Schoharie Crossing State Historic Site is set to conduct its fifth annual Tuesday Talk series to recognize New York State History Month this November. Each week a speaker presents on regional or New York State history.
Historian Scott Haefner will discuss Transportation in the Mohawk Valley on November 12th. This presentation will explore the significance of the river valley in developing transportation to the West and covers the Bateaux era in the 18th century through Turnpikes, Canals and Railroads. Haefner is a Registered Public Historian and is the site manager of Old Fort Johnson, operated by the Montgomery County Historical Society. [Read more…] about Mohawk Valley Transportation History at Schoharie Crossing
The Mohawk River has been used as a transportation corridor since the beginning of human settlement. Indigenous people used the river to move east and west, as did the first European explorers and those who followed. The river was shallow and relatively slow flowing. Along the 120-miles between Rome and the Hudson river, there are two waterfalls. The largest of the two is near the eastern end of the river, where the water flows over a 90-foot high falls at Cohoes. At Little Falls the river flows over a series of rapids that are 45-feet in height. 