Joint Legislative Committee on Preservation and Restoration of Historic Societies, 1960

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Legislative Document (1960) No. 78

STATE OF NEW YORK

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REPORT
JOINT LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE

PRESERVATION AND RESTORATION

HISTORIC SITES
1960
Legislative Document (1960) a No. 78

—=-=- - oon a — - —

STATE OF NEW YORK

REPORT

OF THE

JOINT LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE
ON

PRESERVATION AND RESTORATION
OF HISTORIC SITES

1959-60

LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

To the Legislatur of the State of New York:

Pursuant to concurrent resolution adopted March 21, 1957, as
continued last by Resolution 123 adopted March 25, 1959, the Joint
Legislative Committee on Preservation and Restoration of Historie
Sites respectfully submits its report.

Minprep F. Tayior, Chairman
Rospert EK. McEwen, Vice-Chairman
Joun P. Morrissey, Secretary
ALBERT BERKOWITZ

Grant W. JoHNsSOoN

Kpwyn E. Mason

Bertram L. Pope

March 29, 1960
PERSONNEL OF THE COMMITTEE

The Committee:
ASSEMBLYMAN Miuprep F’. Taytor, Chairman
Senator Rosert C. McEwen, Vice-Chairman
Senator JOHN P. Morrissry, Secretary
SENATOR ALBERT BERKOWITZ
ASSEMBLYMAN Grant W. JOHNSON
ASSEMBLYMAN Epwyn E. Mason

ASSEMBLYMAN Bertram L. Pope

Ex-Officio:
Senator Water J. Manoney, President Pro Tem of the Senate
ASSEMBLYMAN JOSEPH F. Cariino, Speaker, the Assembly

Senator Austin W. Erwin, Chairman, Finance Committee, the
Senate

ASSEMBLYMAN Wuiniiam H. MacKenzin, Chairman, Ways and
Means Committee, the Assembly

ASSEMBLYMAN CHARLES A. SCHOENECK, JrR., Majority Leader, the
Assembly

SENATOR JOSEPH ZARETZKI, Minority Leader, the Senate

ASSEMBLYMAN AntTHONY J. Travia, Minority Leader, the Assembly

Dr. Marvin A. Rapp
Consultant
State History

MitrcHett B. Booru

Associate Counsel
RESOLUTION CREATING THE COMMITTEE (1957)

RULES COMMITTEE—Wuereas, From its earliest settlement, the
state of New York has continuously played a tremendous role in the
historical and economic development of our country, and

Wuereas, In the course of its historical and economic growth many
areas, sites, places and structures have been marked with particular
significance and historical importance, and

Wuereas, The necessity to preserve and restore these links with the
heritage of our past is recognized to be of great importance, and
Cc db . P,

Wuenreas, The acquisition, restoration and preservation of these his-
toric sites and structures during the past quarter century has been left
almost entirely to private groups within the state, and

Wuereas, Numerous historical sites and places, and locations of eco-
nomic development such as the extensive nineteenth century canal
system, which was chiefly responsible for much of the economic growth
of the state, have been available for acquisition and development, but
have not been acquired or developed, and

Wuereas, The necessity for establishing a permanent program for
the acquisition, restoration, preservation and development of historic
sites and structures is well recognized, and

Wuereas, The necessity for providing authoritative direction for

such preservation and restoration as well as for recommending and for
providing adequate continuous financing therefor, is equally well
recognized ; now therefore, be it

Resolved (if the Senate concur), That a joint legislative committee
on historie site and historic canal preservation be, and the same hereby
is, created, to consist of three members of the Senate to be appointec
xy the temporary president of the Senate, and four members of the
Assembly, to be appointed by the Speaker of the Assembly, with ful
ower and authority (1) to make a thorough and comprehensive study,
survey and investigation of all historic sites and historic canals an
uistoric structures, for the purpose of ascertaining the feasibility of
reservation, restoration and/or reconstruction of such sites, canals
and structures; establishment of museums; and development of pro-
grams for making available to the general public the educational and
historic benefits of such projects, and (2) to make a thorough and com-
prehensive study and investigation of the estimated costs of such
projects and of methods and means for providing for payment of such
costs; and be it further

Resolved (if the Senate concur), That such committee organize by
the selection from its members of a chairman, vice-chairman and see-
retary. The members of the committee shall serve without compensa-
tion for their services but shall be entitled to their actual expenses
incurred in the performance of their duties. Any vacancy in the
membership of the committee shall be filled by the officer making the
original appointment. Such committee may employ and at pleasure
remove such counsel and other employees and assistants as may be
necessary and fix their compensation within the amount made available
therefor herein. Such committee shall have the power to designate and
consult with advisors, and may request and shall receive from all public
officers, departments and agencies of the state and its political subdivi-
sions such assistance and data as will enable it properly to consummate
its work, and generally shall have all the powers of a legislative com-
mittee as provided by the legislative law; and be it further

Resolved (if the Senate concur) That the sum of $25,000 (twenty-five
thousand dollars) or so much thereof as may be necessary, is hereby
appropriated from the legislative contingent fund and made immedi-
ately available to pay the expenses of such committee, including
personal service, in carrying out the provisions of this resolution.
Such money shall be payable after audit and upon warrant of the
comptroller on vouchers certified or approved by the chairman of the
committee in the manner provided by law.

The Committee was continued by Concurrent Resolutions No. 149 of 1958 and No. 123
of 1959.
CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
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1—Committee Assignment and Report on Previous Recommendations. ..... 1]

2—Field Studies, Committee Action in 1959...... Pee uig Ne ik ker Sash wy ce 15

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5—The Northern Border Waters of New York State............5........ 25

6é—A Study of Restoration at Mort Hunter.) i 0. iin Se sean w seus 51

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and ice of Lake Erie,

wall. while its outer end constitutes a section of a central column.

and the window sashes of wrought iron.

first superintendent.

The Old Buffalo Light, depicted in the cover sketch, was built in 1833.
It is situated on the Molehead, or outer end of the Stone Mole which projec
1,500 feet from the shore and on the south protects the harbor from the swell

The foundation of the lighthouse is a mass of solid masonry 30 feet in
diameter and nine feet deep. The tower is an octagon constructed of hewn
yellowish limestone 44 feet high, 20 feet in diameter at the base, and 12 feet
at the top under the cornice. On the inside is a spiral or geometrical stone
staircase, so constructed that each step has its broad end embedded in the

The floors and deck are of hewn stone, the doors and scuttles of coppe

—F rom an 1834 description of the
lighthouse by Isaac Smith, its

[9]
CHAPTER 1
COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENT

and
REPORT ON PREVIOUS RECOMMENDATIONS

That area which today is the State of New
York has been likened in past reports of this
Committee to a stage, on which—for more than
four centuries—unfolded an unending pano-
rama of historie action.

The substance of this drama can fire one’s
imagination, deepen one’s patriotism. It in-
cluded exploration and conquest, military strug-
gle, defeat of the wilderness, pioneer settlement,
and the political, economic and cultural develop-
ment of a free people.

Studied in that true sequence, it stimulates
wonder, in retrospect, whether the destiny which
cast this nation in the role of a world power in
the middle of the twentieth century was not
already shaping toward the middle of the six-
teenth, when Cartier sailed into the St.
Lawrence.

Certainly as one epoch followed another there-
after, developments in each setting the stage
for the next major episode, the chain of results
moved events unerringly toward the fulfillment
of that destiny.

The early explorations and resulting discov-
eries ignited ambitions for empire in the major
Kuropean powers of the day.

Behind Cartier came Champlain and a host
of others for France; Hudson, sailing for the
Netherlands, found and searched nearly 150
miles up the river of his name.

Kngland eventually took New Netherlands
and the valley of the Hudson from the Dutch
and, growing inevitably out of the era of ex-
ploration, the epochal French-English struggle
for dominance of much of North America was
on.

That epoch closed out with England’s win-
ning of supremacy over the largest, and what
was to become the richest and most productive

area on the continent. Her triumph was short-
lived, however, for an English colonial policy
based in exploitation stirred rebellion that be-
came the American Revolution.

In freedom won by seven years of war’s
bitter sacrifices, a new nation began its long
march to world eminence.

The wilderness fell before the pioneers; mi-
gration westward, a trickle after the Revolution,
quickened and flourished with the building of
the Erie Canal. Its horse-or-mule-drawn boats
and early Great Lakes vessels carried west the
new settlers and the material needs of their
predecessors and, in an ever-growing commerce,
brought east the fruits of a new land of vast
resources.

Nature Set the Stage,
Shaped the Course of Events

Throughout the centuries of the recorded
history of the land of New York, the action was
man’s but nature set the stage and to a great
extent shaped the course of events.

The St. Lawrence-Ontario waterway and later
the Hudson-Mohawk valleys offered the only
two water-level, and therefore easiest, routes to
the interior of the continent. Inevitably, along
with the Champlain Valley, they invited the
action of history in all its phases, exploration,
power struggle and national development.

So all the major episodes of a four-century
epic swept across this land of New York or
swirled along and around its borders.

This is the historic heritage of all in the
Empire State.

To expand public knowledge of it, to broaden
and deepen public appreciation of it, and to
promote improved and more extensive inter-

[11]
pretation of it are the objectives of this Joint
Legislative Committee on Preservation and
Restoration of Historic Sites.

Committee Assignment

To develop these objectives, the 1957 resolu-
tion creating the Committee authorized it to
‘make a thorough and comprehensive study,
survey and investigation of all historic sites
and historic canals and historic structures, for
the purpose of ascertaining the feasibility of
preservation, restoration and/or reconstruction
of such sites, canals and structures; establish-
ment of museums; and development of pro-
erams for making available to the general public
the educational and historic benefits of such
projects.’”’

In the three years of its existence, activities
of the Committee, both in the pursuit of studies
and in the development of recommendations,
refiect all aspects of that assignment.

As stated previously, the St. Lawrence-
Ontario waterway, the Hudson-Champlain val-
leys, and the Mohawk Valley, have been the
main corridors of New York history, determined
and fixed by nature.

Forming a natural pattern for history-
making, they offer just as natural a pattern for
history-study. So the Committee has concen-
trated annually on one of these corridors.

In 1957, because of widespread expressions
of interest in canal history, the Committee
toured the route of the Erie Canal, absorbed
its history by observation and guidance of local
and canal historians, and personally inspected
sites and structures which remain to reflect its
colorful story.

The following year, 1958, the Committee while
viewing many individual sites throughout the
State, made the Lake George-Champlain ‘‘ valley
of the forts’’—as described in its last report—
the main study objective. Included was a survey
of the Champlain Canal.

Having traveled and studied two sides of
New York’s historic triangle, in 1959 the Com-
mittee turned to the third, the region of St.
Lawrence-Ontario waters. The history of these
‘northern border waters”’ is colorfully depicted

in a narrative under that title which forms a
later section of this report.

Benefits of Historic Preservation

In the course of its studies, the Committee has
viewed many sites and structures reflecting
various phases of this state’s rich history, which
it believes worthy of preservation or restora-
tion.

Recommendations for State action in connec-
tion with some are contained in this or past
reports of the Committee. In relation to others,
it has sought to stimulate support for action on
the local level.

The Committee’s concern for the preservation
of some sites, with a better interpretation of
their history for the public, is based partly on
its conviction that a broad knowledge and a
true appreciation of state and national history
contributes strongly to better citizenship.

This objective of the Committee, however, is
not wholly idealistic—nor need it be.

Tourism and History

The development of tourism as a major factor
in the state and national economy lends a new
and practical importance to preservation and
restoration of historic sites.

Tourism has become big business. In more
than half of the states, it is among the top three
contributors to the economy. In New York
State, it is among the top five. Anything which
stimulates it can be of vast benefit to the State.
And historic sites more and more are luring
the tourist.

It is conservatively estimated that, in 1959,
a hundred million visits were made to the his-
toric sites, buildings and museums of America.

Here is how Frederick L. Rath, Jr., Vice-
Director of the New York State Historical
Association, views the importance, in relation
to the economy, of historic preservation and
ood historic interpretation.

‘“‘Tt figures. Holding the tourist in a
community for just one extra day means
money in the pocket. Even several years
ago, I was able to say that the average
tourist spent $14 a day while traveling.
Allowing eight hours a day for sleep and
two hours for being too tired to spend any
money, I said this meant that the tourist
was worth one dollar an hour on the hoof.
He’s worth even more now.

‘*Call it $15 a day per person, conserva-
tively. This means that an historic site,
building or museum that attracts only 20
tourists a day and holds them over for an
extra day is the equivalent of a new indus-
try with an annual payroll of $109,500.’’

It would appear obvious that any program
designed to improve the economic climate of
New York State should not ignore the impor-
tance of historic sites. This Committee has
recognized the attraction of history for tourists,
and the benefits to be realized therefrom, as is
apparent in the following review of its previous
recommendations.

STATUS OF PREVIOUS
RECOMMENDATIONS

Out of the continuing studies of this Com-
mittee have developed recommendations be-
lieved basic to a sound, long-range program of
historic preservation, restoration, and inter-
pretation.

Historic Markers

Because it was believed a matter of top
priority, the Committee in its first (1957) report
outlined the need for a modernized State historic
marker program.

Recognizing the growth of tourism, previously
emphasized, as well as the potential traffic haz-
ards it creates, the Committee suggested that
the placement of the traditionally small historic
markers be sharply curtailed. Substitution of
markers at least twice the size, so as to be easily
read from a moving automobile was proposed.

It was further proposed that markers be
placed at rest areas along the New York State
Thruway and at strategic locations on other
main highways, which would adequately point
up history of nearby areas.

To initiate and stimulate modernization of
the State’s marker program, the Committee

annually has sought through legislation an ap-
propriation of $10,000 to the Education Depart-
ment. Bills for this purpose, previously unsuc-
cessful, have been reintroduced in the 1960
Legislature.

Admission Fees

Believing that so far as is practicable, his-
toric sites should be maintained on a self-
sustaining basis, the Committee has sponsored
legislation in the past for establishment of
admission fees under certain conditions.

The recommendation is offered again and
legislation to implement it introduced in the
1960 Legislature. It would authorize the Divi-
sion of Archives and History in the Department
of Education to charge fees for admission to
certain historic sites, except for children 16
and under. The Division would have discretion
as to sites and buildings where the charging of
such fees would be advisable.

Port Byron Lock (Old Erie Canal)

The Committee acknowledged in its last re-
port the prompt cooperation of the Thruway
Authority toward making the Old Erie Canal
lock, which borders the Thruway at Port Byron,
more clearly visible to travelers on that high-
way.

Following a Committee recommendation in
1957, the Thruway bulldozed the area and
cleared it of brush and other obstruction to
sight of the lock. The Committee has made
inquiry of the Authority as to the possibility of
its erecting a suitable marker at this old canal
site.

Canal Museums

Previous reports of this Committee have
noted the widespread interest in museum pres-
ervation, as well as interpretation, of the historv
of the State’s canals. .

It has been the thinking of many consulted
by the Committee that this should involve two
museums of distinctly different type.

One, devoted to preservation and display,
would require a suitably located building where-
in would be placed documents, pictures, and
other such memorabilia of canal history. Be-
cause of the many factors involved, including
accessibility, necessary parking facilities, financ-
ing, ete., the Committee is not yet prepared to
recommend a site it believes suitable for such a
purpose. Study is continuing.

Considerable enthusiasm meanwhile has been
noted by the Committee for development of a
so-called ‘‘living’’ museum which could inter-
pret canal history generally and actively por-
tray canal life—ashore and afloat—in the mid-
nineteenth century.

After long study and visits to many suggested
sites, the Committee found at Fort Hunter the
only area where surviving structures reflect all
three phases of Erie Canal history—Clinton’s
Ditch, the Improved Erie, and the modern Barge
Canal.

For this reason and because of other aspects
of suitability, the Committee asked the Depart-
ment of Public Works to make a survey of the

cost for the development of a Fort Hunter
‘‘living’’? museum.
Results of the survey are included in the

final chapter of this report, which deals in
general with Fort Hunter as a possible museum
site.

Government Museum

The Committee, in its 1959 report, noted the
apparently growing interest of school children,
as well as adult tourists, in operations of the
Legislature and government generally, as evi-
denced by increasing visitations to State gov-
ernment buildings. In deference to this interest,

and because it believes a good presentation and
intelligent interpretation of State government
activity and history is highly desirable, the

Committee recommended the establishment,
preferably in the Capitol, of a government
museum.

The Committee is renewing this reeommenda-
tion this year in more specific form.

One fine example of the interpretation with
which the Committee is concerned is the attrac-
tive booklet depicting the story of the Capitol
and the Legislature, with related exhibits in the
Assembly lounge, recently developed by Joseph
F. Carlino, Speaker of the Assembly.

John Jay Home

One of the most satisfying accomplishments
of this Committee was its action to assure
preservation of the historic and beautiful West-
chester County home of John Jay, second Gov-
ernor of New York, framer of the State’s
Constitution, author of the Jay Treaty, and
first Chief Justice of the United States.

Resulting from a committee recommendation
based on considerable study, a 1958 law was
enacted permitting the State to accept the
property as a gift from Westchester County.
The county acquired the home, transferred it
to the State in February, 1959, and it became
the twenty-third historic site supervised by the
Department of Kducation.

Although the Committee had hoped for an
earlier opening of this home, it has been in-
formed by the office of the State Historian that
the house will not be ready for public visitation
until 1961.
CHAPTER 2
FIELD STUDIES, COMMITTEE ACTION

IN 1959

The Committee, having in the first two vears
of its activity concentrated respectively on
the Erie Canal path and the Lake George-
Champlain Valley, directed its field studies in
1959 mainly to areas along the third great route
of New York history, the St. Lawrence-Ontario
waterway.

In addition, as previously, individual mem-
vers and staff visited and inspected, on assign-
ment by the Chairman, various sites which had
een brought to Committee attention.

Such sub-committees and staff also carried
‘orward studies in other areas of Committee
interest, including the problem of historic zon-
ing and possibilities of developing recreational
canal cruises.

For three days in early August, the Com-
mittee toured and inspected closely sites and
structures linked with the march of history
along the St. Lawrence River and in the so-called
‘north country’’ which borders it. Any wonder
at the ever-growing lure of historic places for
tourists is dispelled by such a trip. To tread,
view and study these mementoes of history is,
for one with any imagination, almost to live it.

Sackets Harbor

Nowhere does one experience this feeling
more strongly than at picturesque Sackets
Harbor, near where Ontario water becomes the
St. Lawrence. Here an atmosphere of the past
enfold a community of some 1,200
population.

seems to

Center of interest is the park which caps the
shore prominence where occurred, during the
War of 1812, the action described in the narra-
tive of history hereafter in this report. Com-
manding an area of strategic importance,

ment until well toward the mid-twentieth
century.

Committee inspection of the area was re-
quested by the State Department of Conserva-
tion, which presently exercises jurisdiction over
the park. The thought had been advanced that
the park, with two old and historic houses
adjoining it, might be transferred to the Eduea-
tion Department for inclusion in its historic
sites program.

Dr. Albert B. Corey, State Historian, accom-
panied the Committee on its visit to the park
site and subsequently has met with the Jefferson
County Board of Supervisors and other local
officials concerning its future. Study of the

situation is being continued by the Committee.

Homes Reflect Old France

During its tour, the Committee was privileged
to visit two old and beautiful homes at Cape
Vincent, redolent of the past and the Old
Country French influence in the area.

One, the home of Mrs. John L. Johnston, was
the first stone house built in that section. It was
erected 150 years ago by James Le Ray de
Chaumont (1760-1840), whose father had been
a generous contributor to the cause of American
freedom. Cape Vincent is named for the son
of the original owner of this impressive old
home.

Legend has it that the house was intended as
a refuge for Napoleon, but this hope of his
followers never came to realization.

The second house visited by the Committee,
of about the same period, is now the home of
Mr. and Mrs. David Otis, who proved gracious
hosts in showing its many charms. Perhaps the
greatest of these, along with its many antiques,
is a ceiling of portraits which graces, in the
ancient French style, one spacious and beautiful

Sackets Harbor remained a military establish- room.

[15]
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Black River Canal Locks

The Black River Canal, an engineering marvel
of the 1830s, linked the Erie Canal at Rome with
the Black River at Lyons Falls and, until its
final use in the early 1920s, provided a waterway
to the St. Lawrence. It was a major factor in
the ‘‘opening’’ of the north country to settle-
ment and in its subsequent development. Two
other needs of the time, aside from the economic,
influenced the building of this canal. One was
more water required for the Erie Canal, the
other the necessity of providing easier and
faster transportation of military and other
supplies to the Sackets Harbor area.

Today the remains of the old canal can be
traced for miles along State Route 12, its
massive stone locks visible at many points as
mementoes of a long-gone era.

Just such a tracing, afoot and by car, occupied
the entire final day of the Committee’s August
tour.

These old canal locks are relics but many of
them are, in the physical sense, far from ruins.
A never-failing wonder to tourists who stop
along the road and walk through heavy brush
to view them, or climb atop them, is the condition
of these fine examples of meticulous stonework.

With stone fitted against and upon stone,
without mortar, the alignment of some of the
locks seems as true, their walls as tight, as
when they were laid a century and a quarter ago.

Probably the best preserved, and certainly
the most easily viewed by motorists, are the
so-called ‘‘five combine’’ locks on the east side
of Route 12 near Boonville.

A study of these and other of the Black River
Canal locks, with a view to developing means
of preserving them, was one of the earliest
determinations of this Committee.

The Committee projected that study in 1959
and put a personal inspection of the locks and
canal route on the agenda of the August tour
after learning of the imminent possibility that
some stones might be removed from some of the
‘‘combine’’ locks and transported out of the
immediate area for other use.

It was also reported to the Committee, during
its inspection of the canal route, that State plans

for highway construction through the area
might cause loss of the lock stonework.

The Committee is pursuing inquiries to the
Department of Public Works as to such plans,
with the hope that highway routing and design
‘an be such as to leave the combine locks for
an attraction in a roadside park or picnic area.

We are recommending that an appropriation
be made to the State Public Works Department
in 1961-62 for the clearing of brush and the
establishment of such a park, with suitable
identification of the locks.

Meanwhile, the Committee is sponsoring a
bill in the 1960 Legislature to protect the other
locks in Lewis county. The bill would place
jurisdiction over the locks with the Lewis
county Board of Supervisors, at its request, on
condition that any use of the lock stones ean be
only for historic purposes.

Fort Hunter Visit

An inspection by the Chairman of this Com-
mittee, and staff, of the Fort Hunter area
previously mentioned as being considered as a
possible site for a ‘‘living’’ canal museum
coincided with a visit to this historic spot by
Governor Rockefeller.

The Governor trudged a half mile along the
old bed of the improved Erie Canal, to view
locks of the still older ‘‘Clinton’s Diteh.’’? Later
the Governor expressed interest in the site and
his belief it has real possibilities for historie
preservation.

Genesee Canal

Early in the summer of 1959, the Chairman
of this Committee visited the area between
Nunda and Portageville to view, under local
guidance, the old canal bed of what was known
as the Genesee Canal.

The unique structure of
is discussed in the narrative which is a later
chapter. There appeared to be evidence of
local interest in the possible preservation of a
part of this old canal bed, with the possibility
voiced of the county developing a park area
about it.

this canal channel

Representations of the Committee

In July, 1959, this Committee was represented
by its (¢ ‘hairman, Assemblyman Mildred F.
Taylor, at ceremonies rededicating Fort Ontario
at Oswego.

Senator Robert C. MeHwen, Vice-Chairman,
and the Committee’s consultant on history, Dr.
Marvin A. Rapp, represented the Committee at
ceremonies opening the St. Lawrence Seaway.
Their impressions, and information gained, is
reflected in this report’s narrative on the
northern border waters.’

HISTORIC ZONING

\side from the field studies reported on
ahoy e, one of the major areas of Committee
activity was in connection with the problem of
historic zoning. Committee interest dev elops
from its concern that unless protective steps
are taken, important and historic sites and
structures may be lost.

The protection of antiquity in the United
States has been accomplished largely through
the efforts of local historical societies , art asso-
ciations and other cultural groups organized by
individuals interested in preserving and main-
taining historic landmarks. A comparatively
recent development is the protection of historie
sites, and even whole communities, by statutes
and ordinances enacted by state and local
legislative hodies.

In view of the existence of such legislation
throughout the United States. this ( ommittee
is studying and carefully considering, among’
many others, historic preservation legislation
in effect in the cities of Williamsbure and
Alexandria, Va., Philadelphia, New Orleans,
Boston and W ashington and the State of Rhode
Island. These are believed to be among the
most successful examples of this type of legis-
lation.

In its study of historic preservation legisla-
tion, the Committee has observed that some
legislation was intended to serve as a protection
and preservation measure, to prevent further
Ei ache of a comparatively small, histori-
cally significant area, while some legislation

was also intended and designed to serve as a

reconstruction measure.

The typical statute designed to protect a
community usually established an Architectural
Board of Review. This board was authorized
to pass upon the appropriateness of exterior
architectural features of buildings, including,
among other things, design, height and the color
and texture of the material of construction,
before issuing a permit for the alteration or
reconstr uction of any building in the designated

area. Likewise, before any building within the
designated Matiric area was demolished. the
board had the authority to approve or disap-

prove the projected demolition.

The Committee realizes that any statute
enacted by the Legislature, unposing such re-
strictions upon the free use of private property,
must, of course, be considered in the light of
the common law relating to the use of such
property. Historically, the owner of property
has the right to use it as he desires, limited only
by a proper exercise of the police power. The
State’s control over the free use of proper ty is
well expressed in 42 Am. Jur., P roperty Section
49, where it is stated as follows:

é(6¢ * aK oo

the power rests in the state so
to regulate and control the use of property

as to secure the general safe ‘ty, the public
welfare, and the peace, good order. and

morals of the community. And in the proper
exercise of its property rights are subject
to such regulation as the T, egislature m: LV
in its wisdom see fit to impose, consistent
with the Constitution. This does not con-
fer power to control rights which are purely
and exclusively private, but it does author-
ize the establishment of law s requiring each
citizen so to conduct himself and use his
own property as not unnecessarily to injure
another. This is the very essence of the
government. This power of government—
commonly called the police power—is essen-
tial, and, as well, very great and compre-
hensive in its extent. * *

‘“The state may provide regulations as
to the acquisition, enjoyment, and disposi-
tion of property. The power Pitend: to
intangible, as well as to tangible

» property

However, since the right of property is a
fundamental right, its protection, as well
as its use, is one of the most important
objects of government, a limitation imposed
under this power without reason or neces-
sity cannot be enforced; and in the exercise
of it, the state cannot prohibit altogether

any person whatever from legally acquiring

and possessing property generally, or any
particular species or description of prop-
erty. Nor can an owner be deprived, even
by statute, of the legitimate use of his
property because it may cause a real dam-
age to his neighbor. The state can, how-
ever, within constitutional limitations, not
only regulate the acquisition, enjoyment,
and disposition of property, but as all
property is held subject to the lawful de-
mand of the sovereign, it may also take
private property for a public purpose, sub-
ject, of course, to the right of the individ-
uals to just compensation therefor.’’

In the past, Courts generally have refused to
regulate private property solely for aesthetic
purposes. Regulatory statutes have been sus-
tained only when they protected the public
welfare.

In Matter of Isenbarth v. Bartnett, 206 App.
Div. 546, affirmed without opinion, 237 N. Y.
617, the Court, at page 549, held:

‘‘That the police power cannot, for aes-
thetic purposes, be used to deprive the
owner of property of its full beneficial use,
and that, in short, zoning or similar legis-
lation is not to be exercised for purposes
other than the health, safety, convenience,
and public welfare of the people at large.’’

See also, People ex rel. Lankton v. Roberts,
90 Mise. 439, affirmed without opinion, 171 App.
Div. 890.

A recent tendency of Courts, however, has
been to uphold the constitutionality of legis-
lative acts designed to preserve aesthetic quali-
ties in the architecture of cities and towns. In
dealing with just such a situation, the United
States Supreme Court, in Berman v. Parker,
348 U.S. 26, stated, at pages 31 to 33, as follows:

“The power of Congress over the Dis-
trict of Columbia includes all the legislative
powers which a state may exercise over its
affairs. See District of Columbia v. John
R. Thompson Co. 346 US 100, 108, 97 L ed
1480, 1488, 73 S Ct 1007. We deal, in other
words, with what traditionally has been
known as the police power. An attempt to
define its reach or trace its outer limits is
fruitless, for each case must turn on its
own facts. The definition is essentially the
product of legislative determinations ad-
dressed to the purposes of government, pur-
poses neither abstractly nor historically
‘capable of complete definition. Subject to
specific constitutional limitations, when the
legislature has spoken, the public interest
has been declared in terms well-nigh con-
elusive. In such eases the legislature, not
the judiciary, is the main guardian of the
public needs to be served by social legis-
-lation, %

* mK *

‘““The concept of the public welfare is
broad and inclusive. See Day-Brite Light-
ing, Inc. v. Missouri, 342 US 421, 424, 96
L ed 469, 472, 72 S Ct 405. The values it
represents are spiritual as well as physical,
aesthetic as well as monetary. It is within
the power of the legislature to determine
that the community should be beautiful as
well as healthy, spacious as well as clean,
well-balanced as well as carefully patrolled.
In the present case, the Congress and its
authorized agencies have made determina-
tions that take into account a wide variety
of values. It is not for us to re-appraise
them. If those who govern the District of
Columbia decide that the Nation’s Capital
should be beautiful as well as sanitary,
there is nothing in the Fifth Amendment
that stands in the way.’’

Likewise, to the same effect are the words of
the late Chief Judge Pound in Perlmutter v.
Greene, 259 N. Y. 327, 332, where he stated:

‘Beauty may not be queen, but she is
not an outcast beyond the pale of protection
or respect. She may at least shelter herself

under the wing of morality

decency.’’

safety, or

See also, Morrison, Jacob H., Historic Pres-

ervation Law, Pelican Pub. Co., 1957, pages
10-21.

The Committee believes that legislation de-
signe . to protect historically significant areas
of the State, if reasonably construed, reason-
ably CeanGk and reasonably administered,
would not only safeguard old and historic areas

but also improve property valuations in the
protected area, and bring to some communities
added wealth by virtue of the tourist dollar.

In considering preservation legislation, the
Committee is aware that all that is old, and all
that historic, cannot, and should not, be
preserved, but that a proper balance between
the irreplaceable monuments to our great heri-
tage, and the social and economic development
of the state, must be achieved, in order to pre-
serve effectively the truly historically signifi-
‘ant sites throughout the state.

The Committee, at this time, is of the opinion
that it would be improper, as well as imprac-
tical, for it to attempt to zone historically and
segregate areas within the state. It believes
that the successful enactment and enforcement
of preservation laws depend, largely, upon pub-
lic acceptance of historically significant sites
within each local community, and thereafter, the
enactment and enforcement by an enlightened
citizenry of preservation laws on a_ local
community level.

The Committee does not believe, however,
that the State should divorce itself from this
important cultural area. It should, rather, es-
tablish a medium whereby it could coordinate
the efforts of local communities with a state-
wide historic preservation policy.

In view of all of the aforementioned, the
Committee is considering future sponsorship
of enabling legislation which would encourage
local communities to embark upon a planned

preservation program. The Committee also
believes it essential for the State to establish

some medium by which it could assist and coor-
dinate the development of such a program
throughout the State.

CANAL CRUISES

Ever since its creation, this Committee has
engaged in a continuing study of the possibili-
ties of revitalizing the Erie Canal as a recrea-
tional area through establishment of regular
pleasure cruises for the public.

The volume of favorable publicity on the

potential of the canal as an attraction for
vacationers since the first report and initial

recommendations of the Committee give reason
to believe its work has been a considerable factor
in a very obvious increase of pleasure boating
on the canal.

During 1959 more than 7,000 lock permits
were issued to pleasure boat owners, and more
than 30,000 such craft were registered on the
canal system and connecting waters.

Two articles on the cruising possibilities of
the canal were published during the year in the
travel section of the Sunday edition of the
New York Times. A map of the waterw ays of
the State, with considerable and specifie canal
information was issued in connection with New
York’s ‘‘Year of History.’’

Tiedemann Report

The Committee engaged the firm of H. M.
Tiedemann and Sons, Inc., of New York ( ity,
researchers in the marine fie Id, to make a survey
of commercial cruise possibilities in relation to
the canal.

After considerable study and many contacts
with industry spokesmen, the firm re ports that
such canal tours ‘‘would probably not be feas-
ible as a wholly commercial operation at the
start’? but adds:

‘‘We believe the proposed canal tours
definitely warrant further investigation as
a semi-commercial operation,
New York State.”’

The report also says that if barges or other
craft could be made available to a concession-
aire at a nominal charge,
could be realized.

The Committee feels favorably, in this con-
nection, toward a suggestion by Dr. Dav id Ennis

of Lyons: its advisor in this area of study, that
the State’s inspection boat,

assisted by

an ample margin

> ee)

‘‘Tnspector

might be made available for charter by groups
for one-week cruises. Disposal of the boat has
been under discussion because of operation cost.
The Committee believes such chartering as sug-
gested, if feasible, would partly defray such
operation expense and, perhaps, permit reten-
tion of the vessel by the Public Works Depart-
ment for its primary and, we believe, very
necessary function of inspection.

Partly as a result of the interest stimulated
by this Committee, the popularity of commer-
cial cruising of the canal will be tested in July
of this year.

Plans are currently in progress for a pri-
vately operated cruise, with accommodations
for 49 passengers, the whole length of the Erie,

Buffalo to Albany. Overnight stops will be
made at six towns and cities along the way.

Bond Issue for Recreational Areas Development

A new factor which it is hoped will encourage
State interest in canal cruises for the public,
as well as the general canal potential for recrea-
tion, is noted by the Committee with Governor
Rockefeller’s proposal for a $75 million bond
issue to further develop the State’s recrea-
tional areas.

The Committee believes the State’s main
canal and its connecting waters offer an area
of great possibilities in this connection and one
which should be thoroughly explored.

CHAPTER 3
RECOMMENDATIONS

The Joint Legislative Committee on Pres-

ervation and Restoration offers the following

recommendations, based upon its 1959 and
previous studies.

We recommend:

1. Enactment of legislation which would
authorize transfer of the Weigh Lock building
at Syracuse, historic structure of the Old Erie
Canal and presently under jurisdiction of the
State Department of Public Works, to the
county of Onondaga for its use as a museum. A
bill for this purpose is before the 1960 Legis-
lature.

2. That funds for continued maintenance of
Guy Park Manor at Amsterdam and Clinton
House, Poughkeepsie, as historic sites under
supervision of the Education Department dur-
ing 1960-61 be restored in the State Budget.

(The studies of this Committee have
touched upon both of these properties and
it has a continuing interest in them. Con-
siderable sentiment for restoration of this
money has been expressed to the Committee
from within and outside the Legislature.
We urge such restoration be made through
the supplemental budget. )

3. That the State assume the initial
estimated by the Department of Public Works
at $101,000, for some land acquisition and pre-
liminary work necessary to ultimate develop-
ment of an area at Fort Hunter as a “‘livine’’
museum of the state’s canal history.

cost,

(The estimated cost cited would be in-
volved in purchase of about 45 acres, the
building of access roads, and creation of
parking areas.

(The Committee believes—and so recom-
mends—additional development should be
financed by interested individuals, histori-
cal groups and other organizations, as well
as business and industry. This project, we
also believe, would well merit consideration

[2s

]

in any program of recreational expansion
growing out of the $75 million bond issue
proposal by Governor Rockefeller.)

4. A State appropriation under pending leg-
islation of $10,000 to the Education Department
to permit a start on modernization of the State’s
historic marker program.

(The Committee for three years has
urged such modernization, including the
substitution of larger, more easily read
markers for the traditionally small road-
side signs. The placement of markers, the
Committee also believes, should be re-
stricted to identifying spots and areas of
state-wide historical significance. )

5. That $10,000 be appropriated to the State
Department of Public Works in the 1961-62
budget for work necessary to development of
a small park area at the site of the ‘“eombine’’
locks of the Black River Canal on State Route
12 near Boonville.

(This appropriation would permit clear-
ing of brush, creation of a parking area, and
identification of the locks.)

6. Historic preservation of other locks in this
area of the Black River Canal by enactment of
a bill pending in the 1960 Legislature, under
which they could be transferred to jurisdiction
of the Lewis County Board of Supervisors.
Such transfer could be made only on condition
that any lock stones, not claimed by the State,
could be used only for historic purposes.

7. That enabling legislation be developed
which would encourage local communities to
program preservation of historie sites or struc-
tures, with adequate zoning protection where
necessary to such preservation. (See discussion
of historic zoning in previous chapter.)

(The Committee that serious
consideration should be given also to the
development of some medium for

believes

assist-

ance to and coordination of local preserva-
tion programs in their relation to a State
program. )
of a suitable depository—an archives building
—for documents, records, and other similar
material dealing with the canal system.

8. A study looking toward the establishment

(The Committee has been informed that
such items of historical significance and, in
some instances, of practical use to the De-
partment of Public Works exist in great
volume but are widely scattered. Any build-
ing to house them should be strategically
located so as to be easily accessible to the
public as well as to State departments.

9. Serious consideration by the State for the
development in the Capitol at Albany of a gov-
ernment museum, in which could be portrayed
and interpreted, through exhibits and other-
wise, the history, significance to the people, and
operations of State government.

(As previously stated in this report, the
need of such a museum, we believe, is ade-
quately demonstrated by the ever-increas-
ing number of persons, particularly school
children, who tour State government build-
ings as evidence of their interest.

(The Committee believes that in future
allocations of space in the Capitol, consid-
eration should be given to reservation of a
suitable area on the first floor for develop-
ment of a government museum.)

10. That a study be undertaken of the present

scope and possible further development of the
administration of historic sites.

11. That sufficient money be allocated to the
appropriate State agency, in the 1961-62 budget,
for the development of a program of certificate
presentation to owners of historic houses in
recognition, where warranted, of private efforts
to preserve their historic features.

12. That appropriate steps be taken for the
development, at the ruins of the forts at Crown
Point, of a modern setup, using models of the
former structures, suitable lighting, and sound
tape, for the effective telling, to hundreds of
visitors yearly, the colorful story of this
historie area.

13. That, if and when any State program for
expansion or improvement of recreational areas
is projected as a result of the pending proposal
for a $75 million bond issue for that purpose,
serious consideration be given to:

(a) The great potential of the Erie Canal
and its connecting waters for recreational pur-
poses, including canal eruises.

(b) Assistance toward the development of a
‘‘living’’ museum of canal history at Fort
Hunter, including a marina for the use of canal
cruisers.

(d) The potentialities for recreation, as well
as historical attraction, of the Sackets Harbor
park and adjacent shore area.

CHAPTER 4
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Again in 1959, as it has since the inception of
its studies, the Joint Legislative Committee on
Preservation and Restoration of Historie Sites
enjoyed the active cooperation of many people
throughout the state, motivated only by their
interest in promotion of a more widespread
knowledge and appreciation of New York
history.

The Committee wishes to acknowledge, in
particular, its indebtedness to:

Dr. David Ennis, of Lyons, who contributed

his authoritative knowledge of canal history and
his time and effort in studying the possibilities
of developing canal cruises.

Dr. Albert B. Corey, State Historian, who
accompanied the Committee on field studies and
otherwise gave of his time and intimate knowl-
edge of State history.

Dr. Marvin A. Rapp, who, as an authority on
State history, has aided greatly in developing
the Committee program and this report.

[24]
CHAPTER 5

THE NORTHERN BORDER WATERS
OF NEW YORK STATE

(An Historical Interpretation of the Area)

New York State roughly resembles a right
triangle of which the western northern boundary
forms the hypotenuse. This international
boundary, a water border, shaped not only the
map of New York but much of its colonial and
State history.

It was and is the great water gateway to the
West, a part of the Great Lakes—St. Lawrence
River system. Just as the surge and sweep of
these waters excited and intrigued the imagina-
tion of past explorers and conquerers, today,
they stir and color the imagination of any who
seek a grasp of their historic importance.

To stimulate greater inte rest in and a deeper
appreciation of the story of New York’s north-
ern waters there is attempted here an inter-
pretation of the history which stemmed in great
part from their being and which for centuries
flowed along their course.

Old Buffalo Light

The vear 1833 is cut deeply in the limestone
lentil above the single steel door. It looks now
as it did then, standing proudly tall, sentinel-like
white topped with black. Itself unchanged, it
has seen a century and a quarter of changes
around it. This is the Old Buffalo Light, once
an anxiously sought beacon and now, dead-like
and blind, still pretending to guide the ships
that travel Buffalo harbor to and from the sea.

Like all lighthouses, this one marries the land
and the water. No other structure seems to
symbolize the Niagara Frontier so well. Indeed

it well symbolizes the history of the whole
western-northern boundary of New York from
Lake Erie to the St.
Champlain.

This Buffalo Lighthouse represents the trans-
portation and commerce, the light and power

Lawrence River to Lake

that dominate the history of this lake and river
country. In the 127 years it has watched the
contours of shoreline and skyline change, it
has caught much of the history of America in
the light of its lamps. Recently the cutting of a
new harbor entrance to accommodate ships of
the modern seaway threatened it with destruc-
tion. This old lighthouse at the western apex
of the historic right angle that is New York
could continue to remind Americans of a great
heritage.

Crossroads of History

Certainly the area which it lighted for so
lone marks the western shores of New York
State and is a good logical beginning for this
study of the past.

Here where the waters of the Upper Great
Lakes pour into the narrow Niagara River,
there is immediately under foot and within easy
sight, land and water of the greatest strategic
importance to the state, the nation, the con-
tinent, and even the world.

The natural east-west water level routes from
the Atlantic Ocean converge at this point. From
Hudson Bay to Georgia there are only two
commercially exploitable water level routes
from east to west—the St. Lawrence—Great
Lakes and the Hudson-Mohawk River Valley
routes. Starting from widely separated points
on the Atlantic coast they join at the Niagara
Frontier like an arrow pointing at the heartland
of America. This geographic fact largely pre-
destined the greatness of New York, conditioned
its continuing development and helped make it
the leading State of the world’s greatest Nation.

Rails from every direction weave a network
of steel throughout the Buffalo Harbor area.
Gaze for a moment through the windows of the

Old Buffalo Lighthouse, toward the setting sun.
Ahead, Lake Erie stretches its waterway west-
ward, To the right, the Niagara River flows
northward toward its rush over the great falls,
down the gorge to mingle with Lake Ontario,
later the St. Lawrence River, eventually the
Atlantic Ocean. Here then, begins the gentle
curve of the great circle route to Europe.

To the right and the north also, the short but
important Black Rock Canal hugs the river
bank, holding the water at lake level around
the little rapids to a river point beyond, where
quieter waters make navigation safe to the
Erie Canal terminus at the Tonawandas. To
the rear of this position and eastward from this
place runs the New York State Thruway—a
part of it on the bed of the old Erie Canal.
Nature and man have wedded the waterways,
railways, airways and roadways north, south,
east and west at this strategic point.

Together they have made the Niagara Fron-
tier a great transportation crossroads of North
America. It is a hub of commerce. At such
vital points is history made. Its monuments
remain today to remind us of this fact. On
the Canadian side, across the river from the
lichthouse, the long silent guns of old Fort
Erie still guard the lake and river. Not far
from the fort and obliquely opposite, across
the Niagara River on the American side, is
a graceful bridge that spans the Thruway,
rail lines, Black Rock Canal, the Niagara River.
It connects America and Canada. Commemo-
rating over a century of peace between two
former enemies, anchored in two former battle-
fields. this is the Peace Bridge. Rearing astride
a 3,000 mile, completely unfortified boundary
line, a border without bayonets, this great strue-
ture is a commanding, and all too rare example
of man’s common sense.

On the American shore, between the lght-
house and the bridge, there an historic
marker. Let the legend, cast in bronze and
mounted on a_ concrete suggest the
pagentry of history that passed this way.

base,

“HISTORIC LAKE
THE INDIAN NA‘
WHO DWELT (
BEFORE 1654 WH
QUERED BY TH

FED

ERIE NAMED FOR
TON OF THE ERIES,
YN THESE SHORES
IN THEY WERE CON-
: TROQUOIAN CON-

Ki
HRACY.”’

1641—earliest mention of the lake, in writings

of French missionaries

1669—first white man known to travel its waters
was Louis Joliet

La Salle’s ‘‘Griffon’’ first ship to sail
Great Lakes above Niagara

1679

749—Celeron’s expedition voyaged south to
elaim Ohio basin for France

758—Chaber Joneaire constructed
settlement at Buffalo Creek

earlier

1759—French were defeated—this
became a British possession

region

1783—Treaty of Paris—United States recog-
nized by Great Britain

1796—Jay’s Treaty—British relinquished fron-
tier posts south of United States shores

1813—Commodore O. H. Perry victorious in
Battle of Lake Erie

1817—Rush-Bagot Treaty—naval armament of

the Great Lakes restricted

1818—The ‘‘Walk-in-the-Water’’, first steam-
ship on Lake Erie was launched
1822—boundary established between United

States and Canada

895—FHrie Canal, connecting Great Lakes and
Atlantic Ocean, was opened

849-1850—immense tide of western emigration
embarked from this port

1875-1925

Great Lakes developed into largest

fresh water navigation system in the
world with Lake Erie its gateway east
and west

1927—dedieation of Peace Bridge at the out-

let of Lake marked a century of unforti-
fied peace between Great Britain and the
United States

Placed by Abigail Fillmore Chapter, National
Society, DA. B-—1935

History in the Making—The St. Lawrence in Harness

At the opposite end of the State, along its
hypotenuse north by east 360 miles from the
Buffalo Light as the ships sail, a new phase
of northern frontier history is in the making.
High in a tower above the St. Lawrence is a
small room, which seems to some, young and

old, one of wonderful magic. White instru-
ment-panel boards that bank its walls control

€
c

1 kind of modern genii held captive in the
caverns below. Hundreds of white-faced dials
purr quietly, efficiently measuring its tremen-
dous power. Tiny push buttons, small levers
eall the genii to bidding. In the room a few
men with the complete power of control move
bout casually and quietly.

Far below and out of sight and sound, tons

upon tons of water thunder through subter-
ranean casements, spinning giant propeller
blades of huge turbines. Through these power

penstocks and adjacent Seaway locks flow the
water of the entire Great Lakes. Water for
power, for people, for ships that sail to the sea,
for the plants of industry and agriculture.

The small room high above the controlled tur-
bulenece is the brain center of the new Moses-
Saunders hydro-electric station. At this point
silent automation and lght finger-tip touch
convert the billions of gallons of water current
into billions of kilowatts of electric current.

This power dam, five years in the building,
stems a river, spans a border and harnesses the
Great Lakes—St. Lawrence waterway. In
building it—one of the longest river power
projects in the world—Canadian and American
engineers diverted the flow of the St. Lawrence
River, dried its bed, then drowned its interna-
tional rapids, all to tame its historically
unbridled power. Where once there were tiny
villages, a new lake was created, St. Lawrence
by name. Giant machines resembling pre-
historic animals picked up whole villages and
moved them bodily to higher ground.
sites were preserved.

When the river returned to its old course, it
flowed through the power locks and a power
dam which holds back a 90-foot wall of water.
Its power pool reservoir extends back through
the Great Lakes some 1500 miles to Duluth.

Historie

contains approximately one half the surface
fresh water of the world. The lakes cover
95,000 square miles and with their system of
tributaries, drain approximately 300,000 square
miles of the best land of America. The power
penstocks and the Seaway locks, sharing
together this miracle of water, move the wheels
of industry, light the homes and streets of the
North Country of New York State and adjacent
Canada, and float the ships of the world.

A Visual Interpretation

Immediately outside the hydro-power control
room, representatives of this Legislative Com-
mittee found an arresting example of how
history can be visually interpreted. On the wall
of this room a large wooden relief map of the
Great Lakes-St. Lawrence country, with physi-
eal and historic features burned deeply into the
wood, brings the story of this great area into
appreciable focus. Opposite the mural and wall
map, a working model of the Seaway, the Long
Sault Dam, and the Moses-Saunders power
plant brings the whole development of the power
and navigation complex within understanding
sight.

In this room is reflected one of man’s supreme
achievements over nature. It updates to a new
climax man’s conquest of a continent. And it
further reflects man’s conquest of himself.
For Canadian-American friendship, symbol-
ized by the Peace Bridge at Buffalo, found even
more positive expression here in a_ joint
achievement of far-reaching potential benefit
to both peoples.

The Story, 400 Years A’growing

Seaway and power developments on the St.
Lawrence write the latest chapter and, as pre-
viously stated, a new climax to the centuries-
old saga of the state’s northern waters. It
is a story worthy of the full appreciation which
only thoughtfully planned historic preservation
and imaginative interpretation can develop.

Long Ago—The Indian

Long before the white man found these water-
ways, the Indians used them.

In wood and bark canoes, they moved easily
from the big waters through the network of

streams in the interior of what is now New
York. In relating his history, the Indian nat-
urally used this familiar motif.

The lakes, the streams that fed them, the
rivers that linked them are basic to the story of
the Indian in this great area. Living so close
to woods and water, the Indian found in their
natural beauty a thing of marvel and awe.
Unlike the white man who followed, the Indian
accepted his physical world as he found it.
He taught himself to love it, to live with it,
and to thank his gods for creating it just as
it was. He tried to match its beauty with a
beauty of words in describing it. Those words
seem to carry the sound and rhythm of the
rustling breeze, the running brook, the surging
river.

Listen to his story from the state’s far
western end ‘*Why Buffalo Creek is Crooked”’
and ‘‘Why Niagara Falls is shaped like a
Horseshoe.”’

There once lived beneath the ground just
above Niagara Falls, a huge serpent which
feasted on the dead bodies from an Indian vil-
lage located on Cayuga Creek. Once a year, to
make sure that there would be enough bodies
the serpent poisoned the waters of the creek.
When the Indians learned the cause of this
annual pestilence, they immediately moved
southward and settled on the banks of Buffalo
Creek.

Disappointed in his yearly feast, the huge
snake angrily broke through the ground, and
plunged madly into the Niagara River, swim-
ming swiftly southward toward Buffalo Creek.
In those days the creek flowed deep, clear, and
straight. Just as the monster was about to
devour the whole village in one gulp, Heno,
vod of thunder, who lived in the cave of the
winds behind the falls hurled his most terrible
thunder bolts at the serpent.

Again and again the bolts struck the writhing
snake. Slowly they took their toll. In his
death throes, the serpent thrashed violently
from side to side, pushing back the banks and
twisting the creek all out of shape. Slowly the
convulsive movements of the monster grew
weaker and weaker. Finally the body lay still
as death in the new bed of the creek. The

people had been saved, the serpent was dead,
and the creek would never be the same again.
That is why Buffalo Creek now takes five miles
to cover its last two. The creek meanders north,
south, east and all points in between before it
finally decides to flow west into the lake and
river at that very point where the ‘‘Chinaman
Light’’ of 1833 still stands.

3ut that is only a part of the story. Hventu-
ally the body of the monster floated out of the
erooked creek, down the river, to the falls.
There is stuck fast in the huge rocks of the
eataract. The curve of its body caused the
falls in time to wear to that shape. That is
why, today, the Canadian Falls is shaped like
a horseshoe. Of course geologists have found
in the layers that form the natural stone wall
of the Niagara gorge, the true story of the birth
of the falls and the lakes. This scientific
explanation does not tell the story as enter-
tainingly as Indians of the Tonawanda Reserva-
tion.

While the nature motif dominates Indian
legend, there are other epic themes which play
against that background. Proud of his own
achievements, the Indian gave his history the
dignity he felt it deserved. Next to the rich land
and the sweet waters, the greatest gift of the
vods to the Iroquois was the League of Confed-
eration which bound the five nations together as
brothers. This all began in the Thousand
Islands, a setting beautiful enough for only the
best to happen. The Indians called it ‘‘ Mani-
tonna’’—‘Garden of the Great Spirit.’? At
this place Taounyawatha, god of streams and
fisheries, came to the earth to clear the channels
of obstructions, to stock the streams with fish,
and to tell all good inhabitants where they might
find the best fishing grounds.

It so happened at this very time, that two
warriors of the Onondaga nation stood on a
high bank overlooking the St. Lawrence gazing
out over the blue water of the Thousand Islands.
Suddenly they saw a white speck on the water.
As it approached them it grew gradually taking
the shape of a white canoe. Strangely it came

from a direction where canoes had never come
from before. As it moved closer, the Onondagas
saw a venerable looking man sitting in it ealmly,

‘‘like a cygnet upon the wide blue sea.’’ In
a few minutes the god came to the spot where
the Onondagas stood. He climbed the bank
and too looked out over the river islands. He
was instantly struck with their great beauty.
He must have known what mortal man would
later learn, that these islands form the most
numerous and most beautiful collection of river
islands in the world.

Taounyawatha moved toward the hunters.
He indicated that he came in peace. He told
them of his mission. In turn they told him of
the bloody wars that existed among their nations
in the area south of the river and_ lake.
Together they moved up the river and into the
smaller lakes. Every place the god and his
companions went, he performed miracles.
These became legend among the Iroquois people.
He taught the people to cultivate the corn
and the beans. He urged them to open the
fishing grounds and the forests to all equally.
So pleased was Taounyawatha with his work
that he decided to become a man and to dwell
among the Lroquois. His brothers weleomed
him and named him ‘‘Very Wise Man’’—Hia-
watha. He built on Cross Lake his bare hut.

Then one day, invasion threatened his people.
Ile told them to form a league of common
defense. This they adopted and ratified forth-
with. With the business completed Hiawatha
arose in the council. He told his brethern what
he had done for them and advised them not
to admit other people into their confidence.
Then he said: ‘‘Remember these words, they
are the last which you will hear from the lips
of Hiawatha. Listen, my friends, the Great
Master of Breath calls me to go. I have
patiently awaited his summons, am ready, fare-
well.’’ Suddenly the heavens opened up and
the air was filled with celestial music. Hia-
watha, seated in a white canoe, rose above the
water and disappeared into the sky just as he,
a god, had first appeared above the Lake of a
Thousand Islands.

The Lroquois loved the land and water of New
York State. Because of its beauty everywhere
and its abundance of all things needed for life.
they felt this land had been chosen and blessed
hy the gods. Into their wilderness world came

something that neither the Indians nor their
gods could resist or explain, the European.
First as explorer, then as conqueror.

The museums and historic sites along this
northern and western boundary should, by their
historic location, type, time period, and presen-
tation give full dimension to the interpretation
of the great heritage of the Great Lakes—St.
Lawrence basin that New York shares with her
sister states and Canada. This generation and
each generation of Americans owes it to pos-
terity to preserve this heritage tangible. On
this land destiny wrote with a large and bold
hand.

Then—The White Man

The long-drawn fadeout of the Indian story
began as the great waterway lured the adventur-
ous explorer and after him the coureur de bois
on whom the fur trade depended. The land
and its wealth fired the ambitions of European
princes and the cross-bearers of the church
found their mission, some their martyrdom, in
America.

Kixplorers, soldiers and_ sailors, traders,
churchmen left in their wake all along the north-
ern waters a network of forts and a chronicle
of action, courageous and sometimes cruel, but
always romantic—at least in retrospect.

Soon after discovery of America came the
disappointing realization that they were not
the fabulous and long-sought Indies. Futilely
but stubbornly, the European pressed his search
for the northwest passage to the Far Kast and
its riches.

French Exploration

The French explored the regions north and
south of the Great Lakes. Some, Desmarquets
among others, claimed that Thomas <Aubret,
in 1508, sailed up the St. Lawrence a distance
80 leagues. Later the French founded the
fishing station Brest, just within the straits
elle Island. While there is some evidence
iat the Portuguese had explored the mouth
the river, significant activity awaited the
French. In 1524 Verrazano, observing the tre-
mendous volume of water flooding into the
Gulf of the St. Lawrence from that river, con-

ot
t]

cluded correctly that a vast continent lay to
the west. The new world stood waiting dis-
covery and development, a land unmapped,
the resources untapped, its furs untrapped.
Political exigencies prevented the French
King, Francis I, from immediately exploiting
the finds of Verrazano. Then in 1532 Jacques
Cartier, bold Breton sea captain, reached the
ereat river and, on this first voyage, explored
the gulf and named it and the river—st.
Lawrence. <A year later he beat his way up

river 1,000 miles to the Indian village of
Hochelaga. He called it Mount Royal, today’s
Montreal.

The foaming rapids at this point blocked
Cartier’s further passage westward, but he
had gone far enough to learn from the Indians
about the Inland Seas of the West. He had
found the key to the mid-continent. Yet despite
his great discovery, Cartier considered his ven-
ture afailure. He had found neither northwest
passage nor gold.

For over 60 years following Cartier little
success marked the New World activities of
France. In 1603, however, an heroic figure
appeared—Samuel de Champlain.'

On March 15, with Pontgrave, he sailed from
Honfluer on a kind of reconnaissance of the
St. Lawrence River. Other voyages followed.
3y 1608, with eyes always to the west, he
decided to concentrate on exploration of the
St. Lawrence-Great Lakes system. Below Cape
Diamond, on the heights overlooking the river
where the Indians had founded Stadcona, he
built Quebec, ‘‘The Cradle of New France’’.
For this, Champlain can truly be called the
founder of New France. For a century and a
half, New France, resting on the St. Lawrence,
enjoyed a geographic monopoly.

From his base at Quebec, Champlain steadily
pressed his explorations. He was the first
white man to touch foot in present New York.
In New France, he pushed up the Ottawa River
to the upper lakes and the west. He roved the
Great Lakes. By the time of his death in 1635,
he had helped to develop the fur trade, had

1See report, Joint Legislative Committee, 1959, “Tribute to
the Valley of Forts”.

assisted in regularizing the administration of
New France, and had done his part in keeping
Quebec from falling into the hands of the
English.

Fur—And the Struggle for Dominance

As the era of early exploration closed, Kuro-
pean powers carefully reassessed their North
American holdings. The gold they had unsuc-
cessfully sought in the Far East, they found
in the form of fur, on the frontiers of this new
world. Furs had become highly fashionable in
Europe, and consequently highly profitable in
North America. To control the trade and
territory there ensued a death struggle for the
fur routes to the west.

Slowly England began to encroach on the
trade and the lands of the French, first con-
verting New Netherlands to New York by
veaceful conquest. Then she formed the Hudson
Bay Company. France, watching fearfully as
England gained a foothold in the Great Lakes
trade, decided to counteract by formalizing
1er discoveries in the summer of 1671. Real
ossession of this realm, however, depended on
control of its water routes.

Geography had pre-ordained the St. Law-
rence-Great Lakes and the Hudson-Mohawk-

Great Lakes routes as the best paths to the
west. For almost three centuries two nations,

England and France, struggled constantly and
warred periodically for control of these routes.

Each, the English on the Hudson-Mohawk,
the French on the St. Lawrence fought to hold
their own route and to take the other. The
winning of an empire rested with control of
these routes and such control required mastery
of the waterways.

The control and development of these water-
ways in war and peace has been the central
theme of the history of this area. Throughout
the land’s evolution from furs to furrows to
factories, the Great Lakes have remained the
dominant influence of the whole area.

La Salle—Conqueror and Colonizer

The Frenchman with the greatest dream of
empire for New France was Robert Cavalieur
31

Sieur de La Salle, explorer, conqueror, colo-
nizer. The St. Lawrence served as his base of
operations; from here he ranged by waterway
and easy portage over much of North America,
from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico. la
Salle used those forts already built, enlarged
some and constructed others to guard his
routes of exploration.

To hold this vast territory, France forged
a chain of forts linking Montreal with New
Orleans, the Atlantic with the Gulf. Geography,
as aforementioned, predestined the routes to
the west and set the lines of action, determining
the location of the forts at strategic points
along the waterways.

So the St. Lawrence route of the French and

the Hudson-Mohawk route of the English
became their battle lines. Where the water

routes touched, as at the mouths of the Oswego
and the Niagara rivers, forts were built and
fought over. The English operated from their
base in Albany on the Hudson; the French
from their bases at Montreal and Quebec on
the St. Lawrence.

For 100 years the English and the French
fought it out along these lifelines. Actually
a struggle of two different frontiers was
involved: the French tended to be a fort and
forest frontier; the English—a family farm
frontier. In the end the English won.

The rewards were not to be too long-lasting,
however, for England’s domination of all the
land south of the border waters eventually gave
way before its colonists’ determination to be
free.

The Revolution, which established a new
nation, also ended the centuries-old struggle for
North America. |

For those with any appreciation of New York
history, that long struggle and many develop-
ments since have hallowed every mile of land
along Erie, Niagara, Ontario and St. Lawrence
water.

The story can be read by all, as it has been
by representatives of this Committee, at many
historic¢ sites throughout this great area. some
well-preserved, others worthy of restoration
and preservation. And everywhere there is
reflected the approaches to, and the progress of,

an economic development which also has made
history.

FORT NIAGARA

At the western end of Lake Ontario, where
the narrow Niagara River splits Canada and the
United States, the French designed and built
Fort Niagara, a site strategically important
to control of mid-continent America.

A gateway to the Great Lakes and the Ohio-
Mississippi waterway systems, these water
highways, with a few easy portages at shallow
divides, connected the trans-Mississippi area
and the Gulf of Mexico with Lake Ontario
and the Atlantic Ocean. The most powerful
nations of the world have considered Niagara
so important that it has been a military instal-
lation almost continuously since the last quarter
of the 1600s.

It remains today, reflecting past eras of its
full glory, flying the flags of France, England
and the United States, each of which in turn
has controlled it.

In stone and wood and earthen works, with
artifact and cannon, with pen and picture, Fort
Niagara holds the spirited atmosphere of the
living past. By intelligent integration and acenu-
rate restorations of related but different periods
of our history, it has captured uniquely a whole
panorama of our history.

People who cared saved this great site from
oblivion. In 1927, 20 patriotic, civic and frater-
nal organizations formed a non-profit member-
ship corporation to restore the old Fort.
Unlike most historic sites of New York State,
this restoration has been financed by federal,
state, and county aid along with private con-
tributions and revenues from operations. Over
the years many individuals and organizations
have forwarded the work of education and
restoration. To the Old Fort Niagara Asso-
ciation, Inc., New Yorkers, and all Americans,
owe a deep gratitude.

The full spectrum of the Fort Niagara His-
toric picture refracts itself in four colorful
segments:

1. Indian Period—Prehistoric to 1679°

7 Report, 1959, pp. 41-44, 53.

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2. French Period—1679 to 1759

3. English Period—1759 to 1796
4. American Period—1796 to present

I. French Period 1679-1759

2°
ae
.

The Ancient Lombardy Trees, sprung,
some say, from the sprouts of the original
lombardies planted by the French. They
still grow near the waters’ edge; a living
tie with the past.

The La Salle Memorial honors the great
explorer and his first fort, Fort Conti,
1679.

The Millet Cross symbolizes the fate of
Fort Denonville, 1688.

The **Castle’’ \uilt in 1725, one of the old-
est buildings in western New York, stands
majestically on the hank overlooking the
lake.

The Captain Francois Pouchot Period,
1750-1759, is reflected by:

(a) Enttance

(b) Storehouse and Barracks

(d) Black Smith Shop

(e) Dauphine Battery

(f) Boulangerie Bakery

ll. English Period 1759-1796

)

».

T/T.
1.

Sir William Johnson Period 1759-1774
(a) Well

(b) South Blockhouse

(¢)
Revolutionary Period 1774 1783
Holdover Period 1783-1796

Kast-Blockhouse

American Period 1796-present

War of 1812

(a) Battery of Carronades

Rush-Bagot Memorial—lasting peace be-
tween Canada and United States.

Cold War—Patriots’ War 1837-1839
(a) H6ét shot battery
(b) Het shot oven

{
(>) Ramparts

Casemates

Words, even pictures, cast but poor light on
this story of Fort Niagara. Only seeing, and
touching, actual relics of the past inspires the
deep feeling of true appreciation. The story of
Fort Niagara begins with La Salle in 1671.

La Salle

In that year La Salle, with the approval of
Count Frontenac, Governor of New France,
ordered the construction of a fort at the mouth
of the Cataraqui, the present site of the Cana-
dian city of Kingston. Fort Frontenac pro-
tected the extreme eastern end of Lake Ontario,
the entrance to the St. Lawrence River. Bases
farther to the northeast, on the river at Quebec,
Montreal and Three Rivers supported and sup-
plied that fort. With its completion, La Salle
turned to the other end of the lake.

La Salle first visited the Niagara River in
1669, and there dawned his great dream of a
vast commerical empire to the west. On Novem-
ber 18, 1678, he dispatched men and materials
from Fort Frontenac to build a vessel above
Niagara Falls. Amid the sound of cannon and
the singing of the Te Deum, on August 6, 1679,
La Salle’s ship, The Griffin, the first sailing
vessel in the upper lakes, set sail for the west.
Of her crew one historian wrote the following:

‘‘It wasa strangely mixed lot; a few gentle-
men, soldiers who had proved themselves
in service, missionary priest, craftsmen,
mechanics and dubious habitants, who only
needed opportunity to turn villain.”’

Mysteriously, to this day, no one really knows
what ever became of La Salle’s ship. Yet this
lost vessel foreran what has become the greatest
inland water commerce in the world.

FORT CONTI

To house the merchandise from Fort Fronte-
nae consigned for passage over the Niagara
escarpment, to protect the warehouse and port-
age from Indian attack, and to control all Indian
trade traversing the Niagara country toward
the English and the Dutch in the east,? La
Salle traced out the lines of the original fort

‘Report, 1957-1958. p. 1s.

on a lonely triangle of land where Fort Niagara
now stands restored. La Salle named it Fort
Conti honoring the Prince of Conti. Subse-
quently it was destroyed by fire due to negli-
gence of its force during La Salle’s absence.
Thus began and ended the first fort at Niagara,
marked now by the La Salle Memorial, within
the restored fort.

Although only the skeleton of the fort re-

mained, the triangular land point continued to
ye used as a rendezvous for the coureur de
pois, the engages and Indians who brought
the beaver pelts out of the woods of the west.
In great numbers, these young men entered
che fur trade, with and without license.
Hoping to enforce the obtaining of licenses,
the French government rashly granted the
Iroquois the right to kill any trapper or trader
found without a license. <A scalping holiday
followed, the innocent perishing with the guilty.
The Indians grew so bold, and the English so
threatening, that the French Governor, the
Marquis Denonville of New France, obtained
permission from his King to build a second fort
at Niagara.

FORT DENONVILLE

The Marquis Denonville knew that La Salle
had found there the key to middle America. So
in 1687, after leading a campaign against the
Seneca Indians in the area south of La
Ontario, Denonville brought his men to f!
remains of old Fort Conti.

The Marquis drove his men hard and they
finished the structure in three weeks. Contem-
porarily referred to by most as ‘‘The Fort at
Niagara’’, the Marquis had, modestly, named it
Denonville. The Fort consisted of a timber
stockade of four bastions connected by pali-
sades. With the work done, the Marquis re-
turned to Frontenac, leaving a garrison of 100
men behind to hold the Niagara Frontier and
the west for France.*

This new fort was planned and placed to pro-
tect the fur trade against the Indians and also
to prevent the English Governor of New York,
Dongan, from making inroads into the French

* Report, 1957-1958, Comp. p. 27, “Fort Ste. Marie de Gannen-
taha.”

fur monopoly in this region. Despite Denon-
ville’s hopes, his fort was fated for one of the
great tragedies of Fort Niagara history.
Winter winds, the hostile Iroquois, tainted
food, and finally the dreaded scurvy took its
toll of the garrison. Chevalier de Tregay, the
surviving commanding officer told the dreadful
story of that bitter winter of 1687-88.
‘‘The wood choppers, one day, facing a
storm, fell in the drifts just outside the
gate: none derst go out to them. The
second day the wolves found them—and
we saw it all.”’

By February, 60 of the 100 were dead. When
a rescuing party arrived on Good Friday, 1688,
only 12 of the original garrison of 100 remained
alive. On that day Father Pierre Millet erected
a cross in thanksgiving for those few who had
been spared, a replica of which stands there
today as a reverent reminder of that tragic
battle with the elements and the Indians in the
year 1688.

WARS IN THE WILDERNESS

Now began the cold and hot wars between
France and England for the conquest of a
continent.®

Both coveted the routes to the heartland of
North America. The French knew its westward
pathways and waterways in detail. The British
knew them less well, yet were keenly aware of
their importance. Each side, recognizing the
strategic importance of certain points, planned
their defenses and positions carefully. From
east to west:

1. Quebec—commanded the lower St. Law-
rence River.

Montreal—controlled the junction of the
water level routes to the south and west.*®
Fort Frontenac (Kingston)—guarded the
entrance to the St. Lawrence River.

Oswego, straddling the Oswego River, con-
trolled the entrance to central New York.
and the entrance to the St. Lawrence.

Fort Niagara—(a) commanded portage
from Lake Ontario to Lake Erie to the

v0.

° Report, 1959, pp. 45-65.
° Report, 1959, p- 5s.
Allegheny-Ohio River system; (b) men-
aced the heart of Seneea Indian land,
Britain’s Iroquois ally; (c) secured the
forts safe to the west on Great Lakes and
Ohio country.

6. Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh)—with Niag-
ara, tied Canada and Louisiana into a
single defense system.

The Castle

From 1688 (Fort Denonville) to 1725 the site
of Fort Niagara remained unfortified but not
unused. With business operating as usual, the
Iroquois negotiated a treaty with the French,
njoining them from erecting a fort. In turn,
1owever, the wily French agent for the Niagara
Frontier, Joncaire by name, obtained Indian
ermission to build a stone house at the site of
“ort Niagara. Before construction began, the
Indians, who knew what French houses looked
ike, insisted on seeing the plans, a photostatic
copy of which are now in the possession of the
Fort Niagara Association.

The French built a fort which looked so like
a house that it has ever since been known as the
‘*Castle’’. Costing over 29,000 lire, it had walls
four feet thick, and gave France, a century after
initial French exploration of the area, its first
effective fortification of the Point. Still stand-
ing as one of the most unusual forts ever de-
signed, ‘‘the Castle’’ commands full respect and
wide-eyed attention by all who walk its halls.

FORT AT OSWEGO

In 1727, the English constructed a complex of
forts at the mouth of the Oswego River as a
counter to Fort Niagara and to clinch their
claim to central Lake Ontario, to protect the
New York route, and to hold a point of threat
and thrust against the French routes. Known
originally as Fort Oswego, it was at the time
complemented by another fort, called Fort
George, atop a hill a half mile to the west. Its
location today is marked by a metal plaque at
restored Fort Ontario.

For 28 years (1727-1755), these forts at Os-
wego served the military and commercial inter-
ests of the English. Then, tensions with the
French increased, the English, in 1755, built

Fort Ontario on the east bank of the Oswego
River.
The Gentlemen’s Magazine of London, in

-—-

1755, deseribed it as follows:

‘“‘The fort is 800 feet in circumference and
will command the harbor; it is built of logs
from 18 to 30 inches thick; the wall is 14
feet high and is encumpused by a ditch 14
feet broad and 10 feet deep; it is to contain
barracks for 200 men. <A_ hospital and
another barracks were also building.’’

Beginning with this fort structure, three dis-
tinct forts have occupied this spot :‘

1. Colonial Period
1755-1756.
French and Indian War, Revolutionary
War, War of 1812 (five pointed star)—
1759-1838.

3. Modern Period (five pointed star, some-
what larger, with masonry replacing tim-
ber )—1839-19053.

War, long foreseen by military men, came in
1755. It was the French and Indian War, which
was finally to decide the long struggle between
the English and French. The war plan of the
French called for the destruction of all of the
British forts along the frontier... Marquis
Montealm left Fort Frontenac August 4, 1756,
to besiege Oswego. That evening he landed at
Sackets Harbor. He assembled 3,000 men. A
little more than a week later he attacked Os-
wego.

By contemporary standards the three forts in
the Oswego military system were well-garri-
soned and ably defended. Despite this, they
could not withstand the superbly led French
army.

In the savage fighting, the English lost 150
killed and wounded. The French lost only 80.
The full victory gave the French 1,600 prison-
ers, 120 cannon and mortars; 6 sloops of war,
200 boats, a large amount of stores, ammunition
and provisions, and a wealth of coin.

During the next three years, however, the
French over-extended themselves in other
places.” They stretched thin their lines and

(eight pointed star)—

7 Report, 1959, pp. 58-61.
* Report, 1959, pp. 39-44, Comp. “Champlain Forts.”
® Report, 1959, pp. 57-61, “Montcalm in Champlain Valley.”

truce, a British soldier.
of a victory, heard inste
render. He capitulated.

The flag of the Fleur de |
again fly in control over Fort
era had begun. English, not French, would be
the language and the culture of New York.

The Battle of La Belle Famille, fought upon
the shore of the Niagara River, had been a turn-
ing point in the French and Indian War. It was
the beginning of the end for the French, an end
that came on the Heights of Abraham at Que-
bee. Only the shades of Cartier, Champlain,
La Salle, Tonti, Denonville, Father Millet and
others would ever again spell French invasion
of the land south of St. Lawrence-Ontario
water.

Pouchot, waiting word
ad a demand for sur-

4s would never
Niagara. A new

English Rule Based at Fort Niagara

With Fort Niagara in the hands of the Kine-
lish, Sir William Johnson returned to Oswego."
Fort Niagara and Fort Ontario protected the
commercial supremacy of the Hudson-Mohawk-
Oswego-Lake Ontario-Niagara-Great Lakes
route. For a short and only time, both water
level routes from the east to the west were
under one rule—the Kinglish. But trouble stil]
brewed.

French traders and the Indians continued to
interfere and to stir up dissatisfaction among
the western Indians, which frequently disrupted
trade.

Indians under Pontiac
English all the Way from Michilimackinae to
the Niagara Frontier and Oswego. Johnson
fnally brought Pontiac to peace. boulder
marks the spot where Pontiac said:

moved against the

‘‘T speak in the name of all the nations to
the westward, of whom ] am the master.
[t is the will of the Great Spirit that we
should meet here today; and before him T
now take you by the hand. ... Father. this
elt is to cover and strengthen our chain of
riendship, and to show you that if any
nation shall lift the hatehet against our
{nglish brethren. we shall be the first to
eel it and resent it.’?

‘Report, 1957-1958, p. 22.

Once the Pontiac uprising was put down in

1766, Fort Ontario and Fort Niagara became
only garrisoned outposts. The Knglish had sue-
cessfully met the challenge from without, beat-
ing both the French and Indians. Soon, from
within, came the explosion that brought defeat
—the Americans and their rebellion of English
colonists that became a revolution.

AMERICAN REVOLUTION

With the coming of the American Revolution
the British used a strongly garrisoned Fort
Ontario as a base for supplies. From there
Colonel Barry St. Leger, having come from
Montreal, led a strong force up the Oswego
River and over to present Rome to lay siege to
take Fort Stanwix in July, 1777. Stopped at
Oriskany by Herkimer, he retreated by way of
Fort Ontario to Montreal.

In the years following,
cally gave up Fort Ontario. and this led to its
destruction by American forces. Still recog-
nizing the strategie importance of the fort, the
English General Frederick Haldiman, with sup-
port from the Seneca and other Indians, began
its reconstruction but never completed the work.
With the end of the Revolutionary War and the
signing of the Treaty of Paris, Haldiman
expected to abandon the fort on July 1, 1783.
As it turned out, however. the British did not
surrender either Fort Ontario or Fort Niagara
for 13 years. History has named those interim
years the Holdover Period.

Out of Niagara during the Revolution
those terrible Indian-Tory raids that
through the defenseless Cherr
valleys of upstate New York. Later, the Iro-
quois Indians repaired to Niagara for succor
and comfort after their defeat in the Sullivan-
Clinton campaign. During the Holdover
Period from 1783 to 1796,

it has been variously
estimated, between 5,000 and 8.000 loyal British
subjects passed from

the various eastern and
southern colonies through Fort Niagara to the
safety of Canadian soil. Finally, on July 15,
1796, the terms of the Jay Treaty transferred
both forts. Niagara and Ontario, to the United
States.

——_____

the English practi-

came
Swept
y and Wyoming

* Report, L957 1958. p- 95.

PEACE—AND PIONEER TRADE

With the post-Revolution peace there came,
along New York’s northern border waters, the
first stirrings of a commerce which did much to
build the State and Nation. By 1810 such trat-
fic on Lake Ontario exceeded that of the four
upper lakes combined.

Early trading was beset with hardships but
its pioneers, fired by its possibilities, dogged
them. An example is the late eighteenth cen-
tury effort to establish a trade route to Canada,
from this 50-year-old account by James L. Bar-
ton, a commercial leader in Buffalo.

‘In 1789, John Fellows, of Sheffield,
Mass., started from Schenectady with a
boat, its cargo mostly tea and tobacco, with
a design of going to Canada to trade. On
reaching Oswego, the commanding officer
refused him permission to pass that place.
Fellows returned with his boat and cargo
up the Oswego River to Seneca River, up
that into the Canandaigua outlet, as far as
where Clyde is; here he built a small log
building (long known as the block-house)

to secure his goods in, while he was
engaged in bushing out a_ sled-road to
Sodus Bay, on Lake Ontario. He then

went to Geneva, and got a yoke or two of
cattle, hauled his boat and property across,
and then in this frail conveyance embarked
with his goods, and pushed across the lake.
He met with a ready sale for his tea and
tobacco, and did well. H 1e
same boat, and landed at 1¢e
boat was afterwards pure dV
Judge Porter in traveling the shore of La
Ontario, when making the survey t
Phelps and Gorham purchase.’’

e erossed in t
rondequoit. T
vased and used

(he

Fur and Salt

The centers and movement of commerce in
the nineteenth century did not differ too much
from the military centers and supply movement
of the 1700s. Fur, the first product of the fron-
tiers, bulked large in the commerce through
Lakes Erie and Ontario until 1840. Prior to
the War of 1812, fur traders carried their prod-
uct in bateaux, native canoes, and open boats.

The merchandise bartered for it originated, as
late as 1790, at Albany and Montreal, the
French fur capital from the earliest days.

Fur trapping moved farther and farther west
with the frontier. At the opening of the nine-
teenth century, the American Fur Company had
a depot at Detroit and one on the upper lake at
Mackinac. Here trappers and traders treated
their furs before shipping East. The process
involved stripping and airing to remove the
vermin. The Northwest or British Company
founded a fur depot at Sault St. Marie. From
there it often shipped its furs directly overland
to Lake Ontario, then on to Montreal. Supplhes
and merchandise returned by the same route.

Fur, moving eastward, was the luxury prod-
uct. Salt was the essential product of survival
for builders of the west and, as such, main-
tained a high place on the list of items shipped
westward through the 1840s. In 1798 General
James O’Hara, of Pittsburgh, had organized a
reciprocal trade agreement between that city
and the Onondaga Salt Mines near Salina, New
York. O’Hara sent provisions and military
supphes for Fort Ontario by keel boats up the
Allegheny River and French Creek to LeBoeuf
(Waterford), then by wagon across the portage
to Erie, and from there by way of Lake Erie,
the Niagara River, and Lake Ontario to Os-
wego. Here the supplies for the fort were
exchanged for Onondaga salt, which went back
by the same route. O’Hara scored a substantial
success, since the valleys of the Monongahela,
Ohio, Allegheny, and adjacent country de-
pended heavily on the Onondaga souree for
their supplies of salt.

Most vessels sailing from Buffalo to Erie be-
tween 1805 and 1810 earried Salina salt a
main cargo. In the season of 1808, between
6,000 and 8,000 barrels of salt passed through
Krie to the southwest and, by 1811, this had in-
creased to 18,000 barrels. At the height of the
trade, 100 teams of oxen continually hauled salt
between Erie and Waterford.

The salt trade of Lakes Ontario and Erie did
much to develop Buffalo and Oswego as ports.
In 1809, R. S. Reed and Captain Daniel Dobbins
of Buffalo purchased the schooner Catherine,
of 90 tons, re-named her Salina, put her in the
salt trade and made a handsome profit.

Westerners not only used salt as a vital food
product but also as a medium of exchange. <Ac-
cording to a newspaper of 1809:

‘“The farmers were obliged to haul salt
to procure the comforts, if not the neces-
sities of life, such as sugar, tea, coffee,
wearing apparel, ete., as salt seemed to be
the current medium of trade during the
embargo; it was the only commodity they
had for market or exchange, the greater
the traffic the more the farmers progressed
in the improvement of the soil.’’

Before the completion of the Erie Canal,
goods from the east intended for Buffalo or
Black Rock came by bateaux or Durham boats
up the Mohawk River, through the Utica-Rome
Canal, through Wood Creek and across Oneida
Lake, down the Oswego River, around the por-
tage at Oswego Falls, to Lake Ontario, and
westward across Lake Ontario to Lewiston.
There it was hauled over the Niagara portage
to Schlosser’s Landing (then Fort Schlosser)
by teams, and finally up the Niagara River
again in Durham boats or bateaux to Black
Rock and Buffalo.

The New York State Legislature had granted
a monopoly to the Porter, Barton Company of
Black Rock, for the transportation of goods
around Niagara Falls. This monopoly privi-
lege still obtained at the opening of the Erie
Canal. This route could be avoided only by
using the slower and more difficult wagon route
from the Hudson River to Buffalo and Black
Rock, over which much of westward-moving
goods travelled before construction of the Erie
Canal. The wagons, huge, lumbering vehicles
drawn by six or eight teams, moved so slowly
that they sometimes detained vessels in Buffalo
Harbor for weeks awaiting a full cargo. At
first the freight charge over this wagon route
was $5 but competition soon reduced it to $1.25.
Captain Augustus Walker has left a deserip-
tion of these wagons:

“Those slow, but formidable establish-
ments were commonly called Pennsylvania
teams. The tires of their wagon wheels
were some 10 or 12 inches wide, serving a
two-fold purpose—preventing them from
falling into the deep ruts made by narrow

tires, and keeping them from smashing the
highway as they passed along. This ex-
empted that class of vehicles from toll-gate
fees, ete., which were quite an item in those
days when turnpike gates were so
frequent.’

Besides fur and salt, military stores, fish,
timber, apples, cider, and household goods
figured importantly in lake trade during the
first decade of the nineteenth century. In gen-
eral, eastbound vessels filled their holds with
apples, cider, Indian maple sugar, and fish
products. These derived from a natural rather
than a cultivated surplus. The first known list
of goods shipped west from Buffalo was re-
corded in November 9, 1802, on board the open
boat Lark, Moses Wilcox, master. The cargo
was bound for Ashtabula and consisted of: 1
tierce of drygoods, 5 chests of household goods,
1 bag of shoes, 4 bags of clothing, 2 kegs of
spirits, 2 barrels of wine, 1 box of tea, 2 kegs of
tobacco.

Pittsburgh spirits found a ready market in
the Buffalo district. This was a corollary to the
salt trade. In 1811 Grosvenor and Heacock,
Buffalo merchants, advertised for sale 30 bar-
rels of the best ‘‘Old Pittsburgh Whiskey’’,
brought to Buffalo aboard the sloop, Friend’s
Goodwill. Pittsburgh was the center for highly
distilled spirits, a product which the Scotch had
brought to that city. It earned high priority in
the Pittsburgh-Lake Erie-Buffalo trade. Thus.
simple in quantity and kind, began the greatest
internal water-borne commerce in the world.

LAND PURCHASE

Settlement came to the new lands with peace
and the development of trade. In 1790’s many
tracts of land went on the block. The largest
land sale ever made in New York State, the
Macomb Purchase of the North country, was
effected in 1791. Its four million acres econsti-
tuted one-tenth of the area of New York State.

A partnership of Alexander Macomb, Daniel
McCormick and Dr. John Constable purchased
the land. Constable proceeded to break the
wilderness and settle the land. In Lewis
County the settlers increased from 1,362 in
1800 to 6,453 in 1810. But Constable’s labors

in this monumental task of settlement broke
his health.

Constable Hall

His son, however, not only settled in but
helped to settle the country. He built beautiful
Constable Hall, which remained in the Con-
stable family until 1949. The beautiful house
still stands, thanks to the restoration and
maintenance work of the Constable Hall Asso-
ciation. In the course of its field study work,
the Committee visited the Hall at Constable-
ville, one of the great landmarks of the North
Country. It preserves today the atmosphere of
the era in which it was built, and, in contrast
to the forts, symbolizes the peaceful conquest
of the wilderness.

Far to the north of Constable Hall, where the
St. Lawrence River is born out of Lake On-
tario, another home of beauty and _ history
stands majestically on a gentle slope that rises
near the head of the river. This too repre-
sented a new life in the wilderness.

Cape Vincent—The Stone House

To this spot on the American side of the St.
Lawrence came French emigrees at the begin-
ning of the nineteenth century. They had found
iving conditions unaeceptable in France and
1ad come to America to start life again. The
eader of the colony was James Le Ray de
Chaumont (1760-1840), whose father had con-
tributed greatly to the American cause during
the Revolutionary War. Le Ray induced Count
Pierre Francois Real, Napoleon’s Chief of
Police; General Roland, the Count’s son-in-law
and other French nobility to settle in the
wilderness.

On the banks of the St. Lawrence he built
this large and beautiful home, the first stone
house in the locality. With its wide center hall,
its drawing rooms and graceful appointments
it still carries the charm of the lovely chateaus
of France. From this home James Le Ray and
his son Vincent, after whom Cape Vincent was
named, ruled their wild acres of the North
Country.

From all over America travelers came to
marvel at the luxurious appointments of this

stately home of a great gentleman of France.

The stone mansion still stands, perhaps even
more beautiful now than it was when originally
built 150 years ago.

WAR OF 1812

But New York State was not done with war.
On June 18, 1812, President Madison issued
a declaration of war against England. Some
‘alled it Madison’s War, some the Second
American Revolution, others a War of Survival.
Actually neither side was prepared for naval or
military operations. With Lake Ontario locked
in by the International Rapids, no naval vessel
could be brought in from eastern ocean bases.
Vessels had to be bought or built. In the early
days, the men-of-war tended therefore to be
commercial ship conversions of less than frigate
class. By the end of the war both sides had
frigates and boasted at least one battleship of
the line in the order of Lord Nelson’s ships.
Much of the action of the war took place on
the northern border water and the land it
washed. From one account of the conflict :
“The Niagara frontier was the most con-
tinuously active single theater of opera-
tions during the conflict, and the naval base
which had been established at Sackets Har-
bor, near the mouth of the Black River,
was a key strategic point. Oswego, at the
end of the Mohawk-Oswego water route
from Albany, played much the same role
that it had in the Freneh and Indian War.’’

Forts Ontario and Niagara Falls

Outbreak of the War of 1812 triggered re-
building of Fort Ontario at Oswego. In keeping
with the generally inferior quality of America’s
preparation, the fort was poorly reconstructed.
This the War Department compounded by its
inadequate arming and manning the fort. In
fact, from the beginning of the war the story
of Fort Ontario was one of insufficient garrison,
guns and supplies to meet any concentrated at-
tack by the enemy. In May, 1814, an English
fleet under Sir James Yeo attacked and de-
stroyed the fort and then withdrew.

Fort Niagara fared little better, finally fall-
ing to the British in 18138. They held it until the

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end of the war. Elsewhere on the Niagara
frontier. at Buffalo, at Queenstown Heights "and

at Niagara-On-The-Lake, the battle between
Canadians and Americans blazed furiously. In
this report, except for necessary minimum

background, it is not intended to tell the stories
of Forts Niagara and Oswego in the War of
1812. but rather the story of Sackets Harbor, a
village now quietly wrapped i in its history.

Sackets Harbor

There was a time when the village of Sackets
Harbor. nestled around the cove of the Black
River Bay, built sailing ships on the inland
seas, sent people by stage and canal to Utica,
and referred to its rival, Watertown, as ‘‘the
little village back of Sackets Harbor.’

From the very beginning and up until recent
times, Sackets Harbor has been in the military
program of the Federal Government. As early
as 1808 there is recorded the stationing of two
batteries of artillery and several companies of
infantry at Sackets Harbor. Their duty was
to check on smuggling, an activity long associ-
ated with the boundary line.

Declaration of the War of 1812 brought Gen-
eral Jacob Brown to the command of the troops
at Sackets Harbor. Immediately he appealed
for supplies but, a not unusual result, his
appeal brought nothing. Even if the request
had fallen on a sympathetic ear in Washington
it would have been extremely difficult to get the
material overland to the base. This fact later
was a stimulant to the construction of roads and
the Black River Canal.

As the principal U. S. naval post on the lakes,
Sackets Harbor was the first target for attack
by the British. On a beautiful Sunday morning,
July 19, 1812, Captain M. T. Woolsey, the first
commandant of the navy of Lake Ontario,
sighted from his ship Oneida, the approach of
five British battleships and immediately made
preparations to engage them.

One cannon, a 32-pounder,

at Sackets Harbor but had no cannon balls to
Tradition has it that the artillery master,
wrapped the 24-pound
balls in pieces of his wife’s carpeting, making

fit it.
with pioneer ingenuity,

topped the bluff

them large enough to fit the muzzle of the ‘‘Old
Sow’? as the cannon came to be ¢ alled. Some
claim this was the opening shot of the War of
1812.

Desultory firing back
damage to either side.
from the English ship lobbed over the
Master cannoneer Vaughn and his men s
it and shot it back with a will. It struck
Royal George and crippled the ship. Supposedly
discouraged by this turn, the English broke
off the engagement and returned full sail to
Canada.

The encouraged Americans later retaliated
by sailing against Toronto, then named York.
The New Yorkers took the city but lost their
best leader, General Pike. In a seesaw opera-
tion, it was now England’s turn to strike again.
With the American contingent gone, the Cana-
dians made a second attack on Sackets Harbor,
May 29, 1813. During the battle a terrific ex-
plosion caused an accidental firing of the muni-

and forth caused little
Finally a 32-pound ball
bluff.
eized
the

tions and frightened the British with the
thought that American reinforcements had
arrived. They retired to their ships and s sailed

away, ending the last major attack on Sackets
Harbor.

SHIP BUILDING

Unlike Lake Erie and Lake Champlain where,
respectively, Perry, in 1813, and McDonough,
in 1814, won spectacular naval battles, Canada
and the United States never fought a pei
battle on Lake Ontario. This despite the availa-
bility there of more and larger ships for such
a contest.

Neither side seemed able to gain, or, if tem-
porarily gained, to hold naval supremacy long
enough to consolidate the water advantage with
ul land action. Each failed to exploit
the several naval opportunities they made for

suc eesst

themselves.
The naval war became a contest of shipbuild-
ing. The British chose Kingston (site of old

Fort Frontenac) for their naval center. The
Americans selected Sackets Harbor. On both
sides of the border water, the hammer and axe
echoed through the wilderness as they built
their fleets.

At the beginning of the war, the Navy De-
rartment had assigned Captain Isaae Chauncey
to command naval operations on Lake Ontario.
le arrived at Sackets Harbor October 6, 1812.
To assemble a fleet as quickly as possible, he
yurchased six schooners and brought them to
ighting trim, renaming them Conquest, Growler,
Pert, Scourge, Governor Tompkins and Hamil-
ton. To these he eventually added the Oneida,
the Julia and the Madison.

During 1813 and 1814 and into the following

year the Americans at Sackets Harbor matched,
ship for ship, the building rate of the Canadians
across the lake at Kingston.

On occasion the British tried to intercept
supplies moving from Albany to Sackets Harbor
by way of the Oswego River and Lake Ontario.
While Americans were building the Superior,
a 66-gun man-of-war, a flotilla of rowboats
carrying an overload of guns, supplies, and
building materials for the ship left Oswego by
lake for Sackets Harbor. Discovered by the
British at Sandy Creek, the Americans put
ashore, reloaded their cargo onto oxearts for
transshipment to Sackets Harbor. Everything,
that is, except a 4-ton cable. With no cart
strong enough to carry it, a hundred soldiers of
Colonel Stark’s regiment shouldered the cable,
marched the 20 miles to Sackets with it in two
days.

The New Orleans—Battleship on Land

During 1815, the American Government ap-
proved construction of one of the largest battle-
ships planned to that time by the United States
Navy. Named the New Orleans, after Jackson’s
victory there, it was begun in January, 1815.
Built of native timber, it was 187 feet long and
had a 56-foot beam. Armed, it would have
bristled with 102 guns.

This floating fort was to patrol the mouth
of the St. Lawrence River and block the British
entry to the lakes.

Work on the New Orleans began before news
of the Peace Treaty at Ghent reached Sackets
Harbor.

After 26 days of building, the Navy ordered
work on the New Orleans stopped. Although
she was condemned to sail on land, the Navy

kept her on the active list for many years. For
protection against weather a house was eventu-
ally built over her and, for years, the New
Orleans continued to be an interesting object
of public attention.

Battle of Sodus Point

In the Ontario theatre of war, naval com-
manders, British and American, did not confine
their action alone to the larger and more im-
portant lake fortifications. Frequently naval
task forces struck at the many ‘‘soft’’ spots
along the shore. Sir James Yeo, Commander of
the British Fleet on Lake Ontario, carried out
systematic forays along the coast, foraging for
supplies.

In June, 1813, in execution of this policy,
1e attacked Sodus Point, then an intermediate
supply center for Fort Niagara. From atop a
ull west of Sodus, American spotters counted
five English war vessels and 90 auxiliary ships.
listorians never have explained completely
the presence of these non-warships. Most of
the local militia had been previously dispatched
to ward off an impending attack to the west
at the mouth of the Genesee River.

In typical American Revolutionary tradition,
two mounted horsemen stood ready to warn the
countryside that the British had landed. On
signal off they rode, carrying their message of
alarm to farmer and villager ‘‘turn out, turn
out, the British are landing at the Point’’. At
Sodus village, one of the riders found a party
of men raising a barn at Morse Hill. These
grabbed rifles and started for the Point. With
equal good fortune, the other Wayne County
‘‘Paul Revere’’ happened on a logging bee at
South Sodus. They, too, ran off quickly to join
their compatriots. Except for a few regular
militia who had been left behind, it was mostly
a citizen-farmer army which rallied to the
defense.

Along the battle lines that night, the Ameri-
cans, taking first shot, picked off the British
lights causing the British retaliatory fire to
strike too low against the American lines for
damage. The English shots did reveal their
position, giving the Americans an opportunity
to fire their volleys with greater accuracy.

Under this fire, the British retreated to their
ships.

The following day the British again disem-
barked and moved toward the village. By this
time the Americans had removed the public
stores from the warehouse to the forest. Meet-
ing opposition again, the English broke off the
engagement and then set fire to the whole
village. They made for the shore, re-embarked
and moved up the lake the following morning.

The ‘‘Battle’’ of Sodus Bay was over. Many
had been wounded. Several British and Ameri-
cans had lost their lives. Some writers, im
describing this engagement later, mocked the
‘‘Battle’’ as a kind of ‘‘Opera Bouffe’’. It is
true that not in number, nor in brilliant strategy,
nor even in outstanding bravery should this
skirmish be remembered. It should be remem-
bered, however, that citizen-soldiers stood ready
at a moment’s notice in the middle of the night
to fight for their homes and their land—if need
be to lay down their lives. No ‘‘battle’’ is fit
for mockery if one life has been lost.

Peace—Long Lasting

The war ended without decision . status-
quo-ante-bellum. This peace without victory
gradually developed respect and understanding
between the former belligerents. Although there
were still to be periods of tension and evidences
of military preparation on both sides during
the nineteenth century, especially during the
so-called Patriot’s War and our own Civil
War, Canada and the United States had put
aside war as an instrument of policy. At Fort
Niagara an Altar of Peace stands dedicated
to the Rush-Bagot Agreement which marked
that peace.

Economic Competition

Through the era of exploration and conquest
and until the end of the War of 1812, control
of the routes to inner America had been a
matter of military might on land and water.
Now it became, and for a century and a half of
peace it would be, a matter of economic com-
petition.

Canadians held the St. Lawrence-Great Lakes

route, the Americans the Erie Canal-Great

Lakes route. The two met on the Niagara
Frontier. Along each of the routes, man moved
to complete nature’s unfinished work and im-
prove its deficiencies. In the development of the
trade routes, Ogdensburg, Sackets Harbor,
Oswego, Buffalo and other American ports
played the roles of importance which geography
had ordained for them in war or peace.

Lakers directed their strength and energy to
commerce. Great Lakes traffic spurted with new
vigor. Lake Ontario felt the invigorating impact
first. Populations grew. White-winged vessels
multiplied. The pioneer steamboat Ontario was
launched in 1816. Above the falls, at Black
Rock, the Walk-In-The-Water, Lake Erie’s
primitive steamboat, breasted Niagara’s cur-
rent with the help of the Horned Breeze.

LATERAL CANALS

The great Erie Canal, started in 1817, fin-
ished in 1825, launched the canal era and a new
and colorful phase of New York history. And
the military aspects were not ignored among
the considerations which influenced the selection
of the Erie’s route. Partly for the same reasons,
Canadians built the Rideau Canal to avoid that
part of the St. Lawrence shared with the United
States. This canal connected the Ottawa River
at Ottawa with Lake Ontario at Kingston. By
so doing, Canada could forestall any American
blockade of the St. Lawrence and keep open its
trade line to the west.

Cobblestone Homes Mark New Era

People flocked west by canal. The Erie, or
‘*Clinton’s Ditch’’, pushed back the American
frontier and populated the land and _ then
srought prosperity to the pioneer families.
Some families replaced their simple salt box
1ouses with more substantial structures. Now,
not stone forts for fighting, but stone houses
for living grew out of the land.

Canal masons, between canal jobs, turned
their talents and time to these houses. They
found along the shore their round water-washed
stones. With these, they built their first cobble-
stone house in 1825, a style which lasted until
the Civil War. But these houses, of such great
beauty and ingenuity still stand well today. The

cobblestone houses began around Rochester,
where 250 can be found within a 50-mile radius.
Perhaps the greatest concentration is along a
25-mile stretch of Route 104, west of Rochester,
where the cobblestone houses average one to a
mile.

While the east-west routes were the routes
of empire, the War of 1812 demonstrated the
need for developing lateral, north-south routes,
as feeders to the mainlines. With the success
of ‘‘Clinton’s Ditch,’’ political pressure began
to build for the digging of lateral canals. Peti-
tioners from the northern frontier of New York
State made a strong case for a canal which
would connect Lake Ontario and the St. Law-
rence River with the Erie Canal.

BLACK RIVER CANAL

To support and sustain Fort Niagara and
Sackets Harbor as military and naval bases,
the War of 1812 pointed up sharply the logis-
tical need of a land-water interior route from
east coast supply centers. The cost of trans-
porting military stores to the Black River
country during the War of 1812 exceeded two
million dollars.

This persuasive factor, the desire to stimulate
the economy of the North Country, and the
Erie Canal’s need for more water brought the

start of Black River Canal construction in
1838. Eventually it connected Lyons Falls,

Lewis County, on the Black River, with the
Erie Canal at Rome.

The Black River Canal, one of the greatest
engineering achievements of the canal era, re-
mains a technical wonder even today. Its length
was 3) miles, with the Black River improve-
ment, 91 miles. To achieve needed elevation, the
canal engineers built 109 locks, including the
greatest combines in the world. In total lockage,
or lift, this equaled 1,082 feet.

The Committee on Historic Sites has studied
this canal carefully and examined its remains
on several field trips, with the hope that some
of its now dry locks, visible from the highway
route 12 can be saved and restored, The er a of

the ‘‘Rome Haul’’ should never be forgotten.

1957-1958, p. 57

, Chronolog ry:

* Report,

OSWEGO CANAL

To the west, the Oswego Canal, lateral
waterway parallel to the Black River Canal,
tied Oswego on Lake Ontario with the Hudson-
Mohawk system just as the Black River Canal
joined Sackets Harbor, Lake Ontario and the
St. Lawrence with the Hudson-Mohawk-Erie
Canal route.

The Oswego Canal, an integral pari of the
Erie, was completed in 1828. Its length is 38
miles and has 18 lift locks and five guard locks.
In total lockage they equalled 154 feet. Subse-
quently improved several times, the Oswego
still operates as an important part of the mod-

p=
cA

ern Krie Canal system of New York State."
Farther to the west another north-south

the Genesee Valley Canal was con-
templated. Impressed, as had been the people
of the Champlain, Black River and Oswego
countries, by what the Erie Canal could do for
the economy of an area, Rochester businessmen
sought a waterway that would connect the Erie,

waterway,

at Rochester, with the Allegheny River at
Olean.*®
It was hoped that with such a canal, Erie

freight, especially wheat and lumber, would be
routed from Olean southward by the Allegheny
River to Pittsburgh, down the Ohio and Missis-
sippi to the Gulf.2°

This water route followed approximately the
line of the ancient Seneca-Iroquois canoe trail
which the explorer La Salle had pleaded with

Louis XIV of France to open with fortified
trading posts two hundred years before. Fur-
thermore, commercial success of this route

might mean a by-pass of the Niagara Frontier
and tapping the Ohio-Mississippi tributary mar-
ket and resources for Rochester.

GENESEE VALLEY CANAL

The subject of a canal for the Genesee Valley

first came before the Legislature in February,
1825, in a message from Governor DeWitt
Clinton ‘‘respecting a navigable communication

14 Report, 1957-1958, pp 54-55, Chronology.
15 » Report, 1957-1958, p. 57, Chronology.
>The material on the Genceas Canal has been ad: upted almost
vetiaten from a paper entitled “The Genesee Valley Canal’, by
Gladys Reid Holton.

between the waters of the Allegheny River and
the Erie Canal, and soliciting a full investiga-
tion of the proposed measure by able engi-
neers’’. Clinton also recommended the adoption
of effectual preliminary measures. Four routes
were suggested for study.

For five years people of the valley agitated
the question. In the valley of the Genesee River
there was an extensive tract of fertile and pro-
ductive farms, land-locked with no easy water
access to markets. Every year the demand grew
for a better means of transportation. The trade
with Rochester was carried on principally by
the river and, while in the early days this was
adequate, it seemed no longer so. None could
very well deny that the farmers of this region
needed some better way of getting their crops
to market.

Although the first steamboats on the river
had been hailed as the solution to this problem,
river transportation still did not satisfy the
users. The new method of transportation by
rail offered another appealing possibility and
petitions for a railroad along this route ap-
peared in the 1830s. Some argued that the year-
around railroad would be more practical than
the seasonal canal, despite the latter’s favor-
able transportation cost differential. One factor
seemed to outweigh all others—railroads had
to be financed by private capital, State funds
could be obtained for the canal.

After a survey, engineer Frederick (. Mills
estimated the total cost of the canal at $2,002.-
285. The project was pushed vigorously and 30
miles of the line was ae under contract in 1837
and 50 miles in 18

The engineers encountered their greatest diffi-
culty and heaviest expense on the section be-
tween Nunda and Portageville. There the canal
required a cut 73 feet deep through the ridge
dividing the valley of the Cashaqua from the
Genesee Valley. It required a series of 17 locks
to reach the summit level. The builders also

met a great construction challenge in carrying

the canal around the high,
overhanging the river.

Near Portageville an attempt to tunnel the
mountain was abandoned after near ly a quarter
of a million dollars had been expended on it.

mountainous hills

If the tunnel had been completed it would have
been 1,082 feet in length, with a height of 27
feet and width of 20 feet, piercing the towering

mountain from side to side.

Mountainside Canal

With great ingenuity, the engineers finally
succeeded in fastening the canal to the side of
the mountain. A narrow strip of land hugging
high the hill served as a towpath. From it the
descent was almost perpendicular to the river.
The canal wound around the hill in this manner
passing under the famous Portage Bridge. A
short distance above the bridge it crossed the
river again by means of a wooden aqueduct.

The Genesee Valley Canal brought many ad-
vantages. It proved of great value to the
farmers in getting their produce, especially
wheat, to market. At the time, Rochester was
grinding 25,000 bushels daily, sending its high-
grade flour to all parts of the country’ and
becoming known as ‘‘the flour city.’’

In modern times the Erie Canal has become
to a great extent an ‘‘oil canal.’’ In the early
days the Genesee Valley had the name and the
oil, It connected the Vacuum Oil Company of
Rochester with Olean and the oil fields of
Pennsylvania. The ‘‘Centennial History of
Rochester’’ weighs the value of the canal as
follows:

‘“‘The measure of its utility was out of
proportion to its cost, but there is reason
to wonder whether the agricultural wealth
it created, the industries it stimulated, en-
couraged and established, the thousands of
benefits and conveniences which it yearly
conferred, directly and indirectly, on the
country through which it passed were not
so vast in the aggregate as to counterbal-
ance to a large extent the expenditures that
the state had made. It is scarcely
to over-estimate the influence it had in de-
veloping the resources of this state and it
cannot be denied that to a very large degree
our remarkable growth and prosperity are
due to the facilities afforded by the
Genesee Valley Canal.’’

possible

* Re port, 1957-1958, pp. 29-30.

Representatives of the Committee on Historic
Sites have traveled the old sections of the
Genesee Valley Ditch along the Rochester
branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad. They
wondered with a writer of the time ‘‘at the
masonry of the old locks and the patience of
the engineers who carried this waterway along
the shores of the temperamental Genesee River
and over the rocky hills above Nunda.’’ And,
as he, they dreamed they heard again ‘‘the
sereech of mooring lines, where a snubbing
post is easing a long boat about an obstinate
bend, or the thump perhaps of a gang-plank
on a forward deck where tired mule teams are
changing watch.’’

ALL-AMERICAN CANAL

At the far end of the State, discussion of an
all-American Canal from Lake Ontario to Lake
Erie started with Joseph Ellicott, at the begin-
ning of the nineteenth century. The discussion
still goes on, more pertinent and persistent now
because of the St. Lawrence Seaway. The
north-south Welland Canal, parallel to the
Niagara River, was dug by Canada. This has
had a significant effect on the development of
the Great Lakes and on the two east-west
routes which come to a point on the Niagara
Frontier.*®

LAKE FORTS IN 19TH CENTURY

Although, after the Rush-Bagot Treaty of
1817, Canada and America were done with war,
none could forsee the fact. So, at the old key
points along the northern border waters, con-
temporary defense requirements mandated cer-
tain improvements at the established forts.
Those at Fort Niagara have been described.
Madison Barracks at Sackets Harbor had been
established and expanded following the War of
1812. It continued in service through World
War II. At Oswego, Fort Ontario, which had
fallen into ruin, was rebuilt during the 1830s.

By the 1830s, misunderstandings and dis-
agreements involving Canada arose between
Great Britain and the United States. These
tensions snapped along the St. Lawrence River

= Report, 1957-1958, pp- 29-30.

and Lakes Erie and Ontario between 1837 and
1842.

The Canadian Rebellions of 1837 and 1838,
seeking to redress grievances in the present
provinces of Ontario and Quebec, Americans
mistakenly considered a second American Revo-
lution. This resulted in a series of border inci-
dents and organized filibustering expeditions
which stimulated new fears on both sides.

So it was that the post at Fort Ontario was
re-established on November 30, 1838. Plans for
the stone buildings within the fort, now restored
as a museum, were drawn in 1839. Within the
next three years, the entire fort was rebuilt.
It had earthen walls and ramparts, with a moat
built around it. The State of New York ceded
the land on which the fort was established to
the United States with the understanding that,
if it ever ceased to be used as a military post,
it would be returned to the State of New York.

As aresult of the Webster-Ashburton Treaty
which settled almost all outstanding differences
between the United States and Great Britain,
border tensions decreased after 1842. Once
again there was peace along the border. Then
the Civil War split assunder the United States
and, posing a new threat to Canadian-American
peace, caused another strengthening of army
posts on both sides of the border.

The stone scarp revetments and casemates
of Fort Ontario were all built between 1863 and
1872.1° In the years after 1873, the fort served
variously as a military post, as a detention camp
for prisoners of war and as an emergency hous-
ing unit. Finally in 1946, after nearly 200 years
as a military establishment, New York State
again took title to the reservation. Fort Ontario
ceased to be an army post. Until then, it was
the oldest fort still garrisoned in North
America.

Fort Ontario Restoration

It is of interest that the United States War
Department over the years retained the pen-
tagonal shaped fortification as originally de-
signed by British Army engineers in 1759. The

%” The material on Fort Ontario adapted from a paper by
Anna Cunningham, Supervisor of Historic Sites, State Educa-
tion Department.

earthen ramparts were repaired with some re-
shaping and enlargement, the scarp (front
rampart facing ditch) and the counterscarp
were revetted with large squared upright tim-
bers, standing on a slope. The ditch, or the
moat, was excavated; and the glacis (the slope
outward from the outer walls of the moat) were
fashioned. A demilune (pointed outer earth
work) formed part of the defenses at the cur-
tain between the east and southeast bastion.
(Bastions marked the five-point construction of
the pentagonal fortification.) By 1841 the works
were ready to receive its armament.

On Sunday, July 19, 1959, as an official part
of New York State’s ‘‘Year of History,’’ the
State Education Department held a dedicatory
program when the fort was formally ‘‘opened’’
to the public. The Joint Legislative Committee
on the Preservation and Restoration of Historic
Sites was represented by its Chairman.

At that time one of the Officer’s Quarters
Buildings—there were originally two, each con-
taining two sets of quarters—was completely
restored and refurnished. In addition, the Pow-
der Magazine was equipped and opened to the
public, as was the stone building which was for-
merly the Soldiers’ Barracks. The building
which housed the commissary in military days
is now the Administration Center.

The Barracks building, when the restoration
is completed, will house a trading post, a recep-
tion center for the orientation of visiting school
groups. The long upstairs room in this building
is being developed as a historical-military mu-
seum. Each of the three major aleoves in the
museum area will portray one of the major
phases of the fort’s history. Subsidiary wall
cases will tell the story of arms, armor and the
men who have fought America’s battles.

As a contrast to old Fort Niagara, in the
administration and financing of restoration,
preservation, and interpretation, Fort Ontario
a completely state-owned and operated
historic site.

ST. LAWRENCE SEAWAY

During the nineteenth century, Canada, on
her own, started improving the St. Lawrence

River,”? providing eventually for a 14-foot
water depth through the full extent of the St.
Lawrence River system. With the Rideau Canal,
this was Canada’s answer to the New York
Canal System. Moving from east to west a
series of canals and locks by-passed the various
rapids and compensated for the shallows in the
river.

With the tremendous industrial, agricultural,
and population growth of the United States and
Canada in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River
system area, and with the continued growth of
world commerce, the 14-foot canals of the St.
Lawrence River appeared to be inadequate.

For 50 years, and more intensively in the last
30 years, agitation for the creation of a deep
waterway on the St. Lawrence River developed.
Canada favored it more than the United States,
the western Great Lakes’ states more than the
eastern United States. Every President of the
United States beginning with Woodrow Wilson
advocated the passage of seaway legislation.

It was not, however, until May 13, 1954, that
President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the
Wiley-Dondero Act for building the St. Law-
rence Seaway. To accomplish its passage the
power aspect was separated from the seaway
bill and the connecting channels were made the
subject of other legislation. On September 2,
1954, the St. Lawrence Seaway Development
Corporation, which had been created as the
agency to develop the Seaway, designated the
United States Corps of Engineers as the design
and contracting agency of the corporation.

The lock dimensions were controlled by those
already operative in the Welland Canal, 80
feet wide, 800 feet long, and 30 feet deep. The
size of the new locks permit passage of ships,
therefore, less than 80 feet beam and 30 feet
draft, some allowance for clearance being neces-
sary on both of these dimensions. The project
channel depth of 27 feet will be the limiting
factor with respect to draft. A ship of about
765 feet in length can be accommodated.

Other data:

Project channel depth.............. 27 feet

Minimum channel width in river....450 feet

~ Material on the St. Lawrence Seaway adapted from an

article on that subject in the Wonder World Encyclopedia, by
Marvin A. Rapp.
Botton width of canals... 3 ...055. 442 feet
Lock dimensions and data:
NRE te a Se Pic al es 80 feet
length, between upper and lower
Bev iee W008. oo. 5 S45 oe cele Ves 860 feet
QSRUIe WoO e 6h oe aed See 768 feet
minimum depth over sills......... 30 feet
TAA An is ns aR Oe be Se 49 feet

SErWa pee 2 OSs Fe miter type
emergency gate (upper lock). .vertieal lift

height of lower miter gates........ 85 feet

The original cost of the project was divided
as follows: $105 million for the United States,
200 million dollars to Canada and 600 million
dollars for the Barnhart Island power plant
to be built and operated by the Power Authority
of the State of New York. Subsequently, because
of increased costs, the American contribution
was raised to 140 million dollars.

The Barnhart Island Power Plant with a
maximum head of 87.5 feet can develop 88,800
horsepower. The generators have a name plate
rating of 57,000 kilowatts and are capable of
about 15 per cent overload. The maximum ¢a-
pacity of 16 units is approximately 940,000
kilowatts. To build the power plant and the
Seaway locks, 180 million tons of earth and
rock had to be moved. This equalled 60 per cent
of the original exeavation involved in the build-
ing of the Panama Canal.

The completed Seaway will tap one of the
richest and fastest growing areas of the world.
Presently the Great Lakes carry about 25 per
cent of America’s water-going commerce, con-
sisting mostly of bulk freight, iron ore, grain,
coal, steel and petroleum. The 100 billion ton-
miles of Great Lakes traffic in 1955 represented
an increase of more than 20 per cent during
the previous 15 years. Not even La Salle had
dreams of empire of these fantastic dimensions.

The present development of the Great Lakes
area makes it an excellent hinterland for the
St. Lawrence Seaway and New York State.
Today a cirele 500 miles in radius described
about a point midway between Lakehead at

Duluth and the mouth of the St. Lawrence at
St. Johns would include 97 million people. The
circle would encompass on the American side
one-half the population of the United States;
and on the north side over 70 per cent of the
population of Canada. This is what happened
in 100 years of inland transportation develop-
ment. Only time will tell the effect of ocean
navigation through the Seaway on the economy
of North America.

When the connecting channels of the Great
Lakes have been dug to ocean depth, an unob-
structed waterway will lie across the face of
North America reaching halfway across the
continent.

The St. Lawrence Seaway and Power Devel-
opment each year will draw increasing thou-
sands of tourists. Here is an excellent oppor-
tunity to present a dramatic interpretation of
the history of the St. Lawrence River. The
people will be there. The site is there. History
has been made there. Only the presentation is
needed; and on this a good beginning has been
made.

PERSPECTIVE AND MEANING

In the fifteenth century European explorers
unwittingly discovered the New World, while
seeking westward for a new route to the fabled
Far East. The continuing search for a North
west Passage found the two water-level and
commercially-exploitable routes to the west in
North America. These routes of trade helpe
to make New York the Empire State an
strengthened America generally.

Past the ]
erowth of t
the world,
internationa

3uffalo light, which has seen the
1e greatest internal commerce in
now will flow a new volume of
trade.

It can be hoped that the great exchange of
goods involved eventually will include a fuller
share of the international understanding sym-
holized by the Peace Bridge at Buffalo and
the development of New York’s northern waters.

CHAPTER 6
A STUDY OF RESTORATION AT FORT HUNTER

During 1955 a group of historically minded
citizens of the state kecame convinced of the
need and of the feasibility of a New York State
Canal Museum.

In their concept of such an establishment,

they visualized a dynamic restoration, utilizing

authentic canal structures, conveniently located,
and appealing alike to the general public and
to the serious student of American History.

It was also thought desirable that appropriate
steps be considered to save historic canal strue-
tures in the state, for possible later efforts at
a local level toward holding them in preserva-
tion or their restoration.

Suggestion was made that appeal be made to
the State. This group of men and women were
gratified by the serious consideration given their
proposals and the fact that, when a Joint Legis-
lative Committee was authorized to make a
study and long range recommendations on His-
toric Preservation and Restoration, a study of
nineteenth century canals was included.

By pursuing the canal phase of its assign-
ment, the Committee personally inspected much
of the canal system, made a study of early
canal history, and considered the possibility
of a State-owned and operated canal mu-
seum to house documents, records, maps and
‘anal memorabilia. The Committee likewise
has studied the possibility of a canal site restor-
ation that would be a ‘‘living’’? museum to pic-
ture actively, for educational as well as histori-
cal purposes, the canal phase of State history.

As recorded in its past reports, the Committee
elieves an area known as Fort Hunter, in
Montgomery County, could best depict the canal
uistory and mode of living during the years of
the Clinton Ditch, improved Erie and present
frie Barge Canal systems. This is the only
lace the Committee found in the State where
standing structures and monuments reflect all
these eras of Erie Canal history.

In the pages immediately following are dis-
cussed the Erie’s place in State history, the
need for a living depiction of the canal story,
and Fort Hunter’s suitability to that purpose.

The Committee also offers here some ideas
concerning the development of such a living
museum, based on its own inspection and study
of Fort Hunter as well as upon several pub-
lished approaches to the museum project.

In an effort to obtain basic information which
might stimulate the initiation of a museum de-
velopment, the Committee requested the State
Department of Public Works to make a cost
survey. The Committee is indebted to the De-
partment for its complete cooperation.

Results of the survey, details of which are
presented at the end of this chapter, show an
estimated cost of $101,000 for preliminary
necessities. These include the appropriation of
45 acres of land, $47,000; grubbing and clearing
of the area, $14,000, and construction of access
roads and parking areas, $40,000.

The State has financed the substantial cost
of this survey, stands ready to give advisory
service, and the Committee is recommending
that the State also assume these preliminary
costs. The Committee is hopeful that interested
individuals, groups, organizations or founda-
tions will undertake to progress further devel-
opment.

Historical Significance of the Erie Canal:
‘““They have built the longest canal in
the world, in the least time, with the least
experience, for the least money, and to the
greatest public benefit.’’

This was the tribute of a speaker to the
builders of the ‘‘Grand Erie Canal’’ when it
was completed and opened to navigation in
1825. Following the era of the original Erie
Canal—‘‘Clinton’s Ditch’’, or ‘‘Clinton’s
Folly’’ of its detractors—New York’s famous

[51]

waterway has known two other epochs, the
‘‘Improved’’ Erie of the latter half of the
nineteenth century, and now as the main line
of the New York State Barge Canal System.
The history of the Erie Canal is in part the
history of the development of both the State
and Nation. The old Erie nourished many pros-
perous communities along its own route, stimu-
lated the settlement of such frontier states as
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin
and contributed to the building of industry and
agriculture in this State and the Middle West.
Partly due to the Erie Canal the City of New
York grew into the greatest maritime and
commercial metropolis of the New World. Its
canal’s influence, however, extended far beyond
our state boundaries. The canal’s opening
marked the beginning of, and was a continuing
stimulant to westward migration. As the great
‘Gateway to the Interior,’’ it united the manu-
facturing East and the agricultural West.

The Erie Canal and its lateral branches, con-
ceived and built by York staters, served also
as a practical school on engineering in the
country for many years.

In its first 10 years of operation the Erie paid
back to the State its entire cost of construction
—$8,000,000—and for the next several decades
it proved to be a fabulous source of income.
Few public investments have done as well.

Its later, lateral branches, while not showing
a profit on tolls, served to open for agricultural
and industrial development many sections of
the state. The main line of the Erie earned
more than enough to offset the cost of con-
structing and operating these laterals and, in
1882, was still more profitable than all the rest
of the canals in the country combined. So great
grew State revenues from it that, at one time,
politicians considered the elimination of all
real estate taxes throughout the state.

Instead, tolls were abolished in 1881 and,
although there periodically has been some senti-
ment for their restoration, the canal has been a
free waterway ever since.

Today, in addition to its little known but
important function of flood control and also as
an influence on transportation rates, the Erie

Canal is still going strong as a carrier. And the
current expansion of inland water transporta-
tion may swell substantially the tonnage carried
on ‘‘Krie Water’’.

The Need for a Canal Museum:

At present there is no single location where
the broad field of Erie Canal history may be
studied.

Time and neglect are slowly eroding the few
remaining old canal structures and each year
more vanish from the scene. Canal books, docu-
ments, maps and pictures are scattered in scores
of museums and in countless homes and attics,
although the Canal Society of New York is
doing much to collect and preserve them.

In no one place, however, can the public
visualize the colorful story of the canals. And
that story is an integral part of State history,
a knowledge of which cannot but deepen appre-
ciation of the American way of life and those
who built it.

In America today more and more ‘‘living
museums’’ and historic site restorations are
being established, from large-scale projects like
Williamsburg, Va., Mystic, Conn., down to in-
dividual homes. As our country matures, its
citizens are becoming increasingly mindful of
its history.

Because the New York canals were associated
not only with the growth of our own state but
also with the settlement and progress of the
lands to the west, the concept of a large-scale
canal museum and restoration could transcend
state boundaries and become an institution of
national importance.

Site Requirements for a Living Erie Canal
Museum:

Several factors must be carefully considered
in choosing the ideal site for a living museum
of Erie Canal history:

1. It should comprise authentic and well-
preserved structures representing, if pos-
sible, each of the three canal eras—that
of the original canal, the ‘‘lmproved’’ or
‘‘Wnlarged’’ Erie, and the great waterway
of today.
~

To obtain the proper historical continuity
it should be located along the present Erie
Canal—the ‘‘ Main Line”’ and largest divi-
sion of the New York State Barge Canal
System—which still retains its time-
honored name on official navigation charts,
navigation aids, reports and documents.

3. It should be in a region of the State rich
in scenic interest and of other appeal to
the tourist.

4. Of prime importance is accessibility, not

only by automobile but rail and water
transportation.

Many Sites Viewed by Committee

There are several sites which have interesting
and well-preserved structures of the era of the
‘‘Improved’’ or ‘‘Enlarged’’ Erie Canal. Of
these, the most outstanding are: the Weighlock
Building in Syracuse; Lock 52 and the canal
dry-dock at Port Byron; the ‘‘ Poorhouse Lock”’
(Lock 56) and the Lock Grocery at Lyons; the
five-span aqueduct at Palmyra; the Flight of
Combined Twin Locks at Lockport; and the
‘‘Five Combines’’ on the Black River Canal
near Boonville. Each of these sites has been
seen and studied by the Joint Legislative Com-
mittee on the Preservation and Restoration of
Historie Sites.

The Committee has found, however, only one
site which, it believes, meets all the require-
ments, previously cited, for a ‘‘living’’ canal
museum. It also has the only remaining locks
of the original Hrie—the ‘‘Grand Canal’’ of
DeWitt Clinton’s day.

This location offers such adaptability to a
museum project as to merit a more detailed
description.

Fort Hunter

In and near the small village of Fort Hunter
in Montgomery County, at the junction of
Schoharie Creek and the Mohawk River, almost
completely unchanged by time, is encompassed
in a compact and scenic area splendid examples
of each of the three great canal eras. Here is
a setting as historically rich as it is beautiful,
and as unspoiled as it is accessible. Only four

miles from the Thruway Exit (No. 28) at
Fultonville, and six miles west of Amsterdam,
here is reflected the entire span of Erie Canal
history.

The Original Canal at Fort Hunter:

At Fort Hunter can be seen today the only
existing locks of the earliest Erie Canal. The
first of these is the 1820 ‘‘Guard Lock’’ by
which the canal entered and crossed Schoharie
Creek. It forms also an unusual link with the
Colonial period because there were utilized in
its construction some of the cut stones from the
ruined Queen Anne Chapel, which Queen Anne
herself (1665-1714) had caused to be built ‘‘for
my Mohawk Indians” in 1712.

Just below the entrance of the original canal
into the creek can be seen the remains of a dam,
at the site of an earlier dam (1822) built of
timber and stones, founded on piles. Here, in
the slack water above the dam, was the famous
‘‘ Schoharie Crossing’’, where the canal boats
were towed across the creek.

Running eastward from the guard-lock is a
level, about a mile long, of the original canal,
terminating in a second 1820 lock. This level,
with its towpath bank and berm intact, ends at
a junction with the canal of the Improved era.
It owes its survival, for almost a century and
a half, to the fact that it was used as a feeder
for the Improved Canal (built here in 1841),
up until the present Erie in the canalized Mo-
hawk River. This second 1820 lock, situated as
it is beside the ‘‘ Empire Lock’’ (Lock 29, 1841),
creates a wholly unique and striking picture of
the two early canal epochs. Both of these 1820
locks are in relatively good condition and could
be readily restored.

The ‘‘Improved”’ or ‘*‘ Enlarged’’ Canal at Fort
Hunter:

As the traveler approaches Fort Hunter and
looks northward toward the Mohawk, he sees
the stately stone arches of the Schoharie Creek
Aqueduct which was built in 1841 to carry the
canal across the wide creek, thus eliminating
the hazardous and difficult dam-crossing
deseribed above.
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This magnificent, 624-foot cut-limestone struc-
ture ranks as one of the finest pieces of monu-
mental construction in the entire country.
Many of its thirteen great piers and fourteen
40-foot arches are intact, a most impressive
sight. This aqueduct, like those deseribed by
Melville as ‘‘Roman arches over Indian river’’,
is a fitting monument to those who, while build-
ing for function, achieved the rare combination
of grace and utility.

Following its construction, engineers from
Kurope came to view the remarkable accom-
plishment of carrying a canal high above a
river; artists came to sketch it, carrying their
pictures back to England to be used for designs
on Staffordshire pottery.

From Canal Street, in Fort Hunter, the bed
of the ‘‘Improved’’ Erie Canal runs toward
the east. The first half-mile of the canal-bed
is dry, and its construction, as a result, is easy
to observe. At the end of this level, surrounded
by the pasture lands and small wood-lots of
the magnificent Mohawk countryside, are the
massive stone structures of Lock 29—the
‘*Empire Lock’’ of 1841.

Here a state of perfect preservation attains.
The huge, precisely cut, hand-dressed blocks
of limestone, from a nearby quarry, rest as
true and solid as on the day they were set into
their assigned places by the masons of over a
century ago. It is a perfect example of a ‘‘twin
lock’’ of that era. Just alongside is the original
1820 lock mentioned previously, its much
smaller size and simpler construction a sharp
contrast to the elaborate twin lock of the later
period along the towpath—from Fort Hunter
to Yankee Hill.

Here, at the lower level of each of these
locks of different eras, the two channels unite,
and the canal bed follows its predecessor’s
route toward the east. A walk along this tow-
path provides a lesson in our country’s history.

On the higher ground, to the south, is the
manse or parsonage of the Queen Anne Chapel
(1734+)—said to be one of the oldest dwellings
in North America west of Schenectady. The
canal passes down below the Enders House,
an eighteenth century farm dwelling, its interior
now in ruins with an ancient stone smokehouse

and a family burying ground surrounded by a
wall of local cut-stones.

Farther along, the towpath runs on a narrow
embankment which separates it from the
Mohawk River. Seen on the right is one of
the quarries whence came the stone for the
‘anal hereabouts. Still further is the ‘‘ Dutch
Barn’’, built (1730) almost a hundred years
before the canal was first opened. This master-
piece of the colonial carpenter’s art still stands,
four-square and true. Its two-foot beams are
meticulously mortised and oak hinges have
supported its ‘*‘ Dutch doors”’ for over 200 years.

Next the traveler approaches a widened sec-
tion of the canal—‘‘ Wamp’s Basin’’. Along here
are two culverts, ‘‘Emery’s Culvert’’ and the
‘“Voorhees Culvert’’, which carried small
streams beneath the canal bed to empty into the
Mohawk River. Finally, one crosses over the
perfectly preserved and still functioning ‘‘ Put-
nam Culvert’? (a minuscule but essential canal
structure) and arrives at ‘‘ Yankee Hill Lock’’
(Lock 28).

This lock, like its counterpart, the ‘‘ Empire
Lock’’ about two miles to the west, is another
yeautifully preserved structure, separated from
the Mohawk by an embankment. Alongside the
ock, and between the canal and the river. is
the lock grocery which, like the ‘‘Yankee Hill
0ck’’, dates from the 1840s. This twin lock
is the only one still extant that bears a stone
tablet, upon which is carved the number of the
lock, the date of its construction, and the names
of the resident engineer and the contractor.
Here there is water in the canal, and the filled
lower level extends toward the east. Its retain-
ing walls are intact and on the north side of
its embankment ply the canal barges of today
in the waters of the Mohawk River.

Fort Hunter and the Present Erie Canal:

The northern edge of the village of Fort
Hunter is on the bank of the Mohawk River.
The river is spanned at this point by a highway
bridge leading north to Tribes Hill, and also
by a large movable dam which was built in
1916 when the Mohawk was canalized as part
of the New York Barge Canal System.

At the north end of the dam, just across the
river from Fort Hunter, is Lock 12, ‘‘Tribes
Hill Lock’’, a modern 310-foot long electrically
operated lock. Since Schoharie Creek enters
the Mohawk above this modern dam, there is
an 11-foot drop in waterlevel between the creek
and the point where the old abandoned canal
hed joins the Mohawk just east of the Yankee
Hill Lock below the dam. With this difference
in water-level no great difficulty would be met
in filling the old canal channel by gravity from
Schoharie Creek.

That this is a practical possibility was
dramatically demonstrated in October, 1955,
when, during hurricane ‘‘Connie’’, the high
waters of the Mohawk River and Schoharie
Creek threatened to engulf Fort Hunter. The
village was evacuated of its inhabitants, but
the community was saved by the flood-waters
running off toward the east in the beds of the
two abandoned canals.

Fort Hunter and the Historic Mohawk River:

The Mohawk—Valley and River—is a great
natural artery of transportation from the east
to the west, sharing with the St. Lawrence River
the distinction of being one of the two navigable

passes through the Apalachian chain from
Labrador to Georgia. Builders of the Erie

Canal followed the Iroquois Trail; later, along
the same route, came the railroads and the
highways; today the New York State Thruway
follows the same path.

Fort Hunter has been affected by all of these
modes of transportation:

1. Indian land trails passed through Fort
Hunter, east-west, north-south.

2. The Mohawk River was used by the
Indians in their canoes, by the early

traders in their canoes and bateaux, and
by the armies during the French and
Indian War and the American Revolution.

3. The Queen of England built a fort here
in 1711 and, at the outbreak of the Revo-
lution, it was rebuilt and used as a supply
base.

The first Erie Canal passed through the
center, as did the enlarged Erie Canal.

.. The Utica-Schenectady Railroad (now the
New York Central) was built on the north
side of the Mohawk River and, in 1881,
the New York, Buffalo West Shore Rail-
road passed through the village to the
south.

6. In 1807 the south shore military road,
from Schenectady to Oswego, was built
through Fort Hunter.

7. In 1851 the first suspension bridge was
built at this place and a plank road was
built from Fort Hunter to Albany.

8. In 1916 the Mohawk River Barge Canal
Lock No. 12 was built on the north side
of the village and over it passes the
Tribes Hill-Fort Hunter highway.

9. In 1954 the New York State Thruway
was completed, crossing the old Erie

Canal one-half mile west of the village and
then running south of Fort Hunter.

Museum Would Center Historic Area

While the museum project considered here
would pertain entirely to the history of the New
York canals, it should be noted that, in both the
immediate and surrounding areas, there are
numerous points of scenic and historic interest
which already attract many thousands of
tourists.

The Mohawk Valley is so fabulously rich in
historical background that a wealth of litera-
ture, both academic and fictional, has been
written concerning it. The Fort Hunter area
has been part of the stage for the pageant of
American history since the very beginning.

Long before the dawn of recorded history in
our country, the Indians used these forests as
their hunting grounds, and these streams as
their waterways. Then came the procession
of white men over the centuries—the explorers
and hunters; the Jesuit Fathers and the earliest
Anglican missionaries; farmers from England,
lolland and the German Palatinate. extend-
ing the frontier west of the Hudson: soldiers
rom England, and France, and America fight-

ing the battles of empire against empire;
ndians against white men and white men
against each other. And, following all the

struggle, the flow of men and their families
toward an ever-expanding west.

Came the early canal surveyors, with their
chains and transits, sighting the levels for the
longest canal in the world that would unite
the western frontier with the Atlantic Ocean.
Through the Fort Hunter locks passed the
packetboat Seneca Chief on November 1, 1825—
‘‘a clear and delightful day’’—on the triumphal
first voyage through the entire Grand Canal.
Soon, and for years thereafter, Fort Hunter
saw the great procession of migrating families,
bound for the West that the canal had made
accessible, and, going eastward, the barges
laden with the produce of settlers already
established.

Today, 300-foot commercial vessels and tiny
pleasure craft sail on these historic waters,
in the legendary Mohawk River—a part of the
Erie Canal of our own era. Tomorrow may
see yet another group—tourists and scholars
and children—traveling the same path and
gliding through the locks as of old, absorbing
with every glance some aspect of the glorious
past of their state and nation.

Location and Accessibility of Fort Hunter:

Fort Hunter is easily accessible from any
part of New York State.

It is four miles from the nearest Thruway
Exit (No. 28) at Fultonville, and 34 miles
west of Albany. It is only two miles east of the
Shrine of North American Martyrs at Auries-
ville, a hallowed spot visited by approximately
a quarter of a million people each year. The
city of Amsterdam is six miles to the east,
and Johnstown (the location of Johnson Hall)
10 miles distant. The village of Fonda,
settled by the Dutch in 1750, is six miles away.

Fonda, incidentally, comprised the Indian
village of Caughnawaga from 1667 to 1693 and
there, to be seen today, are the remains of 12
‘‘long houses’’ of the Iroquois. The famous
historical center at Cooperstown is about 40
miles to the southwest. The West Shore Rail-
road runs close to Fort Hunter, and, on the
opposite side of the Mohawk is the main line
of the New York Central, with Fonda as the
nearest station.

The Ideal of a Living Erie Canal Museum:

The fundamental goal, of course, in such an
enterprise is that of establishing a permanent
and central repository for the countless and
now seattered items of historical importance
associated with New York’s canals. Of first
importance is complete protection and preserva-
tion, not only of the various canal items which
would be acquired by a museum, but of the
historically significant and priceless canal
structures of the past that still remain in the
immediate area. It is essential that such a
museum be developed and operated by the most
reliable agencies.

In addition to a place for the collection and
display of canal material, however, the Fort
Hunter site offers a truly unique opportunity
not only for a vital and living recreation of the
ereat canal eras of the past, but also for a
greatly increased interest in and utilization of
the present waterway.

1. Reconstruction of the Locks at Fort Hunter:

With sufficient funds, and with careful
historical and engineering research, it is
entirely practical to restore the two well-
preserved twin locks and the two original
locks to their original condition.

The stone work is still in excellent shape;
the canal bed on either side is relatively free
from fill and debris; an adequate water
supply exists in the adjacent Schoharie
Creek and Mohawk River (above the dam)
to operate the locks and fill the lock chambers
and canal beds. Most of the original iron-
work for locks of the ‘‘Improved’’ period
ean be found at Whitehall, where a certain
amount of it has been stored and preserved
by the Department of Public Works. The
Lock Grocery at Yankee Hill is in good
condition and still inhabited. A portion of
this building could be made suitable for
showrooms, and a part used as a reconstruc-
tion of the grocery itself.

2. A Canalboat Trip on the ‘‘Old Erie’’:

A popular and lucrative adjunct to a
canal museum at Fort Hunter could be a

short trip on a nineteenth century canalboat,
with horses or mules as motive power.

The restored canal bed, about two miles
long, between the Mohawk River just below
(east of) the Yankee Hill Lock and the
Iimpire Lock would be ideally suited for
this purpose. The towpath, on the embank-
ment between the natural and man-made
waterways, needs but little in the way of
repairs. One or more vessels could be used,
mule-drawn freight-barge, and horse-drawn,
‘‘elegant’’ packetboat. Such a trip would
be short enough to be patronized by even
the casual tourist, and the fares could serve
as revenue for the project.

3. The Development of a Canal ‘‘Marina’’:

The Erie Canal of today is a toll-free
public waterway, used more and more every
year for pleasure craft of all descriptions.
In addition to the boats owned by New York
Staters, many yachts pass through the canal
from the Great Lakes ports, bound for New
York and the Coastal Waterway to Florida
and way points. Anchorages and mooring
hasins along the way, as well as accommoda-
tions for an overnight stay, often leave much
to be desired.

The level just east of the Yankee Hill

Lock, opening into today’s canal (the
Mohawk River), would be ideal for the

mooring

establishment of a basin, or

‘‘marina’’, for the use of pleasure eraft.
Provision for re-victualing, water, re-fuel-
ing and the like could be set up near a suit-
ably constructed dock. Further develop-
ment might even include shower facilities
and a restaurant. This adjunct to the
museum might be operated by a private
concessionaire.

The Home Port of the Erie Canal Packet
line:

The Empire Lock or the Yankee Hill Lock
would be well suited for the home port of a
vessel offering a week’s vacation cruise on
Krie water, operating under private manage-
ment and not to be considered as an integral
part of the project.

The placid levels of the canal flow ‘‘for three
hundred and sixty miles through the entire
breadth of the State of New York; through
numerous populous cities and most thriving
villages; through long, dismal, uninhabited
swamps, and affluent, cultivated fields, un-
rivaled for fertility the holy-of-holies of
great forests—through all the wide contrasting
scenery of those noble Mohawk counties’’. The
words are those of Herman Melville a century
ago; the scenes are of today as well.

The possibility of such canal cruises has been
under study by the Committee on Historie
Sites and is more fully discussed elsewhere in
this report.

STATE OF NEW YORK
DEPARTMENT OF Pusiic WorKS

Division of Construction

SUMMARY OF COST RESTORATION OF PORTION OF OLD
CANAL, FT. HUNTER, N. Y.

Preliminary Estimate

lL. APpProOpriateieeGs 2 5 isin kod ceaya eeeo 45 Acres $ 47,000 00
2 Clearing ane warning. 2. ¢ cla ate a ee 14,000 00
3. decess Roads and Parking: Areas... s< ini cas tve em as 40,000 O00
SU GA, fs eres ox te need Oe eee ed ae $101,000 00
& Restoration OF neck 10; -o8. oe ee ee 90,000 OO
5. Excavation; Canal Bed and Turning................ 97,000 00
6. Pumphouse, Pumps, Supply Pipes and
TROPA L CIE UID oc, Faso ow bie Saw PS Ss bis 39,000 OO
SURO EAMES ae Gk & Win gin ee ee en a $281,000 O00
7. Maintenance Building and Rest Rooms.............. 50,000 00
Bo New Uanee Dost is os. ica cian os ec eons ow ee 40,000 00
Di INGW Cement Ivid@e. >= sn a «oad ee ee es wl ea 50,000 OO
Rinse IY AAS. MN EWA 5 oc g Seek cate Sk oh ot ae is 40,000 00
bt New Sinton for Finepire Boek. .o5 ook ces 18,500 00
be Cee He errs foo. ci Sew SRS Si a le 33,000 O00

Reis ood ee 2 hd sy cut ecb le be Whine wae DS $913,000 O00
Computed—B. Jurica, H. Conover, D. Shaver

(theecked by—D. Shaver, H. Conover

9-34-59

PSSA cw

Eisenhower Lock at the southern end of the Wiley-Dondero ship canal near Massena, N. Y.
42 feet into or from the power pool. Facilities are provided to enable visitors to watch
its way to the Great Lakes, leaves the lock.

lifts or lowers St. Lawrence Seaway traffic
locking operations. Above: a ship out of London, on

—Photo by N. Y. State Dept. of Commerce

Metadata

Containers:: Box 3, Folder 3
Resource Type:: Document
Rights:: Public Domain Mark 1.0
Date Uploaded:: April 1, 2024

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Collection

Taylor, Mildred Frick Papers, 1921-1974

Collection ID	apap280
Total components	813
Items available online	10
Last indexed	2026-04-21

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Joint Legislative Committee on Preservation and Restoration of Historic Societies, 1960

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