley of the Crystals; if you want to learn more about New York, that’s a great place to start.
It is believed that the first inhabitants of what is now New York were the Algonquin Indians and the Iroquois Indians (these are the European names given them). The Iroquois Indians consisted of numerous tribes; the groups that populated the Mohawk Valley were, as expected, the Mohawks. They were a very fierce and territorial tribe, so this part of New York was considered the “wild frontier” and remained largely unsettled because of the fierce clashes between the Europeans and the Mohawks.
The Revolutionary War (in which the Mohawks sided with the British– the losers) ended the Mohawk’s land claims. (During the Revolutionary War, Upstate New York was a hot bed of civil clashes between patriots and loyalists. Besides the 100+ battles fought here, there were terrorist raids by British, Loyalists, and their Indian allies. So much of the Mohawk Valley was destroyed by fire that this period is called “The Burning of the Valleys” to this day). After the war, the “wild frontier” was rapidly settled.
The construction of the Erie Canal sealed New York as the Empire State, leading an entirely new era of entrepreneurship, and spawned the Industrial Revolution in the country. And in the 1820s, a religious revival that began in Adams, NY, led by Charles Grandison Finney, spread across the state and across the nation. This eventually spawned religious revivals across the world in Wales, Scotland, and the Scandinavian countries. The Mohawk Valley became known as the “Burned Over District” because of the zeal and fervent devotion of Christians. From this revival sprang movements for women’s rights and the abolition of slavery. New York State– and especially the Mohawk Valley– led the nation once again.
I did not grow up in the Mohawk Valley. I am a relatively new import, although I am a New York native. I’m actually a descendant of the Algonquin Indians, so I don’t suppose I can get any more New York native than if I sprang out of the soil. Living in the Mohawk Valley is a interesting experience. The area is very self-absorbed. I don’t mean that in a necessarily negative way. This area is very cloistered and not as cosmopolitan as, say, Syracuse or Binghamton. And there is no desire for the Mohawk Valley to become cosmopolitan; the people of the Valley seem to like their traditional ways. I suppose this is what attracts young families, as the Mohawk Valley touts itself as a wonderful place to raise a family.
In June 2006, Upstate New York was hit massively hard with flooding catastrophies. The rain just never seemed to stop. My own property has been flooded a dozen times in the past decade. I dug up this old YouTube video of a restaurant in a nearby town that was washed away in the floods. The second video is an aerial video of the flooded Mohawk River. The pictures are stunning.
New York has been experiencing another series of battles over the years, this time for the heart and soul of the state. Horrible economic and legislative policies tailored to benefit New York City at the expense of rural Upstate has caused New York to spin into a nosedive. New York is expecting to lose at least two congressional seats after the next census, due to severely declining population; New York is losing its political clout and seems to have forgotten its roots. It was actually Upstate’s Erie Canal and Finney’s Great Awakening that made New York City the hub that it is and the success that it found, but I think those facts have been forgotten. Time will tell if New York will see another awakening.
See Part One of our visit to the Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse. This is Part Two.
After pulling the children off the packet boat and into the Museum, we wandered around the halls. There was a great deal to see and explore, and I wanted to soak it all in. From the packet boat display, we entered into the original 1850 building. I was overcome by the architectural beauty of the building.
The ceilings and walls were covered with elaborate pressed metal from the 1850s (I have some of it in my own house, still). There were several layers of paint covering it, which gave it a soft appearance. I’d never seen walls done this way. The trim was in wood. The lighting looked original, too; I later saw a photo of NYS engineers’ office from the 40s, and the lights were the same. Imagine– a canal weighlock building designed so beautifully! It’s funny, how such elegant buildings were built for such mundane or totally pragmatic functions. I’d recently seen photos of the Utica Psychiatric Building, which is the greatest example of Greek Revival architecture, but was built as a mental hospital and later became a place for alcohol and drug rehab. Amazing.
We wandered around a few rooms and enjoyed displays of everything from packet boat models to artifacts to office reproductions.
I was thrilled to see an entire section devoted to Elizabeth Cotten. How I used to love singing her old songs! I didn’t know she was from Syracuse until I moved away. Her song, “Freight Train,” was one of my favorites as a kid.
Libba Cotten’s Grammy and her SAMMY award were on display, too. There were displays about Syracuse’s salt mines, shoe manufacturing, and the lovely Syracuse China.
As if all this wasn’t enough, there was another floor to the Museum. We enjoyed our elevator ride up.
We entered the second-floor into a number of life-sized displays from the Erie Canal days, including a tavern, a general store, and a theatre stage. Elsewhere on the floor are an exhibition called “The Art of the Draughtsman” which featured original drawings of the Canal plans, and photographs. And there was a huge dress-up area with children’s tables, books, toys, bean bags, and puppets and a puppet stage. Needless to say, the kids LOVED every second of it.
I saw another hair wreath! I’d first seen one when we visited the Old Stone Fort in Schoharie. What weird things! This one was very intricate.
A curio cabinet displayed beautiful dishes. We found one with Utica on it!
The Utica plate information had me stunned. I never knew Utica was once “inferior to none in the western section of the state”! This is proof that Utica was thriving before the Italian mafia took over! Ha!
The kids had a blast in the children’s area, even the teenagers.
We had an absolutely wonderful time! I’m glad we decided to go!
Last week, we took a trip to the Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse, NY. What a terrific Museum! My kids did not want to leave. We spent about an hour and a half enjoying the displays and numerous hands-on activities for the kids. New York State has an education program that teaches the history of the Erie Canal. The Museum is geared toward this; it’s very appealing to children. It’s pretty obvious that my own kids heartily enjoyed it.
I went on a photography blitz here, taking more than 60 photographs. There was just so much to see and do! Of course, I can’t possibly post all the photos and information in one article. I am breaking up our visit into two posts. Be sure to read each one to get a well-rounded virtual visit.
After the massive parking woes, we found a parking spot and piled out of the van. Here’s the landmark, in case you ever need to find the Museum. The Museum is across the street from this statue.
The Museum is housed in the old “weighlock building,” built in 1850 (during the Greek Revival days of Upstate New York). It is the only remaining weighlock building of its kind, in the world.
A weighlock building weighed the canal boats. Tolls were charged for every packet boat that used the Erie Canal, and these tolls were determined by a boat’s weight. The concept of weighing packet boats blows my mind. This is from the Museum’s website:
The weighing process was simple. Boats entered the weighlock chamber. The gates closed, securing the boat in the chamber. Next, water was drained out through an underground culvert to Onondaga Creek. This left the boat resting on a large wooden cradle which was attached to a huge scale mechanism. Tolls were calculated by subtracting the empty weight of the boat from the full weight. Tolls were paid on the difference. Once this was done, water was added to the chamber and the boat was on its way. When all went well, this whole process took about 15 minutes.
The Erie Canal used to run down Erie Boulevard. What a difference it is now.
I was so impressed with the beautiful brickwork of the building. Why don’t we make such beautiful buildings anymore? Why does our modern architecture look like something from those gaudy Vegas rooms?
In 1907, the underground culvert collapsed, sending water from the Erie Canal (not to mention several packet boats) down into a sinkhole.
Go here for more photos and the details of the tragedy.
The Museum website has tons of excellent information. I found this section fascinating, because it gives you an idea of the efficacy of the Canal itself:
By 1883, more than $121 million dollars had been collected. The tolls not only covered the cost of constructing the canal, but also paid for repairs, operation and even the construction of the enlarged Erie Canal. Tolls were abolished…
The Erie Canal remained a vital transportation route throughout the Civil War. But, with the emergence of railroads, the Erie slowly began to decline. Thoughts turned to making a canal that could accommodate large barges. So, the Barge Canal was built between 1905-1918 at an initial cost of $101 million. Unlike the Erie Canal, the Barge Canal System, which is still in operation, makes use of natural waterways and needs no towpath.
The last canal boat passed through downtown Syracuse in 1922. Sewers, waterlines and other public services were laid in the old canal bed and then covered with dirt and blacktop to make the roadways. The section on which the Syracuse Weighlock Building faced became Erie Boulevard.
So was it worth it, building the Erie Canal?
In the 1930s, the weighlock building was converted into office buildings. It became a museum in 1962.
The entrance to the Museum is in a lovely little alley with a great big mural of Erie Canal life. From the second floor, you can see the mural very well through the windows.
We walked in to a pleasant lobby, where we were directed to a media room to watch a video. It was the best video I’ve ever seen about the Erie Canal. It discussed the changing demographics and economics of Upstate New York (and then the rest of the country) before and after the construction of the canal. Before 1817, when the first shovelful was dug, most of New York State (and the country) were of Dutch, English, Scotch, and French heritage. These are the peoples who basically compiled the plans and began the construction of the canal. As the canal was being built, and with the relaxing of immigration laws in 1820, floods of immigrants came to America. The chart below gives you an idea of how the demographics of our country changed in such a short period of time (click to enlarge):
I snapped photos of a few very interesting plaques with more information. I recommend reading them, as they are extremely informative. There’s one here called “Who Built the Erie Canal? and another here called “Labor on the Canal.” Oustanding!
Well, while I was reading plaques about the fascinating demographics, the children had skittered away to the packet boat. I could hear them shouting excitedly, “Hey, Mom, come here!”
Inside the boat were more displays and hands-on displays.
The kids could have spent days on the boat!
We couldn’t stay in the boat forever. I wanted to see the rest of the museum, and promised them that we could return to the boat at the end. Stay tuned for Part 2! Wait until you see what we found! Part Two is here.
I have two trips to put together and blog about, but I am sitting here at my desk, procrastinating. A day-long car trip always tuckers us out. I’m sitting like a lump, sipping my old coffee (I woke up late this morning), and staring at the screen, hoping I get the energy and ambition to start compiling the photos and writing the posts. I love writing, but some mornings it takes me longer to get started.
I still haven’t heard from the guys at BlogRush– I’m not listed in their links and not included in their new TrafficJam site, even though I am a registered member and have the widget in my sidebar. I browsed around the travel blogs a little. Here’s a title that caught my interest: Five Great Gifts for Travellers. The list was for travelers travelers– you know, full-time Tibet-climbing travelers (video camera, high-tech digital camera, airline tickets). I love travel supplies just as much as anyone, but I doubt I’d need airline tickets for my limited travel itinerary. But the list was interesting, and blog had some punch to it. And the title to this blog I’m a Seoul Man in Tokyo made me laugh. The blog isn’t as entertaining as the title, however.
As far as our car trip yesterday, it did not go as planned. We had planned to attend the Rubinstein Museum of Science and Technology (the MOST, as it is called). As I drove through downtown Syracuse (which was packed), down toward the Armory on Franklin Street, there wasn’t a parking space to be found anywhere. It was a N-I-G-H-T-M-A-R-E. And when we passed the entrance to the MOST, we saw a crowded line of people from the inside ticket office to the exterior doors, down the long stairs, onto the sidewalk, and into the curb a litte. The line was moving slowly and the temperature was 15 degrees. No way were we going to park five blocks away, walk to the MOST and wait half an hour to get inside. I was very disappointed, because I knew the kids would love the place.
We weighed our options, and decided on visiting the Erie Canal Museum nearby. I hadn’t brought my paper of addresses, so I drove up and down Erie Boulevard (and around and around the endless stream of one-way side streets), looking for the familiar weighlock building. As I tackled the traffic, I overheard one of the kids saying to another, “Hey, look at that mule statue.” I screeched to a halt! That was the landmark! I remember reading it at Apple Doesn’t Fall Far From the Tree. I wish I had remembered her parking tip. I found it today.
A tip if you plan to go. Look for this statue across the street from the museum. There are a few free parking spots in the lot behind and under the highway. The entrance to the lot is off of James St. There is also metered parking available on the streets surrounding the museum.
I wish I’d remembered that tip. No, instead I drove ’round and ’round downtown Syracuse, looking for a place to park, again. Finally, frustrated, I parked in front of the museum and walked in. I asked the gentleman at the desk if I might park there. He smiled and said “no” (with that smile that makes you wonder how many millions of times visitors have asked him about parking there). He directed me to pull in to the Senator Hughes State Office Building parking lot, across the street. “Ignore all the warning signs about towing and permits only,” he said, “just drive to the back of that parking lot, toward the short brick walls, and parking for the museum is allowed there.” He said that he has asked the State numerous times to get some better signs to inform visitors about the available parking, but “they haven’t gotten around to it.” If I was from another state, perhaps I would have been startled; but I am a New Yorker, and I just nodded my head in understanding, lol.
Well, we did park and we did make it into the building and we had a terrific time! But I haven’t compiled the photos nor have I done the research into the historical aspect; all that is forthcoming. I have to put up a story about our trip to the local newspaper building, too. But first I must finish my coffee!
Cherry Valley was the location of the Cherry Valley Massacre during the American Revolution. Have you ever seen the Mel Gibson movie, “The Patriot”? A great deal of the movie’s plot comes from various little events that actually occurred during the American Revolution. In the movie, Mel Gibson’s character speaks of a massacre of innocent women and children at a fort (called Fort Wilderness in the movie). Gibson and his men take revenge on the Indians and French perpetrators. During the American Revolution, there were several massacres, but the most famous one was probably the Cherry Valley Massacre. 
