New York Almanack

Forest Rangers Make Rescue at Kaaterskill Falls, Recover Body in the Adirondacks

January 20, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Forest Rangers respond to search and rescue incidents throughout New York State. Working with other state agencies, local emergency response organizations and volunteer search and rescue groups, Forest Rangers locate and extract lost, injured or distressed people.

What follows is a report, prepared by DEC, of recent missions carried out by Forest Rangers. [Read more…] about Forest Rangers Make Rescue at Kaaterskill Falls, Recover Body in the Adirondacks

A History of Snowmobile Racing in New York State

January 20, 2022 by John Warren 2 Comments

In the motor toboggan era – the time before the advent of the modern snowmobiles we know today – motor sleds had been too slow for racing excitement. As a result they remained strictly utilitarian vehicles racing only occasionally for promotional purposes. Motor toboggan and later snowmobile maker Polaris traveled each year at the end of the 1950s to trapper festivals at The Pas, Manitoba where they helped organize ad hoc races.

“We tried to rig them a little bit so we had a zig-zag effect,” David Johnson said, remembering one of the first informal races, “one guy ahead, and then the other, and so on, at a terrific speed of about 20 miles per hour.” In February 1959, Johnson won the first organized men’s race on an oval at The Pas and in 1960, the first cross-country race was held there. [Read more…] about A History of Snowmobile Racing in New York State

Memory, Trauma, & Bloody Sunday: A Virtual Program

January 20, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Irish American Heritage Museum will host “Memory, Trauma, & Bloody Sunday,” a virtual program on the Bloody Sunday Massacre by Juliann Campbell set for Monday, January 24th.

Campbell has a personal connection to Bloody Sunday — her uncle, Jackie Duddy, was the first to be killed on January 30th — and she has spent the last decade documenting and archiving experiences of the day. [Read more…] about Memory, Trauma, & Bloody Sunday: A Virtual Program

Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong (Virtual Program)

January 20, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Louis Armstrong (1901-1971) was one of the most famous and influential musicians of all time, changing the course of music with his innovations as a trumpeter and vocalist. Emblematic of the Jazz Age and the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.

Armstrong’s unique sound was wildly popular and widely sought-after. The entertainer toured all over the world throughout the course of his illustrious career, but his, home for the last 28 years of his life was in Corona, Queens.

Fort Ticonderoga’s Popular Fort Fever Series Returning Virtually

January 20, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Fort Ticonderoga’s wintertime Fort Fever Series is set to return on Wednesday, January 26th at 7 pm, with “Brace Yourself with Holsters,” a program with Fort Ticonderoga Vice President of Public History Stuart Lilie looking at the common details of 18th-century holsters and their rapid evolution on the eve of the Revolutionary War. [Read more…] about Fort Ticonderoga’s Popular Fort Fever Series Returning Virtually

Francis Mallaby: Witness to Sackets Harbor History

January 20, 2022 by Constance Barone Leave a Comment

The name Francis Mallaby may not be familiar in New York history but sailing master Mallaby served at the Sackets Harbor navy yard in a prosperous time of lake shipping and community growth. He helped make a difference by initiating purchase of land which is cherished today as the Sackets Harbor Battlefield State Historic Site.

This War of 1812 veteran received high compliments from Lake Ontario navy commander Isaac Chauncey and Captain Woolsey that helped influence Mallaby’s 1817 appointment as master of the first steamboat on Lake Ontario, based in Sackets Harbor in Jefferson County, NY. [Read more…] about Francis Mallaby: Witness to Sackets Harbor History

Oyster Slurpers: A Tale of Two Rivers

January 19, 2022 by Jaap Harskamp 1 Comment

For thousands of years the Thames provided London’s inhabitants with a plentiful supply and variety of fish. Until the 1820s locally caught fish was the city’s staple diet. Subsequent pollution of the river drove many professional fishermen and their families into financial ruin because of the collapse of fish populations.

Up until the twentieth century New York Harbor oysters reigned as the quintessential New York food long before pizza, pretzels, bagels, or hot dogs took their place. The metropolis once was a Big Oyster. There too, reckless management of the marine environment led to the obliteration of a huge natural resource. [Read more…] about Oyster Slurpers: A Tale of Two Rivers

Lake Champlain Research Conference Call for Abstracts Reopened

January 19, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The Lake Champlain Basin Program (LCBP), Lake Champlain Sea Grant, and the Lake Champlain Research Consortium have announced that the next Lake Champlain Research Conference will be held May 23rd-24th, 2022 at the Hilton Burlington Lake Champlain in downtown Burlington, VT.

The conference was originally scheduled for January 2022 and was postponed due to the ongoing COVID pandemic. [Read more…] about Lake Champlain Research Conference Call for Abstracts Reopened

NYS Writers Institute Announces Spring 2022 Events

January 19, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

The NYS Writers Institute has announced its Spring 2022 schedule of events featuring more than two dozen literary luminaries and creative artists, a series-within-a-series titled American HerStory, and a film festival coming to the Capital Region. [Read more…] about NYS Writers Institute Announces Spring 2022 Events

Sol Bloom: A Leader In American WWII Foreign Policy (Virtual Program)

January 19, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Sol Bloom (March 9, 1870 – March 7, 1949) was a song-writer and Congressman from New York who began his career as a sheet music publisher in Chicago. He served fourteen terms in the House of Representatives from the West Side of Manhattan, from 1923 until his death in 1949.

Bloom was the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee from 1939 to 1947 and again in 1949, an important period in the history of American foreign policy. [Read more…] about Sol Bloom: A Leader In American WWII Foreign Policy (Virtual Program)