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Buffalo

New York State Canals Bicentennial: Some History & Plans For Celebrations

March 23, 2023 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

Erie Canal BicentennialThe Champlain Canal turns 200 this year and the Erie Canal will celebrate its 200th anniversary in 2025.

The Champlain Canal between the Hudson River and Lake Champlain at Whitehall was the first to open. Worked started on the Champlain Canal in October, 1816. The first boats operated in November, 1819, and was fully completed in 1823, two years before the Erie Canal was finished. [Read more…] about New York State Canals Bicentennial: Some History & Plans For Celebrations

Filed Under: Adirondacks & NNY, Capital-Saratoga, History, Mohawk Valley, New York City, Western NY Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Buffalo, Cayuga-Seneca Canal, Champlain Canal, Erie Canal, Erie Canalway Heritage Corridor, Hudson River, Lake Champlain, Lake Erie, Maritime History, Mohawk River, NYS Canal Corporation, Oneida County, Oswego Canal, Rensselaer County, Rochester, Rome, Saratoga County, Transportation History, Troy, Utica, Washington County, Waterford, Whitehall

1873 Schooner Barge Ironton Wreck Discovered in Lake Huron

March 6, 2023 by Editorial Staff 1 Comment

Ironton resting on the bottom of Lake Huron with its masts standing, rigging attached to the spars, and anchor still attached (courtesy NOAA- Undersea Vehicles Program UNCW)Researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the state of Michigan, and Ocean Exploration Trust have discovered an intact wreck of the Ironton resting hundreds of feet below the surface of Lake Huron. [Read more…] about 1873 Schooner Barge Ironton Wreck Discovered in Lake Huron

Filed Under: History Tagged With: Archaeology, Buffalo, Diving, Great Lakes, Iron Industry, Lake Huron, Maritime History, Niagara County, Niagara River, NOAA, Ogdensburg, Shipwrecks, St Lawrence County, Steamboating, Transportation History

The Buffalo Sports Curse: 120 Years Of Disappointment

December 18, 2022 by Bruce Austin 2 Comments

Buffalo Sports cover re-re-sized.inddBuffalo’s long, storied professional sports history runs back to the early 1900s. Despite a century of opportunity, none of its four major sports teams ever won a universally recognized championship. Not for baseball or basketball; neither football nor hockey.

On the other hand, Buffalo teams experienced numerous close calls and blown calls. As well, there have been injuries and deaths, nefarious back-office dealings, and just-plain-weird happenings, each at just the wrong time to deprive city teams from winning championships. Just bad luck? Or is there something more sinister at play, like a Buffalo Sports Curse? Greg D. Tranter’s new book from RIT Press, The Buffalo Sports Curse: 120 Years of Pain, Disappointment, Heartbreak and Eternal Optimism, chronicles thirty-two cursed events. [Read more…] about The Buffalo Sports Curse: 120 Years Of Disappointment

Filed Under: Books, History, Western NY Tagged With: Baseball, Basketball, Buffalo, Erie County, football, Hockey, sports, Sports History

Olmsted’s Elmwood: Buffalo’s Parkway Neighborhood

December 6, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Olmsted's ElmwoodThe new book Olmsted’s Elmwood: The Rise, Decline and Renewal of Buffalo’s Parkway Neighborhood, A Model for America’s Cities (City of Light Publishing, 2022) by Clinton E. Brown and Ramona Pando Whitaker takes a look at the fascinating story of Buffalo‘s the historic Elmwood District, named one of America’s top ten neighborhoods. [Read more…] about Olmsted’s Elmwood: Buffalo’s Parkway Neighborhood

Filed Under: Books, History, Western NY Tagged With: Architecture, Buffalo, Erie County, Frederick Law Olmsted, Historic Preservation, Landscape Architecture

Upstate Cities Turn To Canal Heritage For Economic Development

August 12, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Albany Waterfront along the Hudson RiverUpstate New York’s largest urban centers are pursuing economic development strategies that include a major focus on their canal heritage. [Read more…] about Upstate Cities Turn To Canal Heritage For Economic Development

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, Mohawk Valley, Recreation, Western NY Tagged With: Albany, Albany County, Buffalo, Economic Development, Erie Canal, Erie County, Monroe County, Onondaga County, Rochester, Syracuse, Tourism, Transportation History

Kayaker Alan Jay Paddles From Buffalo to Manhattan in 31 Days

August 5, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Alan JayIn June, the Hudson River Valley Greenway fielded a call from Alan Jay, who just completed paddling the Erie Canal from Buffalo to Waterford with his brother-in-law Michael.

The next day Jay would start his solo adventure paddling the Hudson River toward New York City – he needed a Hudson River Water Trail Guide. [Read more…] about Kayaker Alan Jay Paddles From Buffalo to Manhattan in 31 Days

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, Hudson Valley - Catskills, Mohawk Valley, New York City, Recreation, Western NY Tagged With: Albany, Buffalo, Erie Canal, Hudson River, Hudson River Greenway, Liberty Island State Park, New York City, paddling, Statue of Liberty, Waterford

World Canals Conference Coming to Buffalo in 2025

June 20, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Erie Canal in Buffalo by Joe CascioNew York State has been selected by Inland Waterways International as the host of the 2025 World Canals Conference, an event that brings together hundreds of canal and inland waterway enthusiasts, professionals and scholars from around the world to learn about a variety of topics related to canals.

The 2025 conference will be held in Buffalo as the State commemorates the 200th anniversary of the Erie Canal‘s opening there in 1825. [Read more…] about World Canals Conference Coming to Buffalo in 2025

Filed Under: Events, History, Western NY Tagged With: Buffalo, NYS Canal Corporation

$4.5M for Buffalo Center for Plastic Recycling Research and Innovation

May 6, 2022 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

Buffalo Center for Plastic Recycling Research and InnovationNew York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has announced $4.5 million is being awarded to the State University of New York’s University at Buffalo to create a new Center for Plastic Recycling Research and Innovation and support crucial work to reduce plastic waste.

This expanded academic partnership will improve plastics recycling by researching the development of secondary recyclable markets to ease the financial burdens on municipal recycling programs and streamline the recycling process, especially with certain types of lower-grade plastics. [Read more…] about $4.5M for Buffalo Center for Plastic Recycling Research and Innovation

Filed Under: Nature, Western NY Tagged With: Buffalo, DEC, Environmental History, Erie County, plastics, pollution, Recycling, solid waste, SUNY Buffalo

The Captive Boys of Rensselaerville: John and Robert Brice

February 8, 2022 by Peter Hess 2 Comments

painting of Dietz Massacre by James Dietz The following captivity narrative was related by Robert Brice and includes an account of the September 1781 “Dietz Massacre” that took place a few miles south of the Village of Berne, Albany County, NY.  This story was taken down from Robert Brice when he was still living by Josiah Priest and published in his Stories of the Revolution in 1836 as “The Captive Boys of Rensselaerville – John and Robert Brice.”  This version has been lightly edited for easier reading, but has retained much of the tone and style, including the use of disparaging terms to refer to the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) people who took part in these events. Additional details and background about this event can be found here. New York Almanack is presenting this story to illustrate historical attitudes about these events from a victim’s perspective.

The Brices had migrated from their native country of Scotland in the year 1774 and settled in a new place, southwest of the city of Albany. At this place, a few families had chosen a residence, which was then called Van Rensselaer’s Patent, but now Rensselaerville. Here the newcomers erected a few log houses. [Read more…] about The Captive Boys of Rensselaerville: John and Robert Brice

Filed Under: Capital-Saratoga, History Tagged With: Albany County, American Revolution, Berne, Buffalo, Catskill Creek, Fort Erie, German-American History, Mohawk, Mohawk River, Old Fort Niagara, Rensselaerswijck, Schoharie County, Schoharie Valley

Fulton’s Steamboat, The Black Ball Line & The Erie Canal

January 17, 2022 by James S. Kaplan 4 Comments

England, a packet ship of the Black Ball LineFor thousands of years prior to the early 1800s maritime transportation was dependent on sailing ships. In the first few decades of the 19th century however, entrepreneurs in New York helped revolutionize the industry so that one hundred years later sailing ships were an anachronism that hardly existed, except for show.

In the latter part of the 1700s the development of the Boulton & Watt steam engine in England made it theoretically possible to power a boat. Before 1800 a number of inventors, including New Yorkers such as Nicholas Roosevelt, John Fitch, Robert R. Livingston, John Stevens III and others, experimented with boats that used such steam engines. Before Robert Fulton made his first run in the North River steamboat (later renamed Clermont) in 1807 more than a dozen steamboats had been constructed in the United States with varying degrees of success.   There were difficulties in making such craft commercially viable. [Read more…] about Fulton’s Steamboat, The Black Ball Line & The Erie Canal

Filed Under: History, New York City Tagged With: Albany, Buffalo, DeWitt Clinton, Economic History, Erie Canal, Hudson River, Manhattan, Maritime History, New York City, New York Harbor, Political History, Robert Fulton, Robert Livingston, Steamboating, Transportation History, Wall Street, Wall Street History Series

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